Yale will keep Van Gogh painting per federal court

A U.S. appeals court upheld a lower ruling on Tuesday, allowing Yale University to keep a painting by famed Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh and denying a request by the great-grandson of a Russian art collector to argue his ownership of the painting.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the arguments made by Pierre Konowaloff, the great-grandson of art collector Ivan Abramovich Morozov, lacked merit.

The 1888 oil painting, titled "The Night Café," once belonged to Morozov, one of three major art collectors whose collections were expropriated in 1918 by the Russian Bolshevik revolutionary government.

The U.S. District Court for Connecticut originally ruled that the act of state doctrine precludes U.S. courts from inquiring into the validity of decisions by recognized foreign sovereign governments within their own territory.

rest of story here http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/20/us-new-york-van-gogh-idUSKCN0SE2NL20151020

It will be fascinating if this case goes up to the Supreme Court but I don't know what basis would be used to persuade the Court to hear it.

My own thoughts are that Konowaloff didn't have much of a case. But I confess that I am biased toward having more people see it in a public gallery. But I can see the private ownership side, too...