Getty Museum trying to take away a picture worth 2 million euros

LOS ANGELES. The Getty Museum filed a lawsuit in the federal court of California to recognize the museum as the legal owner of the 14th century diptych, estimated at two million euros. The lawsuit aims to protect the museum from all claims made by the heir to the original owner of the invaluable diptych living in France, and to prevent any legal action against the museum.

The diptych, consisting of "Stigmatization of St. Francis" and "Coronation by the Holy Angel of Cecilia and Valerian," belongs to the brush of an unknown artist from Avignon. According to documents submitted to the court, Getty bought a diptych in 1986 from the Wildenstale Gallery in New York. The gallery, in turn, bought it five years earlier from the family of French aristocrats Sabran-Ponteves, whose ancestors are depicted in the paintings.

According to the museum’s press service, Gerod Marie de Sabran-Ponteves, the youngest son of the seventh duke de Sabran-Ponteves, recently sued the diptych, based on a lengthy dispute over the inheritance of property of the deceased duke. Sabran-Ponteves allegedly claims that his brother Charles Elsear, the current duke, sold the painting to Wildenstale after the death of his father without the consent of other brothers and sisters, as Gerod Marie said in a lawsuit.

Now, according to the documents presented to the court by the representatives of the museum, the heir to de Sabran-Ponteves demands the return of the diptych to the ownership of the family, or compensation of two million euros, according to the estimated cost of the paintings.

A Getty court complaint states that the defendant has already won a lawsuit against his brother in a French court, which approved the payment of compensation of 2 million euros. However, the museum believes that it is the rightful owner of the diptych, since he conscientiously bought work from the Wildenstale Gallery, relying on his own research and supporting documents from the gallery regarding ownership.

The museum also claims that all his actions were legal, as the diptych has been publicly displayed for decades, and no one has claimed anything about it. In addition, any claims of the Sabran-Ponteves family may no longer be relevant due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

California law required a lawsuit to be filed within three or six years after the discovery of an unauthorized sale and exposure of a Getty job.

The heir Sabran-Ponteves first began writing in Getty about quarrels in his family because of the diptych in 1999, that is, 13 years after its purchase by the museum.

Today’s Getty lawsuit is also aimed at blocking any further legal claims by Sabran-Ponteves in the USA, and preempting his lawsuits in France. According to court documents, the heir to the French aristocrat intends to file another lawsuit, now against the museum, in a civil court in France. If this is done, Getty intends to challenge the jurisdiction of the French court at the hearing. Comments of the youngest son of the seventh duke de Sabran-Ponteves regarding the lawsuit of the museum are not yet known.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru