London's National Gallery sued in NY over alleged stolen Matisse

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Gallery of Art in London was sued on Wednesday in New York for the return of the 1908 Henri Matisse painting "Portrait of Greta Moll" by three grandchildren of its subject, who claim it was stolen. Margarete Moll, known as Greta and a pupil of Matisse, lived in Germany during World War 2, and soon afterward entrusted the painting for safekeeping from looters to an art student of her husband Oskar in Switzerland, according to the complaint. According to court papers, the museum's newly-installed director Gabriele Finaldi in letter dated Sept. 21, 2015 refused to return the oil-on-canvas work, citing "statutory constraints." But Moll's grandchildren said that by keeping ownership of the painting, while allowing its exhibition and selling merchandise depicting it in New York, the National Gallery "has ignored the international legal standard that such war-related lost property should be returned to its true owners." Oskar Moll had bought the painting from Matisse in 1908, the complaint said.