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Japan's Sompo faces $750m lawsuit over Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers'
Heirs of former owner argue insurer ignored Nazi role in painting's history
NEW YORK -- Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings has been sued over a painting from Vincent Van Gogh's famed "Sunflowers" series by the heirs of a former owner, a victim of Nazi persecution forced to sell the work under duress.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 13 in an Illinois federal court by three heirs and descendants of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a Jewish banker and art collector in Berlin. It seeks the return of "Sunflowers" or payment of the fair market value, in addition to $750 million in punitive damages, in light of the profit Sompo has earned from its ownership of the painting, including the benefits to its brand and marketing.
In the mid-1930s, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to liquidate a collection that also included works by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. His version of "Sunflowers" was sold to a French gallery, where it was acquired by a British collector in 1934.
In 1987, the painting was bought by Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance, Sompo's predecessor company, at auction at Christie's London for roughly 5.3 billion yen, equivalent to a record-breaking $40 million at the time. "Sunflowers" remains on display at the Sompo Museum of Art in Tokyo.
The lawsuit alleges that the purchase was "in reckless disregard of the painting's provenance" published by Christie's, which showed that "Sunflowers" had been sold by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy "at a time when notorious Nazi policies were targeting and dispossessing elite Jewish bankers."
As for why the complaint is being filed now when the deal in question was over three decades ago, a source on the plaintiffs' side told Nikkei that "even the plaintiffs and lawyers did not discover the identity of Sunflowers until 2008."
The source cited the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, which "basically resurrects a lot of potential claims for the recovery of materials lost as a result of the Nazi policies during the '30s and '40s that otherwise had been barred by statutes of limitation."
The legislation, also known as the HEAR Act, set a nationwide six-year statute of limitations for such cases, starting when the plaintiff learns either the identity and location of the artwork in question or their ownership rights.
A Sompo representative told Nikkei that the company "has not been served a copy of the complaint," and noted that the purchase at the Christie's auction is "a matter of public record."
"Sompo categorically rejects any allegation of wrongdoing and intends to vigorously defend its ownership rights in 'Sunflowers,'" the representative said.
MOMOE BAN, Nikkei staff writer
January 5, 2023 06:52 JST
Source:
Heirs of former owner argue insurer ignored Nazi role in painting's history
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