Heirs of a Jewish publisher are asking Sotheby’s to pull an 1890 Vincent van Gogh painting ahead of a New York auction, arguing that the canvas was sold under Nazi coercion in 1936.
The work, “Châtaigniers en Fleurs” or “Blossoming Chestnut Trees,” carries an estimated value of $180 million, according to The New York Times. It is slated to headline Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening auction on Wednesday night.
The painting originally belonged to Gottfried Bermann Fischer, who inherited the work and the Berlin publishing house S. Fischer Verlag from his father-in-law, Samuel Fischer, ArtDependence reported. Bermann Fischer fled Berlin for Vienna three months before the 1936 transaction to escape Nazi persecution, according to research by the family’s lawyer, Gunnar Schnabel.
Due to emigration restrictions, the family had to pay the punitive “Reich flight tax,” Schnabel said. The artwork had been deposited with art dealer Walter Feilchenfeldt in Amsterdam in 1932 or 1933, Yahoo News reported.
Painted in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, the work dates from the final period of the artist’s life, following two years he spent in southern France. The painting belongs to the Blaquier-Arrieta collection, assembled by Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier of Buenos Aires, who began collecting Impressionist and modern art in the 1960s.
Philip Hook, a former Sotheby’s executive and author, described the collection in the auction house’s sale announcement as “the stuff of legend: whispered about, kept from public view.” The work is backed by a financial guarantee from Sotheby’s.
Although Bermann Fischer regained control of his publishing house after World War II, he did not seek restitution for his sold art because the Netherlands was not under Nazi rule in 1936, leaving no legal basis for compensation at the time, The Times of Israel said.
“Otherwise, no auction may take place,” Schnabel wrote in correspondence viewed by Haaretz.
He added that his client “is prepared to work toward a fair and just solution in the spirit of the 1998 Washington Principles,” referring to international guidelines for Nazi-looted art.
Sotheby’s acknowledged the discussions in a statement reported by Oduu.
“While our research to date has not established that the painting was sold under duress, we recognize the importance of engaging thoughtfully and constructively with the family and are committed to working toward a mutually satisfactory resolution,” Sotheby’s said.