French Judge Lets Monet Heirs’ Case Against Wildenstein & Co. Move Forward
A French judge has ruled that a complaint brought by Claude Monet’s heirs against Wildenstein & Co. can proceed in Rouen, Normandy, keeping alive a dispute over a 2004 exchange that the family says was built on a damaged and misrepresented painting.
At the center of the case is “Adolphe Monet Reading in a Garden” (1867), a rare work depicting the artist’s father. According to the complaint, Monet’s great-nephew agreed in 2004 to give up the painting to Wildenstein & Co. in return for five works of lesser value, including paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Alfred Sisley, and another Monet landscape, “Marine, Amsterdam” (1874). The family’s lawyer, Corinne Hershkovitch, said the heir was deeply attached to the portrait but wanted to divide his inheritance fairly between his two children.
The dispute sharpened in 2019, when the family tried to sell “Marine, Amsterdam” and learned it was seriously damaged. Experts later determined that the painting’s original wooden canvas support had been lost and that, before 2004, the canvas had been transferred to another stretcher, distorting the work in the process. Hershkovitch said the family felt humiliated to have been misled and argued that Wildenstein & Co. could not have ignored the condition of the painting.
The Monet heirs are now seeking to annul the 2004 agreement and, at minimum, recover the estimated $3 million value of the damaged work. Under French law, Hershkovitch argued, if the transaction is voided because one of the works was misvalued, Wildenstein & Co. could be required to return “Adolphe Monet Reading in a Garden,” while the family would return the five works it received.
That outcome is complicated by the fact that the portrait has since been sold to Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle. Wildenstein & Co. had argued the case should be heard in New York, but the court rejected that request, finding the plaintiffs to be ordinary art consumers based in Normandy rather than professional buyers. The gallery has until October 13 to present its defense.
The ruling keeps the case in French court, where questions of valuation, disclosure, and trust in the secondary market are now set to be tested in public.
