Posted on 20230112 7:22 PM / Updated on 20230112 7:22 PM
(Image credit: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP)
A work by Van Gogh has become the subject of controversy. A Brazilian is asking to return the canvas he allegedly bought in 2017 and lost for years until he found it in a museum in the United States where it is on display.
Brokerarte Capital Partners, whose sole shareholder is Gustavo Soler, is the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in a US court. Soler buys, sells and collects works of art.
The story is rocky. In May 2017, Brazilian acquired Une Liseuse de Romans (also known as The Reader or The Reader), painted in 1888 by the PostImpressionist master. In the lawsuit consulted by AFP, Soler alleges that after purchasing the painting, a third party, whom he does not identify, “immediately took possession of it” without relinquishing his title.
Years passed, he says, without knowing the painting’s whereabouts, until he recently discovered it was on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) as part of their major Van Gogh exhibition at the America, which ends January 22 .
Fearing that from that date the museum would transfer the painting or hand it over to third parties, the Brazilian decided to request the intervention of the judiciary. A Michigan federal judge yesterday ordered that the DIA “shall not damage, destroy, conceal, dispose of, relocate, use or materially impair its value.”
The court is expected to hold a hearing on the lawsuit on Jan. 19, three days before the exhibition closes.
The work cost $3.7 million, but it is estimated that it would currently be worth more than $5 million. It is an oil painting on canvas depicting a young woman reading a book.
She has “a lot of very dark hair, a green bodice, the sleeves the color of vine leaves, the black skirt, the background is all yellow, shelves with books”, describes the artist himself in one of his letters.
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