Art collector says a Van Gogh painting that he owns went missing for nearly six years and resurfaced in a Detroit gallery
Business InsiderAPR 2023
While the Mendelssohn-Batholdy family does seem to have suffered financially under Hitler, they do not appear to have fled Germany. This, in combination with an absence of records documenting how much was paid by the family to obtain the work, means this will be a difficult case to win.
This is the latest in a variety of ongoing attempts by the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's heirs to retrieve the family collection. Members of the family were forced into exile, committed suicide or went into hiding as a result of Nazi oppression, and the current owners hid the concerning provenance that follows the painting. Three previous successes for the family suggest that a positive result may be possible.