Detroit – A Detroit federal judge on Friday rejected a lawsuit to seize an allegedly stolen Vincent van Gogh painting from the Detroit Institute of Arts and give the artwork to its alleged owner in Brazil.
US District Judge George Caram Steeh ruled that the DIA did not need to deliver “Liseuse De Romans,” also known as “The Novel Reader” or “The Reading Lady,” which is temporarily on display at an exhibition that ends on Sunday. . The judge ruled that the artwork is protected under a federal law that grants immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States.
DIA’s lawyers argued that the artwork could not be touched because it is protected by a federal law called the Immunity from Seizure Act, which grants immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States.
“The painting is immune from seizure under the law, which prohibits the court from issuing an injunction or entering any other order depriving the defendant of custody or control of the painting,” Steeh wrote in an 11-page decision. “Since the court is unable to grant the final relief sought by the plaintiff, the suit will be dismissed.”
The purported owner, Brazilian art collector Gustavo Soter and his art brokerage, Brokerarte Capital Partners LLC, said the painting was stolen and missing for nearly six years until it was recently discovered on display at DIA as part of the “Van Gogh in America” exhibition.
Steeh had ordered nine days earlier that the painting not be removed or hidden, and the DIA had posted a security guard near the Van Gogh artwork in recent days.
“The DIA welcomes the court’s decision to apply the Federal Immunity from Apprehension statute, dismissing litigation over ‘The Novel Reader’ and noting that there have been no allegations of wrongdoing by the DIA,” according to a Friday statement. from the museum. “The museum looks forward to welcoming visitors from around the world for the final weekend of the ‘Van Gogh in America’ exhibition.”
The ruling ends a case over a painting that helped draw large crowds to a rare oil painting by the Dutch post-impressionist master and a focus on cross-country sharing of culturally significant artworks, even those with dubious provenance. Van Gogh created the painting in 1888 and is now worth over $5 million.
At a hearing on Thursday, Steeh urged the DIA and Soter to negotiate a settlement. But with the airing scheduled to end over the weekend, Steeh released his decision late Friday afternoon.
In the suit, Soter attached a bill of sale for the painting for $3.7 million that he purchased on May 3, 2017, but never took possession of the painting. After the purchase, he arranged for it to be stored in Brazil by a third party. He eventually lost contact with the third and did not know the location of the painting until he saw it in the DIA’s possession as part of the “Van Gogh in America” exhibition.
The painting was an investment, and Soter ended up planning to sell the artwork.
“The artwork itself, being recognizable, my client assumed would resurface again, and it did,” Soter’s attorney Aaron Phelps said earlier.
“My client would like to get the painting before it disappears again,” Phelps told the judge on Thursday.
During Thursday’s hearing, Phelps said he was contacted on Wednesday by a New York attorney who claimed to represent an unnamed client who also claims to be the owner of the Van Gogh painting. That customer was not identified in court.
In court on Thursday, DIA attorney Andrew Pauwels blamed Soter’s company for failing to report the artwork theft or notify the FBI.
“It doesn’t explain why he didn’t do anything in the last five years to recover” the painting, Pauwels told the judge.
During the hearing, attorneys for Soter said the law does not protect thieves or stolen artwork and criticized attorneys for the Detroit museum for continuing to hide from public view the identity of the art collector who loaned the Van Gogh painting to the DIA. . A plaque that accompanies the painting says that it was borrowed from a private collection in São Paulo.
The DIA has not released further ownership information, and its lawyer, Pauwels, declined to comment when approached Thursday by reporters.
Soter did not allege any misconduct or wrongdoing on the part of the DIA, but requested that the DIA be ordered to either retain the painting pending resolution of the lawsuit, or hand over the painting to the plaintiff as the rightful owner, pending a final judgment.
But Steeh sided with the DIA, citing the Immunity from Impoundment Act, which “serves the important national interest of contributing to the educational and cultural development of the people of the United States.” It just prohibits non-owners from seizing works of art from owners, Soter’s lawyer argued to the judge.
“The purpose of the law is not to protect the owner of the object, but to encourage the display in the United States of objects of cultural significance from abroad,” the judge wrote. “Here, the creditor was in possession of the painting and the defendant engaged in due diligence to determine that the painting had not been reported lost or stolen.”
In developing the “Van Gogh in America” exhibition, the DIA made arrangements to secure loans of artworks from foreign collectors and museums. On May 12, the DIA submitted its request for immunity from seizure of the painting, among other works of art, the judge said in his decision.
“Furthermore, the Director of the United States Information Agency has determined that each of the Act’s requirements have been met,” concluded Steeh.
The DIA’s Van Gogh exhibition opened in October and celebrates its status as the first public museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Van Gogh, a self-portrait created in 1887. The exhibition ends Sunday and is sold out.
The exhibition includes 74 paintings by Van Gogh and is considered one of the greatest works by Van Gogh in America in the 21st century. Authentic Van Gogh pieces have been on loan from nearly 60 museums and collections around the world, including “The Bedroom” at the Chicago Institute of Art; “Van Gogh’s Chair” at the National Gallery in London; and “Starry Night (Starry Night Over the Rhone)” from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_
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