Heirs challenge Sotheby’s auction of Van Gogh valued at $180 million

The heirs of a German Jewish family have asked Sotheby’s to withdraw Vincent van Gogh’s *Châtaigniers en fleurs* from a New York auction, arguing that their family sold it under pressure from Nazi persecution in 1936.

The painting was still listed on 14 November for the auction on 18 November. Sotheby’s has given a projected value of $180 million for the work, though its catalogue lists the estimate as available on request.

The heirs’ lawyer, Gunnar Schnabel, has asked Sotheby’s to show that the 1936 sale was at market value and would have happened without the pressure of Nazi rule, according to The New York Times, as reported by The Times of Israel. The BBC, also citing the Times, reported that the lawyer linked the sale to losses suffered by the family’s publishing business under the Nazis.

Sotheby’s told the BBC that its research to date had not established that the painting was sold under duress. It said it was in dialogue with the family and was committed to “working toward a mutually satisfactory resolution”.

The auction house’s catalogue traces the work to German publisher Samuel Fischer, who acquired it in 1909. Brigitte and Gottfried Bermann-Fischer inherited it in 1934, and Henriette and Marcel Kapferer acquired it in 1936 through the Paul Cassirer gallery in Amsterdam. The catalogue says it had been on deposit there since 1932 or 1933.

The painting’s presence in Amsterdam before the Nazis came to power does not, by itself, settle whether the later sale was voluntary. In October, a Sotheby’s spokesperson told The Art Newspaper that the auction house was satisfied, based on its research, that the family had been free to dispose of the work at all times.