When Steven Brooks, a collector of Old Master paintings, purchased Louis-Michel van Loo’s Allegorical Portrait of a Lady as Diana Wounded by Cupid from Sotheby’s in 2004, he was unaware that the work was once owned by the German war criminal Hermann Goering. After it surfaced that Nazis possibly looted the work, Brooks deemed the painting worthless and decided to sue Sotheby’s for not thoroughly researching the work’s provenance.
The painting’s problematic past was revealed when Brooks tried to sell the painting at Christie’s in 2010. Specialists at the auction house discovered that Goering had purchased the painting in 1939, leading Christie’s to decline the offer to sell Portrait of a Lady on behalf of Brooks. Brooks’ lawsuit claims that Sotheby’s also refused to auction the work and won’t refund the nearly $90,000 he spent on the painting in 2004.
While there is no solid proof that the work was looted by Nazis, the uncertainty surrounding the painting makes it unsalable and in turn, monetarily worthless. Sotheby’s 2004 catalogue lacked any information on the painting between 1906 and 1987 and Christie’s was unable to determine anything other than the fact that Goering once owned the work. It is typical for private dealers to avoid works whose ownership cannot be traced between 1933, when the Nazis came to power, and 1945, when World War II ended, because of potentially problematic provenances.
There are currently no claimants for van Loo’s Allegorical Portrait of a Lady as Diana Wounded by Cupid.
