TOKYO – Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting should be returned to the family of its former owner by Sompo Holdings, the Japanese insurer that bought the famous artwork despite its tainted Nazi-era past, according to a lawsuit filed by the heirs.
They are seeking more than US$1 billion (S$1.32 billion) in damages for the oil drawing, which made its way to Japan about 35 years ago after it was sold at auction for almost US$40 million – the highest price ever paid for a painting at the time.
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a prominent banker in Germany, was forced to relinquish the artwork in 1934 as Jews in Germany were being stripped of their assets and social status.
The painting, one of several iconic drawings of sunflowers by Van Gogh, was bought in 1987 at a Christie’s auction in London by Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance, as Sompo was known at the time.
The purchase was seen as a symbol of excess in the 1980s when Japanese companies, flush with cash, went on a global shopping spree for trophy assets. That decade marked the peak of Japan’s postwar economic boom and saw the sale of Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center to Mitsubishi Estate, Bridgestone’s takeover of Firestone Tire & Rubber and Sony’s acquisition of Columbia Pictures.
In the lawsuit filed in the US federal court in the Northern District of Illinois on Dec 13, the heirs of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and his late wife Elsa said they are seeking the return of the bright yellow painting, US$690 million in damages from Sompo for “unjust enrichment” and US$750 million in punitive damages.
The insurer wrongfully benefited from Sunflowers “for many years while both knowing (either in fact or by reckless indifference) that the painting is a casualty of Nazi policies and falsely misrepresenting that it is not”, the heirs claimed in their filing.
The chances of a successful lawsuit, or likelihood of a settlement, were not clear, given that the painting is in Japan and the heirs sued in the United States.
The family, over the years, has settled other artwork restitution cases out of court that were brought against New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Sompo refuted their assertions, saying Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance’s purchase of Van Gogh’s painting was a “matter of public record”, and that it was ready to defend itself in court.
“This painting was bought fairly at a Christie’s auction 35 years ago, displayed in Tokyo for 35 years, and there is no doubt about the legitimacy of its ownership,” the insurer said in an e-mailed statement.
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy consigned the painting to Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1934. Around the same time, he officially transferred ownership of the painting to his wife Elsa. Such measures were common during the Nazi era, when Jews sought to prevent the confiscation of their assets by the Nazis, steps that preceded the Holocaust.
Several artworks that were given up during the period were eventually returned to their rightful owners, backed by commitments from countries to support their restitution. The Jewish banker died in 1935.
Mr Stuart Eizenstat, appointed in 2021 as a special adviser to the US State Department on Holocaust issues, has estimated some 600,000 paintings were looted by Nazis during the war. This has led to lawsuits around the globe concerning, ownership, restitution and return.
Sompo has integrated Van Gogh’s painting with its own corporate image. One subsidiary is called Sompo Himawari Life Insurance – “himawari” is the Japanese word for “sunflower”.
“It would be very painful for Sompo to give up that painting,” said Professor Tsukasa Koudera, at Osaka University. BLOOMBERG
