Looted Van Gogh to be auctioned

NEW YORK — A watercolour by Vincent van Gogh that was seized by the Nazis during the Second World War will be sold next month at auction in New York, where it is expected to fetch a price of $20 million US or more, Christie’s announced.

Christie’s is auctioning the 1888 work, Wheatstacks, after facilitating negotiations between the Texas oilman’s heirs who own it now and the heirs of two Jewish art collectors who owned it at different times before it was looted by the Nazis.

Wheatstacks will be auctioned Nov. 11 along with other artworks from the collection of Edwin L. Cox, a Texas oilman who died last year at age 99.

It was purchased in 1913 by industrialist Max Meirowsky, who fled Germany in 1938 fearing Nazi persecution.

Meirowsky entrusted

Wheatstacks to a Paris-based art dealer, who sold it to Alexandrine de Rothschild, a member of the renowned Jewish banking family.

Rothschild fled to Switzerland at the onset of the Second World War and her art collection, including the van Gogh watercolour, was confiscated by the Nazis during the Occupation.

Prior to the auction, the watercolour will be on view at Christie’s in London from Oct, 17 to Oct. 21.