When Leone Meyer discovered in 2012 that a painting Nazis had stolen from her father was in the collection of an American museum, her first response was to demand its return.
But Ms. Meyer, who is 80 in Paris, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, struck an agreement in 2016: The 1886 painting, Shepherdess Bringing In Sheep, would be displayed at a museum in France for five years, and then would rotate (轮转) every three years between the university and one or more French institutions of Ms. Mever's choosing.
In 2018, Ms. Meyer, tried to donate it to the Musee d'Orsay, where it has been on display since 2017, for its permanent collection. But the museum refused, telling Ms. Mever it did not want to assume the cost and risk of transporting the painting to America every three years, which would have been required under the terms of the settlement. Any other French institution she offered it to would probably do the same. Ms. Meyer is now seeking to prevent it from being displayed at the
University of Oklahoma, where it is scheduled to return in July. She has also filed a lawsuit in France seeking permanent ownership,
But the university disagrees that the French museum's refusal to accept the work is grounds for making the original deal have no legal effect. Ms. Meyer" now seeks to break" a settlement that "was a first-of-its-kind U. S. -France international art sharing agreement," according to the university.
The university has acknowledged that the painting was stolen by the Nazis from Ms. Meyer's father, but said in the previous court hearings that it did not want to return the work because of procedural rules and other laws. It also produced evidence that the previous owners, the Weitzenhoffer family, who donated it to the university in 2000, having bought it at a New York gallery, had acted in good faith.
