Washington- The Supreme Court just refused to consider a dispute involving a Vincent van Gogh painting. The painting worth millions is claimed by descendants of a Jewish woman who fled Nazi Germany against Elizabeth Taylor.
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Margarete Mauthner, a one-time owner of the van Gogh, left Germany in March 1939, having lost her livelihood and most of her property due to the Nazis. Relatives of Mauthner, say the painting was among the property she lost to the Nazis.
In 1963 while living in London, Taylor bought the painting for about $236,000 at a Sotheby’s auction from the estate of a German art collector.
Taylor’s lawyers say the record shows that the painting was sold through two Jewish art dealers to a Jewish art collector, with no evidence of any Nazi coercion or participation in the transactions.
Mauthner’s heirs went to court to recover the artwork, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled that the federal Holocaust Victims Redress Act does not create a private right to sue.
Mauthner’s relatives also are trying to recover the painting under California state law, but the appeals court ruled they waited too long to act.
The family members say they didn’t discover they had a possible claim to the painting until 2001. [AP]