Sotheby's Works to Resolve Dispute Over Van Gogh Painting Sale

Sotheby's says it is working to resolve a dispute over the intended sale of Vincent van Gogh's painting Châtaigniers en Fleurs, which is due to be auctioned in New York on Wednesday. The title translates as Blossoming Chestnut Trees. The work carries an auction estimate of $180m (£136m), according to the BBC.

The dispute centres on the painting's history during the 1930s. Representatives for heirs of the Fischer family say the work may have been sold under duress, meaning under pressure or threat, during the rise of the Nazis. Sotheby's says its extensive research to date has not established that the painting was sold under duress.

Sotheby's says it is in dialogue with the Fischer heirs and is committed to working toward a mutually satisfactory resolution. The auction house has not set out the terms of any such outcome.

The painting's provenance, the recorded history of who owned it and when, is at the core of the disagreement. According to Sotheby's provenance, Samuel Fischer acquired the painting in 1909, and it passed down through his family after his death in 1934. The provenance states that the work was deposited with the Paul Cassirer gallery in Amsterdam in 1932 or 1933, and that it went to Henriette and Marcel Kapferer in Paris in 1936.

The heirs' lawyer has told Sotheby's that the painting was sold in Amsterdam before World War Two because of financial losses the Fischer publishing company suffered under the Nazis. The lawyer's account places the sale in the period of those losses, which is the point the heirs' representatives raise in questioning whether the sale was voluntary.

The painting is being offered as part of the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection.