2 weeks Ago By Nina Siegal
Attributing a work to the artist generally requires authentication by the Van Gogh Museum, but lawsuits and an influx of requests have made it reassess that role. Stuart Pivar, a 94-year-old chemical engineer who lives in New York, has been collecting art and antiques since he was a child. He estimates he has picked up about 300 pieces over the years, including a portrait of himself by his friend Andy Warhol and paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock and Edgar Degas.
Pivar is also convinced that he owns an unsung masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh, a large landscape titled Auvers, 1890 that is signed “Vincent” on the back. But a much more important voice does not agree: the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, whose judgments carry incredible weight because it has the largest collection of works by the 19th-century Post-Impressionist. Its curators and researchers study every aspect of the Dutch artist’s life and work.
When the museum sent Pivar a 15-page letter in 2021 explaining why it did not deem the painting he had spent a few thousand dollars on at auction a van Gogh, he responded by suing for US$300 million ($524m) in US District Court. The museum’s failure to recognise the painting was “negligence,” he argued in court papers, and had reduced its value to almost nothing..
