All posts tagged: Heirs

French Court Rules Lawsuit Between Monet Heirs and Wildenstein Can Proceed

French Court Rules Lawsuit Between Monet Heirs and Wildenstein Can Proceed

Published by Jenni Sidey

Late last week, a French judge ruled that a judicial court in Rouen, Normandy, can proceed with handling a legal complaint filed by the heirs of Claude Monet, against the New York gallery dynasty Wildenstein & Co., according to French reports. The complex case revolves around a 2004 transaction, in which Monet’s great-nephew agreed to relinquish a rare Monet painting depicting the artist’s father, Adolphe, to the internationally renowned Wildenstein gallery, in exchange for several paintings of lesser value. The unnamed heir, a descendant of Monet’s brother, Léon, agreed to the arrangement despite being “very attached” to the painting of Adolphe Monet, because he wished to fairly distribute his inheritance between his two children, said the family’s lawyer, Corinne Hershkovitch, speaking to ARTnews.  Related Articles According to the complaint, in return for the coveted Adolphe Monet Reading in a Garden (1867), French-American dealer Guy Wildenstein gave the family five paintings by artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Alfred Sisley, and, importantly, another Monet landscape titled Marine, Amsterdam (1874). However, when the family tried to sell the …

Democratic contenders, MAGA heirs emerge

Democratic contenders, MAGA heirs emerge

Published by Sam Flores

The shadow primary for the next presidential race is already underway as both parties ramp up this year’s midterm fight.  Potential Democratic contenders, from established names to rising stars, are openly weighing 2028 bids, signaling a wide-open field as their base searches for a new standard-bearer. Several top names, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the possibility at the National Action Network (NAN) conference last week as they pitched visions for their party’s future.  Across the aisle, Vice President Vance is positioned as the MAGA movement’s heir apparent, but recent polling and President Trump have suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio could be the successor, stoking questions about where the GOP base will go after more than a decade of Trump dominating party politics.  Here is The Hill’s latest roundup of the top 2028 presidential hopefuls: Democratic comeback bids Harris, who ran in 2020 and became the party’s pick in 2024, has remained at the fore of Democratic polling and chatter about who will lead the party in 2028 — and she’s openly admitted to considering a comeback bid. “Listen, …

Bic Family Heirs File Lawsuit for Return of Fra Angelico Painting

Bic Family Heirs File Lawsuit for Return of Fra Angelico Painting

Published by José Betancourt

The heirs of the Bic family fortune filed suit in March for the return of a painting by Fra Angelico that sold at Christie’s for $5.4 million in 2018. That sale was only possible, the heirs allege, because a chauffeur for the family had stolen the work, then sold it to a prominent art dealer who then consigned it to the auction house. There is no publicly listed record for the painting on the website for Christie’s, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, potentially indicating that the piece may have been sold privately. Instead, the defendants are the executors of the estate of dealer Richard L. Feigen, who allegedly consigned the painting before his death, as well as Chilean billionaire Álvaro Saieh and his wife Ana Guzman, whom the suit claims bought the work at Christie’s. Related Articles The suit was filed on March 19 in the Supreme Court for the State of New York. According to the suit, the painting, titled Saint Sixtus (ca. 1453–55), was purchased by Bic founder …

Jewish Heirs File Suite Regarding Met’s Ownership of Pissarro Canvas

Jewish Heirs File Suite Regarding Met’s Ownership of Pissarro Canvas

Published by José Betancourt

A painting by Camille Pissarro in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is under renewed scrutiny over the circumstances of its sale by its former owner, the department store magnate and art collector Max Julius Braunthal. As reported by the New York Times, seven of Braunthal’s heirs have filed suit in a French court, alleging that the painting, Haystacks, Morning, Eragny (1899), was sold under duress in 1941. The Met maintains that Braunthal received fair market value for the work, which depicts several domed haystacks in a verdant, tree-filled meadow in Eragny, the village northwest of Paris where Pissarro lived from 1884 until his death in 1903. Related Articles Braunthal’s heirs cite a 2023 French law stating that all art sales made by Jews during the Nazi occupation of France are to be considered null and void. Braunthal sold Haystacks, Morning, Eragny for 100,000 francs to Paul Durand-Ruel’s gallery during that period. The law allows “stolen art, books, and other cultural property in France’s inalienable public domain—even work looted beyond its borders—to be …