(Detroit) A federal appeals court has ordered a Detroit museum to keep an 1888 painting by Vincent Van Gogh amid a dispute with a Brazilian collector over ownership of the work.
Wednesday’s order of the 6e Cincinnati U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes days after U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh in Detroit dismissed a lawsuit filed by collector Gustavo Soter’s art brokerage firm, the daily reported. The Detroit News.
The lawsuit says Mr. Soter purchased the painting, titled A novel readerin 2017 for the sum of $3.7 million, but that a “third party” had taken possession of the work and that it had been missing for almost six years.
The oil-on-canvas painting, estimated to be worth more than $5 million, was part of the Art Institute of Detroit’s recent “Van Gogh in America” exhibit.
In his January 20 ruling, Judge Steeh said the painting could not be seized because it was protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork exhibited in the United States.
Appeals court judges ordered the U.S. museum to keep the painting, saying an appeal filed by Mr. Soter’s brokerage firm, Brokerarte Capital Partners, LLC, raised “issues that merit full and complete argument.” reasoned examination.
Brokerarte attorney Aaron Phelps declined comment on Thursday.
Detroit Institute of Art spokeswoman Megan Hawthorne said in an email that the museum will “fully comply with the United States Court of Appeals’ order regarding custody of the work and that he would respond to the plaintiff’s recent pleading on January 30”.
She clarified that the museum would not provide “any further comment until a court decision.”
Lawyers for Mr. Soter had filed their lawsuit in early January, seeking a court order to compel the museum to return the painting.
The exhibition on Vincent Van Gogh ended Sunday at the Detroit Institute of Art. Dozens of paintings by the Dutch painter are currently on loan to the museum.
The museum has not publicly disclosed how it obtained the painting, stating only that it came from Brazil. The painting has also not been listed as stolen by the FBI or the International Register of Lost Works of Art (Art Loss Register), the establishment added.