Malevich Heirs Reach Amicable Settlement with Amsterdam

NEW YORK—After several years of lawsuits and negotiations, the city of Amsterdam has reached an amicable settlement with several heirs of the Russian avant-garde painter Kazimir Malevich regarding some 100 works by the artist in the city's collection, according to Herrick, Feinstein LLP, the New York-based law firm that represents the heirs.

Under the agreement, the heirs will be given title to five important paintings, while the remaining works will stay in the city's collection and on long-term loan to the city's Stedelijk Museum. According to Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen, "as of December 2009, the artworks of Malevich will be given a place of honor in the reopened Stedelijk Museum.”

The agreement will end a long-standing dispute between the city, which contends it acquired the works in good faith in 1958, and the heirs, who believe the seller of the works, Hugo Haring, an acquaintance of the painter, was not entitled to sell them.

Malevich had taken the works to Berlin in the 1920s and left them behind when he was called back to the Soviet Union in 1927. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, his German contacts entrusted the works to Haring. Malevich died in 1935; most of his family was trapped behind the Iron Curtain after World War II.

The heirs first approached the city in the 1990s after the fall of the Iron Curtain, but were rebuffed, according to their lawyers. They sued the city in U.S. court after a group of 14 works traveled to the United States in 2003 to be exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Menil Collection in Houston. The city motioned for the suit to be dismissed, but the motion was denied.

The heirs, commenting on the settlement in the news release distributed by Herrick, Feinstein LLP, said, “It is a tribute to all of the parties that we were able to find a fair solution to such a complicated problem. The Malevich family is gratified that this matter has been resolved in a way that acknowledges Malevich’s legacy and his contributions to the history of 20th century art, keeps a representative portion of the collection together on public display for all to see and cherish, and provides us with a representative group of five noteworthy works by our noted ancestor.”