Lawsuit Threatens L.A. Exhibit

“In a legal challenge that aims to block an upcoming show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the grandson of a Russian aristocrat is arguing that 25 of the artworks — including paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh — are stolen goods, looted from his family by Lenin’s Bolshevik government in 1918 and later passed to Moscow’s State Pushkin Museum.” The lawsuit is a new tactic in a larger battle by the family of the Russian collector who owned the pieces to force legal recognition of the Bolshevik seizure. LACMA officials, presumably caught by surprise, aren’t commenting just yet.