Yesteryears’ Hollywood sensation Elizabeth Taylor can take a sigh of relief after the court verdict, which has allowed her to keep Van Gogh’s painting. This controversial painting is believed to be illegally seized by the Nazis before Taylor bought it for whopping $257,000, from Sotheby’s auction in London way back in 1963.
An Orkin family had sued Taylor in 2004 by claiming that 1889 painting ‘View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint-Remy’ belongs to them as they possessed it before Nazis confiscated it. Today this painting, which Van Gogh painted near the end of his life, is supposed to be worth billions of dollar.
Taylor said:
I am the rightful owner of the painting as it had passed through two Jewish art dealers without any sign of Nazi coercion.
In their decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Taylor as the one and only one owner of the painting.
Judge Sidney Thomas said:
It is apparent that Taylor’s acquisition of the painting was certainly discoverable at least by 1990, when she held it out for sale in an international auction, and most probably as early as 1963, when she acquired the painting in a highly publicized international auction. Any claim to the painting expired in or before 1993, three years after the last public announcement of Taylor’s ownership.
Elizabeth Taylor loves to collect artifacts, a hobby that her father nurtured in her.
Source: CNN
