A federal judge in Detroit ruled the disputed Van Gogh painting is \
A judge in Detroit ruled Friday that a Van Gogh painting at the center of a federal lawsuit is “immune from seizure” and dismissed the case brought by a purported Brazilian art collector, who said the painting was stolen before it came to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a special exhibit.
The federal judge ruled the Van Gogh painting known as “The Novel Reader,” which is part of the museum’s popular “Van Gogh in America” exhibit, is immune from seizure under the federal Immunity from Seizure Act, “which prohibits the court from issuing an injunction or entering any other order that would deprive the defendant of custody or control of the painting.”
“Because the Court cannot grant the ultimate relief sought by the plaintiff, the lawsuit will be dismissed,” U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh wrote in an 11-page opinion. A motion for a temporary restraining order and possession also was denied.
The DIA had argued that the court lacked authority to order it to do anything with the painting because it is protected from such action by the 1965 federal act.
Steeh agreed, writing the „plaintiff lacks a legal basis for the relief it seeks from the court. As such plaintiff has no likelihood of success on the merits of its lawsuit alleging claim and delivery or its motion for temporary restraining order and possession pending final judgment.
