The descendants of a Jewish pair have filed a lawsuit against New York's Metropolitan Museum, asserting that a Vincent van Gogh oil painting was looted by the Third Reich.
As stated in the lawsuit, Hedwig and Frederick Stern bought the artwork, titled Gathering Olives, in the mid-1930s. Just one year later, they were obliged to escape their home in the German city of Munich just before the Second World War.
The legal action states that the institution, which acquired the painting in the 1950s for $125,000, ought to have been aware it was likely looted property. The descendants are now demanding the repatriation of the artwork along with financial restitution.
Following WWII, this plundered piece has been frequently and covertly traded, purchased and sold in and through the city of New York, states the court document.
The Sterns departed from their Munich home to the United States in the late 1930s with their offspring due to persecution by the Nazis. Nevertheless, they were prevented from taking the Van Gogh piece, which was produced by the renowned Dutch in 1889.
Before they left, the Nazi government declared the painting as a German cultural asset and prohibited the couple from exporting it. Once approved from a Nazi official, a agent appointed by the Nazis sold the piece on the Sterns' behalf. Yet, the proceeds from the auction were held in a restricted account, which the Nazis later confiscated.
By 1948, or soon after, the painting entered NYC and was bought by Vincent Astor, one of America's wealthiest people. Subsequently, it was exchanged through a gallery to the Met, which then passed it on to prominent shipowner Basil Goulandris and his partner, Elise Goulandris, in the early 1970s.
The Goulandris pair founded the BEG in the late 1970s, which runs a institution in Athens where the artwork is currently shown.
The institution and a surviving nephew of Goulandris are identified in the suit. The lawsuit claims that the Goulandris family and its related entities have covered up the masterpiece's history and whereabouts from the heirs.
Currently, the defendants continue to obscure the circumstances the foundation came into control of the piece; the family's possession of the masterpiece from the mid-1930s; and the facts that the Third Reich confiscated the Painting from the heirs, forced the couple into selling it via a trustee, and seized the money of the transaction.
The Stern heirs initiated a comparable case in the state of California in 2022, but it was dismissed in 2024. An further action was also dismissed in May 2025.
The legal action contends that the Met's purchase of the artwork was approved by the museum's expert, the institution's specialist of European paintings and a leading authority on Nazi art looting. The institution and its expert must have known that the masterpiece had almost certainly been seized by the regime.
The Met issued a statement that it prioritizes its longstanding commitment to handle Nazi-era claims.
A spokesperson remarked: At no time during The Met's ownership of the painting was there any record that it had previously been owned to the Stern family – indeed, that knowledge did not become accessible until several decades after the masterpiece left the Met's possession.
The museum's disposal of Olive Picking met the institution's rigorous standards for disposal – namely, it was noted that the artwork was deemed to be of inferior standard than other works of the comparable nature in the collection. Although The Met upholds its position that this piece entered the inventory and was removed lawfully and well within all guidelines and policies, the museum invites and will examine any additional details that emerges.
A lawyer representing the foundation said: The Goulandris Foundation is a highly prestigious organization in the Greek capital. The action to take legal action against the organization and the defendants in the US upon deceptive and insufficient accusations was already thrown out, multiple times. We are confident it will be once more.
Elara is a seasoned writer and digital storyteller with a passion for exploring diverse literary genres and empowering others through words.
