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The family members of a Jewish pair have filed a lawsuit against The Met, claiming that a Van Gogh oil painting was stolen by Nazi forces.

Origins of the Dispute

According to the lawsuit, Frederick and Hedwig Stern acquired the piece, titled Olive Harvest, in the year 1935. The following year, they were obliged to escape their residence in Munich prior to the Second World War.

The complaint states that the institution, which obtained the artwork in the 1950s for one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars, should have known it was likely stolen property. The descendants are now seeking the restitution of the artwork along with financial restitution.

Following WWII, this plundered piece has been often and discreetly exchanged, acquired and disposed of in and through the city of New York, states the court document.

The Sterns' Escape

The Sterns departed from Munich to the United States in 1936 with their offspring due to Nazi persecution. Nevertheless, they were prevented from taking the artwork, which was painted by the renowned Dutch in the late 19th century.

Before the family's emigration, Nazi authorities designated the masterpiece as a German cultural asset and prohibited the Sterns from exporting it. After obtaining permission from a Nazi official, a trustee designated by the authorities auctioned the artwork on the family's behalf. Yet, the money from the auction were held in a restricted account, which the Nazis later seized.

Post-War History

Around 1948, or soon after, the painting entered the United States and was bought by a wealthy American, one of America's wealthiest people. Subsequently, it was transferred through a commercial outlet to the museum, which then passed it on to prominent shipowner Basil Goulandris and his partner, Mrs. Goulandris, in the early 1970s.

The Goulandris pair founded the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in the late 1970s, which runs a institution in the Greek capital where the artwork is currently exhibited.

Legal Arguments

The foundation and a living relative of the magnate are named as defendants. The legal action claims that the Goulandris family and its affiliates have hidden and obscured the artwork's provenance and current place from the heirs.

To this day, the Goulandris Defendants continue to obscure how and when the BEG came into possession of the piece; the family's possession of the artwork from the mid-1930s; and the facts that the regime stole the Painting from the heirs, pressured the family into selling it via a regime representative, and seized the proceeds of the deal.

Previous Legal Action

The family filed a similar complaint in California in recently, but it was thrown out in 2024. An appeal was also dismissed in spring 2025.

Institution's Statement

The legal action contends that the museum's acquisition of the piece was authorized by a curator, the institution's specialist of Old Masters and one of the world's foremost experts on Nazi-era looted art. The curator and the museum were aware or ought to have been aware that the masterpiece had probably been looted by the Nazis.

The Met said in a statement that it prioritizes its ongoing pledge to handle claims from the Nazi period.

An official remarked: Never during the museum's possession of the painting was there any evidence that it had previously been owned to the heirs – indeed, that data did not become available until several decades after the masterpiece left the institution's holdings.

The museum's disposal of the artwork met the museum's strict criteria for deaccessioning – in particular, it was documented that the work was judged to be of lesser quality than additional artworks of the same type in the collection. While The Met respectfully stands by its view that this piece entered the holdings and was deaccessioned lawfully and well within all guidelines and policies, the Met welcomes and will consider any additional details that emerges.

BEG's Response

William Charron on behalf of the foundation stated: The Goulandris Foundation is a esteemed foundation in Athens. The action to take legal action against the organization and the Goulandris family in the US upon inaccurate and partial claims was already thrown out, on two occasions. We are certain it will be once more.