Elizabeth Taylor fights to keep her van Gogh
Family says Nazis stole the painting
Actress insists its sale was legitimate
KRISTIE A. MARTINEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES—Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor is fighting a family's claims that a Vincent van Gogh painting she owns was taken from one of their ancestors by Nazis.
Descendants of Margarete Mauthner claim View Of The Asylum Of Saint-Remy was taken from the German woman during the World War II, and are demanding Taylor return the painting, which appraisers have said could fetch $10 million to $15 million at auction.
Taylor, whose father bought her the painting at a London auction in 1963, has filed a lawsuit seeking a pre-emptive court declaration that she is the rightful owner of the painting.
In a statement issued last month, Taylor said she has "a tremendous amount of sympathy" for those who lost possessions during the war and the Holocaust. She said she told her lawyers to thoroughly investigate the history of the van Gogh.
"I have not been presented with any information that suggests the painting was ever in Nazi possession, nor that there is any other basis for these claims," she said.
Seeking the painting are Canadian lawyer Andrew J. Orkin, of Hamilton; his South African siblings F. Mark Orkin and Sarah-Rose Josepha Adler; and their uncle, A. Heinrich Zille.
Taylor's lawyers say Mauthner voluntarily sold the painting, which depicts the asylum where van Gogh lived near the end of his life.
Citing a German art book, they said Mauthner owned more than one van Gogh painting and sold her last one in 1933 to finance her family's move from Germany to South Africa
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" Citing a German art book, they said Mauthner owned more than one van Gogh painting and sold her last one in 1933 to finance her family's move from Germany to South Africa "
Does anyone know when art was first being acquired by the Nazis's?
I noticed that it was bought from an London auction in l963, I also
wondered if the auction house had provenance dating back to
the original owner even before Margarete Mauthner?
