A legal claim is being made over the ownership of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting

In December, it was reported that a legal dispute has arisen over the ownership of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting in Tokyo, which was sold by Christie's for a record price of £25m in 1987. The heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a German Jewish banker who owned the painting until the 1930s, are now claiming ownership of the painting. This dispute emerged 35 years after the painting was sold at auction.

A 98-page "complaint for restitution and unjust enrichment" has been filed in the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, shedding new light on the history of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting during the Nazi period. The complaint, along with its accompanying documentation, provides detailed information on the painting's ownership and its transfer from Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to subsequent owners. The painting had been lent to the Art Institute of Chicago for an exhibition in 2001-02, hence the filing of the complaint in Illinois. The claim is being made on behalf of over 30 beneficiaries of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and is being handled by lawyers from K&L Gates in Chicago and Byrne Goldenberg & Hamilton in Washington, DC.

In 1987, the Yasuda insurance company purchased Sunflowers to exhibit in an art museum situated on the 42nd floor of its Tokyo headquarters. Following the incorporation of Yasuda into a new entity called Sompo in 2002, legal action is now being taken against four Sompo entities, including the Sompo Museum of Art, over ownership of the painting. A representative for Sompo Holdings stated that they deny any wrongdoing and plan to defend their ownership of the painting vigorously. At present, the Sompo Museum is unable to provide any comments on the matter.

Van Gogh created three versions of his renowned Sunflowers painting, each featuring a yellow background. The original, painted in August 1888, was obtained by the National Gallery in London in 1924. The artist also produced two additional versions in January 1889: a signed copy (currently held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam) and an unsigned one (purchased by Yasuda). The Sunflowers painting in Tokyo was initially sold in the early 1890s, only a few years after Van Gogh's death, and was subsequently acquired by several art collectors before being obtained by the wealthy banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1875-1935) by 1910. He was related to the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn.

A photo reveals that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy placed Sunflowers above a sofa in an alcove of his country estate, Schloss Börnicke, located near Berlin. Strangely, he exhibited two other Van Gogh paintings he owned alongside a taxidermied bull's head. According to Christie's 1987 provenance records, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy purchased the Sunflowers before 1910 and subsequently sold it to the Paul Rosenberg gallery in Paris, although no specific year was mentioned.

New evidence has recently surfaced indicating that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's transfer of ownership to Rosenberg occurred in October 1934, a date also corroborated by photographic evidence found in the Rosenberg archive (inventory number 3241). The following year, Rosenberg sold the Sunflowers to Edith Beatty, wife of mining magnate Alfred Beatty and a resident of London. This dating is critical because it suggests that the painting was sold after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. The heirs of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy contend that he was targeted as a Jew and that the sale of Sunflowers was conducted under duress, making it a "forced sale" in their view.

The legal complaint, however, does not mention the price paid by Rosenberg for Sunflowers. The heirs emphasize that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy sold the painting "in a depressed market flooded with similar modern artworks that intensified Nazi persecution had taken from other suffering Jewish collectors." On the other hand, Sompo could argue that there is no evidence that the painting was sold at a low price, as the amount paid to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy is unknown. In my book, The Sunflowers are Mine, I note that Edith Beatty insured the painting for £10,200 in 1937, which may indicate the price she paid. However, it is uncertain how much Rosenberg marked up the price he paid Mendelssohn-Bartholdy for the painting.

According to the legal complaint, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was among the earliest significant German collectors of Van Gogh's art. The complaint also states that in 1934, he entrusted six other Van Gogh paintings to Rosenberg, four of which were not sold and were eventually returned to his widow Elsa.