DIA 'misguided' in fight over stolen Van Gogh painting, lawyer says

Detroit — A judge can order Detroit Institute of Arts officials to hand over an allegedly stolen painting by Vincent van Gogh despite a federal law granting the artwork immunity from being seized, a lawyer wrote Wednesday.

That is because Brazilian art collector Gustavo Soter, who says he is the undisputed owner of "Liseuse De Romans," is demanding its return after searching for the painting for six years, his lawyer, Aaron Phelps, wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

"Our view is someone who stole a work of art can make no agreement for its exhibition under the statute," Phelps wrote in an email to the DIA's legal team.

The argument comes less than 24 hours before U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh will consider ordering DIA officials to relinquish the painting, which was missing until Soter's lawyers found it hanging on the walls of the Detroit museum as part of the ongoing "Van Gogh in America" exhibition. The artwork is also known as "The Novel Reader" or "The Reading Lady."

"Plaintiff paid $3.7 million for the painting and would like it back," Phelps wrote.

The filing is the latest legal development in the case of a mysterious painting that is drawing larger crowds, its own security guard and the attention of art lovers worldwide since Soter's art brokerage company, Brokerarte Capital Partners LLC, sued the DIA last week.

The lawsuit describes an international hunt for a rare oil painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist master and a frantic attempt to reclaim the artwork before the exhibition leaves town Sunday.

The DIA's legal team has said museum officials cannot be forced to relinquish control of the painting because the artwork is protected by a federal law granting immunity to foreign artwork on display in the United States. The painting was granted immunity last summer by the U.S. State Department under a nearly 60-year-old law that governs art and other foreign items of cultural significance imported to the U.S., the DIA's lawyers wrote.

That argument is misguided, Phelps wrote.

The Immunity from Seizure Act only prohibits non-owners from seizing artwork from owners.

"This matter is just the opposite — plaintiff is the owner and seeks recovery of its own property," Phelps wrote. "The Immunity from Seizure Act does not bar this court from returning to plaintiff what already belongs to it."

The lawyer noted that no one else has laid claim to the painting and Soter's company provided an "uncontested" bill of sale.

Soter has said he bought the painting in 2017. After paying for the artwork, he transferred possession, but not title, to an unidentified third party, the lawsuit alleges.

"This party absconded with the painting, and plaintiff has been unaware of its whereabouts for years," Phelps wrote. "Since plaintiff purchased the painting in May 2017, plaintiff has not known the location of the painting."

But Soter's legal team recently discovered the painting on display at the DIA. A sign accompanying the painting says it is on loan from a private collection in São Paulo, Brazil. The DIA has not disclosed any further ownership information.

The DIA's Van Gogh exhibition opened in October and celebrates its status as the first public museum in the United States to purchase a Van Gogh painting, a self-portrait created in 1887.

The exhibition includes 74 Van Gogh paintings and is considered one of the largest of Van Gogh's work in America in the 21st century. The authentic Van Gogh pieces are on loan from roughly 60 museums and collections all over the world, including "The Bedroom," from the Chicago Institute of Art; "Van Gogh's Chair" from London's National Gallery; and "Starry Night (Starry Night Over the Rhone)" from Paris's Musee d'Orsay.

rsnell@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @robertsnellnews