This week, Freedman Normand Friedland filed a significant action on behalf of the Estate of Fritz and Hedwig Stern to recover Vincent van Gogh’s Olive Picking — a masterpiece the Nazis stole from the Sterns when they were fleeing Nazi persecution in 1936.

The complaint traces the painting’s journey from Munich to New York to Athens. It describes how the Nazis forbid the Sterns from removing the painting from Germany, sold it through a Nazi-appointed agent, and confiscated the proceeds of the sale. The painting then moved through the international art market and was acquired at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It was eventually sold to the Goulandris family and is now on display at their foundation’s new museum in Athens. 

We are honored to stand with the Stern Estate in the pursuit of accountability and the restoration of a stolen legacy.

Judith Anne Silver v. Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation et al., No. 1:25-cv-08914 (S.D.N.Y.)