The Diggers (Van Gogh)

In 2014, an ownership dispute began between the Detroit Institute of Arts and fifteen of Martha Nathan's heirs.[4] The heirs claimed that Martha Nathan, a German Jew, was forced to sell the painting (along with Gauguin's Street Scene in Tahiti, owned by the Toledo Museum of Art) under duress and for a lower-than-fair-market price. The heirs wanted the painting returned or for the museum to pay restitution.[1]

The museum hired an art provenance specialist to carry out a detailed study of the painting's provenance.[5] Based on her report, published by the museum in 2006, Nathan had moved The Diggers to Basel, Switzerland, in 1930, three years before the Nazis came to power. When she left Germany for Paris in 1937, she had paid all applicable exit taxes, without having to sell the painting. Nathan sold The Diggers in 1938 for a price that was consistent with prices of comparable works sold voluntarily in Europe at the time.[4] After the war, when Nathan sought compensation for property sold under duress, The Diggers was not included in the claim. Although the painting was publicly exhibited by the museum with acknowledgment of Nathan's prior ownership, no restitution claim was made by the heirs until 2004.[1][4]

Based on these conclusions, the museum asked the Nathan heirs to recognize the museum's ownership of The Diggers. In turn, the heirs stated that they would accept a decision made by an independent arbitrator but not one made solely by the museum. When no agreement could be reached, the museum filed a declaratory judgment action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2016, claiming a necessity to defend their ownership.[1][6] In 2007, the court ruled against the Nathan heirs.

The decision has been criticized by the World Jewish Restitution Organization who stated that the museum had used a statute of limitations defense even though the it had adopted the American Museum Guidelines, set by the American Alliance of Museums, which call for restitution claims to be decided on merit.[7][2][8] The museum states that the use of the statute of limitations was a last resort after spending $500,000 on researching the painting's provenance, yet failing to reach agreement with the heirs. Several historians have pointed out that the case against Detroit Institute of Arts is weak compared to other art restitution cases. According to Jonathan Petropoulos, the author of The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany, "The fact that [Nathan] was able to transport [the painting] to Switzerland, let alone that she did so in 1930, almost three years before Hitler came to power, means that she had freedom of action with regards to the disposition of the works."[1] Similarly, Sidney Bolkosky at University of Michigan-Dearborn stated that while Nathan rightfully received restitution for property seized by the Nazis, the painting was never stolen and it was sold outside of Nazi control.[1]