Heirs to Jewish banker seek to reclaim a Nazi-tainted Van Gogh

NEWARK, N.J. (CN) — The heirs of a prominent German-Jewish banker are making a new attempt to reclaim a Van Gogh painting they say their ancestor was forced to sell under the Nazi regime.

The painting, part of the “Sunflowers” series by Vincent Van Gogh, had belonged to Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy until Nazi pressure forced him to sell it and other famous paintings in 1934 as part of an overarching plan to evict and eradicate Jews and confiscate their property.

Julius H. Schoeps, Britt-Marie Enhoerning and Florence von Kesselstatt — descendants and heirs of the banker and his wife, Elsa — filed suit Tuesday in New Jersey federal court seeking to recover the painting from Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings, which they claim “recklessly, if not purposefully, ignored” the painting’s illicit history.

Sompo Holdings “has proactively conjoined its corporate identity with the painting to such an extent that Sompo Holdings now proclaims that its customers view Sunflowers as ‘synonymous’ with Sompo Holdings,” the heirs say in their complaint.

By ignoring its Nazi-tinged past, Yasuda also has defrauded insurers, violated numerous U.S. wire fraud and unfair competition laws, and failed to abide by proper accounting practices, the heirs claim.

In 1987, Japanese insurer Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company bought the painting at auction for nearly $40 million, which at the time was the highest amount paid for a work of art. The heirs say the purchase garnered “unprecedented international media attention and fanfare.”

Since then, the descendants say Yasuda successor Sompo Holdings has worried the painting could be confiscated if it were exhibited, with a company executive writing to the Art Institute of Chicago that “Nazis confiscation problem may arise in America and in Holland."

Despite this, the heirs claim the Art Institute of Chicago filed a false application with the U.S. State Department ignoring the painting’s Nazi past to import it in 2021 and show it at a temporary van Gogh exhibition.

The company “registered no concern with what all but certainly were the superior legal and moral rights of the heirs in the painting, or with investigating the background of the painting further to address this possibility,” the heirs claim in the complaint. “Rather, [the insurer’s] sole express concern was that U.S. law enforcement authorities might seized the painting as Nazi contraband.”

A press representative from Sompo Holdings did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

In 2009, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Nazis had forced von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to relinquish the painting, giving the family some legal basis to pursue further legal action.

The heirs sued the insurer in 2022, but their claims ultimately were dismissed in 2024. A Seventh Circuit panel heard arguments in 2025 but ultimately ruled against the family, claiming it had no jurisdiction.

“Sunflowers” is currently valued at more than $250 million. The heirs seek the return of the painting or equal compensation, plus $750 million in restitution from Sompo Holdings.

The Mendelssohn-Bartholdy family has sued to recover other paintings sold under pressure by the Nazis, including the Picasso paintings “Madame Soler” and “The Absinthe Drinker (Angel Ferdinand de Soto).”

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