Detroit museum to hold onto disputed van Gogh

DETROIT

A federal appeals court has ordered a Detroit museum to hold onto an 1888 painting by Vincent van Gogh amid a Brazilian collector’s dispute with the museum over the painting.

The order from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati comes days after U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh in Detroit dismissed a lawsuit filed by collector Gustavo Soter’s art brokerage company, The Detroit News reported.

The suit claims Soter bought the painting of a woman with a book, titled “The Novel Reader,” in 2017 for $3.7 million, but that a “third party” took possession of the artwork and it has been missing for nearly six years.

The oil-on-canvas painting, which the suit says is worth more than $5 million, was part of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ recent “Van Gogh in America” exhibition.

Steeh said in his Jan. 20 ruling that the painting could not be seized because it was protected by a federal law
granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States.

The appeals court judges ordered the museum to retain possession of the painting, saying that an appeal filed by Soter’s brokerage firm, Brokerarte Capital Partners, LLC, “raises issues in its motion that deserve full pleading and reasoned consideration.”