Nine heirs of the Stern family are suing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, claiming a painting in the museum’s past collection was stolen by Nazis and rightfully belongs to them. The plaintiffs are accusing the Met of failing to realize the painting’s looted origins, and are requesting its return, as well as payment for damages in excess of $75,000.
The painting, Vincent van Gogh’s “Olive Picking,” was painted in 1889 and depicts three women harvesting olives in van Gogh’s signature post-impressionist style. Over the past century, the painting has passed through numerous hands.
Originally, Fritz and Hedwig Stern bought the painting in 1935 while they resided in Munich. When the Sterns were forced to flee Nazi Germany to escape persecution a year later, the painting was seized and declared German cultural property. Over the following years, “Olive Picking” was sold multiple times before being acquired by the Met in 1956 for $125,000.
According to the lawsuit, the Met failed to properly investigate the painting’s provenance and sold it to Greek collectors Basil and Elise Goulandris in 1972. The artwork now resides in a museum in Athens run by the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation. The Stern heirs alleged that since the sale, the Goulandris family have hidden and obscured the painting’s ownership and location, preventing rightful restitution.
The Met denied wrongdoing, stating it had no knowledge of the painting’s looted history. The museum emphasized its ongoing commitment to addressing Nazi era claims and ensuring that all artworks in the museum were lawfully acquired. Meanwhile, the Goulandris Foundation has dismissed the lawsuit as an attempt to sully its reputation.
This is not the first time the Stern heirs have pursued legal action. In 2022, they filed a similar suit against the Goulandis Foundation and Metropolitan Museum, which was dismissed after the California court ruled they lacked jurisdiction over the matter.
The case echoes earlier restitution battles. In the early 2000’s, Maria Altmann sued Austria for possession of five Gustav Klimt paintings. The paintings belonged to Altmann’s aunt, who bequeathed them to Maria in her will. However, during World War II they fell into German possession and by the 1990s they were hanging in an Austrian museum. After nearly a decade-long legal battle, Austria returned the paintings to Altmann. Collectively, they are worth $150 million.
The looting and forced sales of many artworks during World War II remain one of the darkest chapters in art history. Many museums display works of art with problematic provenances that were likely stolen. Countless masterpieces were stolen from Jewish families, while more abstract paintings were confiscated because they were considered degenerate under Nazi ideology.
Today, museums face pressure to address these historical injustices while ensuring that claims are legitimate. With Vincent van Gogh’s “Olive Picking” potentially worth $70 million, the case underscores both the moral and financial complexities of restitution in the modern art world. A struggle between heritage, history and ownership continues to play out nearly a century after the end of the war.
