Illustration by Mark Zingarelli

On May 14, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York affirmed the legality of a stunning settlement reached by the estate of Lorette Jolles Shefner, Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow and the National Gallery of Art. For the first time in its history, the National Gallery agreed to a deaccession, or release, of a non-Holocaust painting from its permanent collection. Ownership of the painting returned to the Shefner estate.

In exchange, the Shefner family agreed to pay the National Gallery $1,325,000 in cash immediately and signed a seven-year promissory note for an additional $650,000. That’s $975,000 more than the family received for the painting in 2004. The Shefner family also agreed to let the Soutine stay with the museum for seven years—or until they decide to sell it. “The Shefner family is pleased to be welcoming this iconic Soutine back to their family,” said Karl Geercken, the Shefners’ attorney.

Soutine experts Tuchman and Dunow will pay the National Gallery $210,000 and must include the painting in their catalogue raisonné with the Shefner provenance clearly laid out. All told, the National Gallery will receive payments of $2,185,000 to compensate for the painting and the cost of defending the lawsuit. The National Gallery will not comment on the sale.

In February 2006, another painting in Soutine’s beef series, “Le Boeuf Ecorche,” sold for $13.8 million to an anonymous buyer. In February 2007, one of Soutine’s portraits, “The Man in the Red Scarf,” sold for $17.2 million.

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Robin Gerber is a lawyer and the author of Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her.