DETROIT — A Detroit federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit to seize an allegedly stolen painting by Vincent van Gogh from the Detroit Institute of Arts and give the artwork to its purported owner in Brazil.
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh ruled that the DIA did not have to hand over "Liseuse De Romans," also known as "The Novel Reader" or "The Reading Lady," which it is temporarily displaying in an exhibition that ends Sunday. The judge ruled that the artwork is protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States.
"The Painting is immune from seizure pursuant to the Act, which prohibits the Court from issuing an injunction or entering any other order that would deprive the defendant of custody or control of the Painting," Steeh wrote in an 11-page decision. "Because the Court cannot grant the ultimate relief sought by plaintiff, the lawsuit will be dismissed."
The purported owner, Brazilian art collector Gustavo Soter and his art brokerage company, Brokerarte Capital Partners LLC, said the painting was stolen and had been missing for nearly six years until it was discovered recently on display at the DIA as part of the museum's "Van Gogh in America" exhibition.
Steeh had earlier ordered that the painting not be removed or hidden, and the DIA posted a security guard near the Van Gogh artwork in recent days.
In a Thursday hearing, the judge urged the DIA and Soter to negotiate a settlement. But with the exhibition scheduled to end over the weekend, Steeh released his decision late Friday afternoon.
In the suit, Soter attached a bill of sale for the painting for $3.7 million that he purchased on May 3, 2017, but he never took possession of the painting. After purchase, he arranged for it to be stored in Brazil by a third party. He eventually lost contact with the third party and was unaware of the location of the painting until seeing it in the DIA's possession as part of the Van Gogh in America exhibition.
Friday's ruling came nine days after Steeh blocked DIA officials from moving or hiding the painting. DIA lawyers had argued that the artwork cannot be touched because it is protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States.
During the Thursday hearing, Soter's lawyers said the law does not protect thieves or stolen artwork and criticized the Detroit museum's lawyers for continuing to shield from public view the identity of the art collector who loaned the Van Gogh painting to the DIA. Soter is the undisputed owner and has proven that fact by filing a bill of sale and noting that no one has emerged to stake a competing claim to the painting, his lawyers said.
"My client would like to get the painting before it disappears again," Soter's lawyer, Aaron Phelps, told the judge Thursday.
Soter did not allege any misconduct or wrongdoing by the DIA, but requested that the DIA be ordered to hold the painting pending resolution of the lawsuit, or deliver the Painting to plaintiff as the rightful owner, pendinga final judgment.
But Steeh sided with the DIA.
"The purpose of the Act is not to protect the owner of the object inasmuch as it is to encourage the exhibition in the United States of objects of cultural significance from abroad," the judge wrote.
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