Focus on The Night Café and analyze the History.
Van Gogh used the picture to settle debts with Ginoux, the landlord said to be depicted (standing) in it. Formerly a highlight of the Ivan Morozov collection in Moscow, the painting was nationalized and sold by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s. The painting was eventually acquired by Stephen Carlton Clark, who bequeathed it to the art gallery of Yale University.
On March 24, 2009, Yale sued Pierre Konowaloff, Morozov's purported great-grandson, to maintain the university's title to the work. Konowaloff had allegedly asserted a claim to own the painting on the grounds that the Soviets had invalidly nationalized it. Yale dropped its lawsuit in October of that year, in a motion which stated “it is well-established that a foreign nation’s taking of its own national’s property within its own borders does not violate international law,” claiming that both the Soviet and Yale acquisitions of the painting were therefore legal.On March 27, 2016 the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Konowaloff regarding the case, siding with a federal appeals court in New York cited the “act of state” doctrine. The rejection means Yale's ownership is absolute.
Ivan Morozov the art gallery Yale University Moscow United States Supreme Court Stephen Carlton Clark nationalized