"The Night Café" is the name of a famous oil painting created in 1888, by Vincent van Gogh. It is on display at the Yale University Art Gallery for almost 50 years. Take a look at the picture above. Now the interesting thing is that, the Ivy League University is being sued by a man over the ownership rights of the painting.
Pierre Konowaloff from France, claim that he is the great-grandson and heir of Ivan Morozov, who originally acquired the painting in 1908. The painting was with Morozov until the Russian Government seized it during the Communist takeover of Russia in 1918. Then, the painting was sold to art galleries in Europe and New York. Finally, Yale received the painting through a bequest from Yale alumnus Stephen Carlton Clark in 1961.
"The Night Café" depicts the interior of the cafe, with a half-curtained doorway in the center background leading, presumably, to more private quarters. Five customers sit at tables along the walls to the left and right, and a waiter in a light coat, to one side of a pool table near the center of the room, stands facing the viewer.
Konowaloff alleges Clark knew of the painting's ownership history and that "Yale engaged in a policy of willful ignorance" when it accepted the piece in 1961. "Yale's continued and wrongful detention of the unlawfully confiscated 'The Night Cafe' is prohibited by customary and international treaty law," his attorneys wrote in the filings. Konowaloff wants the immediate return of the painting as well as damages.
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