Heirs Challenge Sotheby’s $180m Van Gogh Sale Over Nazi-Era ‘Duress’ Claim

Days before it is due to become the most expensive Van Gogh ever sold at auction, Châtaigniers en fleurs has become the subject of a restitution dispute. Heirs of Samuel Fischer, the German-Jewish publisher whose family owned the painting for more than 25 years, say it may have changed hands under duress as the Nazis tightened their grip on Germany.

What the heirs are claiming

Representatives of the Fischer family have instructed Berlin lawyer Gunnar Schnabel, who has written to Sotheby’s, according to the New York Times. His argument is that the painting was sold in Amsterdam before World War Two because of the financial damage the family’s publishing house suffered under Nazi rule. A forced or distressed sale of that kind can give heirs a claim even when there was no outright confiscation.

Schnabel has said his clients are prepared to work towards “a fair and just solution in the spirit of the 1998 Washington Principles,” according to The Telegraph. Those international guidelines encourage museums, dealers and auction houses to reach fair settlements over art lost because of Nazi persecution.

Sotheby’s response

The auction house says it has already looked closely at the painting’s history. “While our research to date has not established that the painting was sold under duress, we recognize the importance of engaging thoughtfully and constructively with the family and are committed to working toward a mutually satisfactory resolution,” Sotheby’s told the BBC.

The sale is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, in New York. Sotheby’s has not said whether the challenge will change those plans.

The painting’s journey from Auvers to auction

Van Gogh painted Châtaigniers en fleurs in Auvers-sur-Oise, outside Paris, on 24 May 1890, roughly two months before his death. After he died it passed to his brother Theo. Sotheby’s provenance shows it moving through dealers and collectors in Paris and Berlin before Samuel Fischer, founder of the S. Fischer Verlag publishing house, bought it in 1909.

Fischer died in 1934 and the painting stayed in the family. Sotheby’s says it was deposited with the Paul Cassirer firm in 1932 or 1933 and acquired by Henriette and Marcel Kapferer in Paris in 1936. Four further owners have held it since then, according to the BBC. The Guardian reports that its later owners included Hollywood producer and Capitol Records co-founder Buddy DeSylva.

Why the stakes are so high

The canvas is the centrepiece of the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, a group of 12 Impressionist and modern works assembled from the 1960s by Argentine collectors Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier. The collection, which also includes works by Cézanne and Monet, had been out of public view for decades.

At $180m, Châtaigniers en fleurs reportedly carries the highest estimate of any lot in this autumn’s New York sales. It would comfortably beat the current auction record for Van Gogh, the $117.2m paid for Verger avec cyprès at Christie’s in 2022. That makes the outcome of the Fischer claim significant for the heirs, the sellers, Sotheby’s and the wider art market, which has faced growing pressure over the provenance of works that changed hands in the 1930s.

Sources: BBC News (November 14, 2026); The Telegraph (November 14, 2026); Sotheby’s lot catalogue for Châtaigniers en fleurs; The Guardian (September 30, 2026).