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The family members of a Jewish pair have filed a lawsuit against The Metropolitan Museum of Art, asserting that a Vincent van Gogh art piece was seized by the Nazis.

Origins of the Dispute

According to the lawsuit, the Stern couple bought the piece, titled Olive Harvest, in the year 1935. A year after, they were compelled to leave their residence in Munich, Germany on the eve of the Second World War.

The suit contends that the Met, which obtained the masterpiece in 1956 for one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars, should have known it was almost certainly stolen property. The descendants are now demanding the repatriation of the artwork along with damages.

Since the end of World War II, this Nazi-looted painting has been often and discreetly exchanged, bought and sold in and through New York, states the lawsuit.

The Sterns' Escape

The Stern family escaped from the city of Munich to the United States in 1936 with their offspring due to Nazi persecution. Nevertheless, they were prevented from taking the painting, which was created by the Dutch post-impressionist in 1889.

Prior to their departure, the Nazi government declared the masterpiece as a German cultural asset and prohibited the family from taking it abroad. Once approved from a regime representative, a agent assigned by the Nazis sold the piece on the couple's behalf. However, the funds from the sale were placed in a blocked account, which the authorities later confiscated.

Subsequent Ownership

Around 1948, or not long after, the canvas was brought to the United States and was bought by a prominent figure, among the richest individuals in the US. Later, it was sold through a commercial outlet to the institution, which then passed it on to Greek shipping magnate Basil Goulandris and his spouse, Elise Goulandris, in 1972.

The Goulandris pair founded the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in 1979, which operates a institution in Athens, Greece where the artwork is currently shown.

Legal Arguments

BEG and a living relative of Basil Goulandris are named as defendants. The lawsuit claims that the defendants and its related entities have covered up the artwork's provenance and whereabouts from the heirs.

To this day, the foundation continue to conceal the manner and time the institution came into possession of the Painting; the Stern family's ownership of the artwork from several years; and the facts that the regime stole the Painting from the family, coerced the family into disposing of it via a trustee, and confiscated the money of the deal.

Previous Legal Action

The descendants submitted a related lawsuit in California in 2022, but it was thrown out in the following years. An legal challenge was also rejected in spring 2025.

Museum's Response

The complaint states that the institution's buying of the painting was sanctioned by a curator, the institution's specialist of Old Masters and a renowned specialist on Nazi art looting. Rousseau and the Met were aware or ought to have been aware that the masterpiece had likely been seized by the regime.

The museum said in a statement that it prioritizes its historical dedication to resolve Nazi-era claims.

An official remarked: Not once during the institution's custody of the artwork was there any documentation that it had once belonged to the heirs – in fact, that information did not become available until many years after the masterpiece left the Met's possession.

The Met's sale of the artwork met the institution's rigorous standards for disposal – in particular, it was noted that the work was deemed to be of inferior standard than other works of the similar kind in the collection. While the institution respectfully stands by its view that this work entered the holdings and was deaccessioned properly and well within all rules and regulations, the Met invites and will examine any new information that comes to light.

BEG's Response

Legal counsel representing the Goulandris Foundation said: BEG is a highly prestigious organization in Greece. The attempt to litigate and defame the Foundation and the family in the US upon deceptive and insufficient accusations was previously dismissed, multiple times. We are confident it will be again.