Art News. Vasari Codex

gavel restitution schedule Feb 20, 2026 visibility 15 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

epstein files leon black indicted dealer douglas latchford

A newly released document from the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Epstein files has linked billionaire collector Leon Black to a $27.7 million inventory of Southeast Asian antiquities, some of which may be looted. The records indicate that Black acquired high-value Cambodian, Thai, and Vietnamese artifacts, including a $7 million bronze Shiva sculpture that matches the description of a piece handled by the late, indicted antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford. While Black’s representatives state he never dealt with Latchford directly and acquired the works through a reputable dealer, correspondence suggests Latchford was involved in facilitating sales to Black through intermediaries.

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gavel restitution schedule Feb 5, 2026 visibility 11 link 3 artists

national gallery artemisia gentileschi provenance

The National Gallery in London is preparing to unveil Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria,' a major 2018 acquisition. However, the museum has quietly added the painting to its list of works that could have been looted during the Nazi era due to a gap in its provenance from 1615 to the 1940s, specifically concerning its ownership by the French Boudeville family during the war.

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gavel restitution schedule Jun 13, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

men guilty forging selling fake royal furniture versailles

An antiques expert and a cabinet maker have been found guilty of forging and selling nine imitation 18th-century armchairs that they falsely claimed belonged to French royalty, including Marie Antoinette. Georges "Bill" Pallot, a leading furniture expert, and Bruno Desnoues, a former Versailles restorer, sold the fakes through Paris galleries and Sotheby's to the Château of Versailles and private collectors, including Qatari Prince Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani and an Hermès family heir. Pallot was sentenced to four years in prison (44 months suspended), fined €200,000, and banned from working as an expert for five years; Desnoues received three years (32 months suspended) and a €100,000 fine. Both must pay €1.6 million in indemnities. The gallery Laurent Kraemer was acquitted, with the court ruling it was also a victim.

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gavel restitution schedule May 5, 2026 source 6 sources visibility 29 link 7 artists

France reckons with Nazi-looted art in a new Paris museum gallery

France has opened a new permanent gallery at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris dedicated to displaying Nazi-looted artworks that remain unclaimed. The gallery features 13 works from the MNR (Musées Nationaux Récupération) collection, including a painting by Alfred Stevens originally destined for Hitler's planned museum in Linz. The display is the first in the museum's history to show the backs of paintings, revealing stamps, labels, and inventory marks that trace how each piece moved from private Jewish homes into Nazi hands. The museum also launched its first research unit to trace rightful heirs, led by Ines Rotermund-Reynard.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 18 link 11 artists

tokushima modern art museum wolfgang beltracchi forgery

A painting in Japan's Tokushima Modern Art Museum, originally attributed to French Cubist Jean Metzinger and purchased in 1999 for 67.2 million yen ($426,000), has been confirmed as a forgery by notorious German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The museum withdrew the work, titled *At the Cycle-Race Track 55*, from an upcoming exhibition after experts identified synthetic pigments from after the mid-20th century. The Osaka-based seller agreed to a refund and return, completed in October and November 2024, and the painting has been removed from the prefectural government's inventory.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 12 artists

faked artworks japan wolfgang beltracchi

A painting long attributed to Moïse Kisling, titled *Kiki de Montparnasse* and held by Japan's Yamada Bee Company Group, has been identified as a forgery by notorious art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The discovery, reported by NHK, follows a wave of Beltracchi-linked fakes uncovered in Japanese museums and collections, including a purported Marie Laurencin portrait in Tokyo and a forgery of Heinrich Campendonk's *Girl with Swan* at the Museum of Art, Kochi. Beltracchi admitted to forging the Kisling around 1990, claiming he studied the artist deeply.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 22, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

Jewish collector's heirs revive Nazi loot claim to Van Gogh Sunflowers painting

Heirs of Jewish banker and collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy are appealing a lower court's dismissal of their lawsuit against Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings over Vincent van Gogh's painting *Sunflowers* (1888-89), valued at $250 million. The plaintiffs—Julius H. Schoeps, Britt-Marie Enhoerning, and Florence von Kesselstatt, representing over 30 beneficiaries—claim the work was sold under Nazi pressure in 1934. Sompo bought the painting in 1987 for a record $25 million at Christie's London. The case was heard by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on 17 September 2025, under the 2016 Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act.

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gavel restitution schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 14

London’s Wellcome Collection to Transfer 2,000 Manuscripts to Jain Community, But They Will Stay in UK

The Wellcome Collection in London has announced plans to transfer 2,000 Jain manuscripts to the Jain community, but they will remain in the UK at the University of Birmingham’s Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies. The manuscripts, ranging from the 15th to 19th centuries, were largely purchased in 1919 from a temple in India and from sources in present-day Pakistan. The transfer follows years of dialogue with the UK-based Institute of Jainology and aims to maximize community access and research opportunities.

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