The search for van Gogh’s lost masterpiece – The New York Times

Art sleuths over the years have confirmed this much: that the Japanese buyer from 1990 was soon undone by scandal, criminally sanctioned and died. His collection was sold by a bank and the Gachet was acquired by an Austrian financier who soon found that he too could not afford to keep it. In 1998, the van Gogh was sold privately to an undisclosed party. Since then the trail has run cold. At least publicly. […]

All parties had an opinion on the core question that drives such a quest: Do collecting families have any responsibility to share iconic works of art with the broader public? … “People are allowed to own things privately,” said Michael Findlay, who was involved as a specialist for Christie’s in the 1990 auction sale of the Gachet. “Does it belong to everybody? No, it does not.”