Latest news with #VersaillesAdministrativeCourtofAppeal
Telegraph
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Court battle over who owns famous van Gogh roots is tearing French village apart
A tangled clump of tree roots that inspired Vincent van Gogh's final painting are at the centre of a heated legal battle between French villagers and their mayor. Five years ago, art experts concluded that a system of exposed, gnarly roots along the side of a road in Auvers-sur-Oise on the outskirts of Paris, were those depicted in Tree Roots, the artist's last work. It is believed that he painted the piece just hours before he died in 1890, after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver. News of the location shook the art world. The small village, located about an hour north of Paris where van Gogh spent the last two months of his life, attracted international media in the summer of 2020 and a steady stream of eager pilgrims. But the discovery has since become the subject of a pitched war between the town over whether the roots belong to the municipality or property owners Jean-François Serlinger and his wife Hélène, who is also an artist who moved to the village to live where van Gogh had worked. Last month, French courts sided with the Serlingers and ruled that the roots painted by van Gogh are on their property, marking the second legal victory for the couple. 'The embankment containing the tree roots painted by Vincent van Gogh does not constitute an accessory to the public highway,' the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal wrote in their decision. But for Isabelle Mézières, the mayor of Auvers-sur-Oise, the fight is far from over. 'The roots belong to the people of Auvers!' she wrote this month, adding that she plans to file another appeal. 'There's no way we're going to surrender the public interest of the people of Auvers in the face of private interests. The question of ownership has not been settled.' The couple moved to the village in the mid-1990s and purchased an extra parcel of land in 2013, not knowing that they had also bought an important part of art history. Since the discovery, the Serlingers have launched guided tours called 'The Mystery of van Gogh's Roots' in collaboration with the van Gogh Europe Foundation. Auvers will not 'abandon its roots' Tickets are €8 (£7), and visitors are led on a 30-minute tour that traces the artist's life and work throughout the town, including the tree roots on their property. The tours offer an 'immersive experience' of the area that is 'deeply linked' to the artist's final painting and last stretch of his life, according to the site. Despite the municipality losing their case twice in a row, the town has vowed to try a third time. 'We are considering a possible appeal,' Michel Gentilhomme, the town's lawyer, told Le Parisien. 'There is a desire for private individuals to appropriate this property, in the interest of the municipality's residents. This issue must be resolved so that the municipality is not criticised for having abandoned its roots.' For their part, the Serlingers said they wanted to 'turn the page' and put the legal battle behind them, while pursuing other ways to develop the site. 'There's no doubt about it, we own the land right down to the street,' the couple told Le Parisien. 'We've won a second time. We're within our rights.' The initial connection between the local roots and the painting was made in 2020, when Wouter van der Veen, a local van Gogh expert, stumbled on an old black and white postcard in his collection that showed a man walking his bike along the village's Rue Daubigny. The familiar ancient roots growing out of the road caught his eye and, in a eureka moment, he made the connection between the photo and the painting. The new tourist season officially started on Saturday, which came with an air of tension in the village amid the ongoing row. 'It created a deep sense of insecurity around a site that calls for calm and serenity,' Mr. Serlinger told The New York Times. 'We have a feeling of insecurity with a mayor who is still in a war.'
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Court battle over who owns famous van Gogh roots is tearing French village apart
A tangled clump of tree roots that inspired Vincent van Gogh's final painting are at the centre of a heated legal battle between French villagers and their mayor. Five years ago, art experts concluded that a system of exposed, gnarly roots along the side of a road in Auvers-sur-Oise on the outskirts of Paris, were those depicted in Tree Roots, the artist's last work. It is believed that he painted the piece just hours before he died in 1890, after shooting himself in the chest with a revolver. News of the location shook the art world. The small village, located about an hour north of Paris where van Gogh spent the last two months of his life, attracted international media in the summer of 2020 and a steady stream of eager pilgrims. But the discovery has since become the subject of a pitched war between the town over whether the roots belong to the municipality or property owners Jean-François Serlinger and his wife Hélène, who is also an artist who moved to the village to live where van Gogh had worked. Last month, French courts sided with the Serlingers and ruled that the roots painted by van Gogh are on their property, marking the second legal victory for the couple. 'The embankment containing the tree roots painted by Vincent van Gogh does not constitute an accessory to the public highway,' the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal wrote in their decision. But for Isabelle Mézières, the mayor of Auvers-sur-Oise, the fight is far from over. 'The roots belong to the people of Auvers!' she wrote this month, adding that she plans to file another appeal. 'There's no way we're going to surrender the public interest of the people of Auvers in the face of private interests. The question of ownership has not been settled.' The couple moved to the village in the mid-1990s and purchased an extra parcel of land in 2013, not knowing that they had also bought an important part of art history. Since the discovery, the Serlingers have launched guided tours called 'The Mystery of van Gogh's Roots' in collaboration with the van Gogh Europe Foundation. Tickets are €8 (£7), and visitors are led on a 30-minute tour that traces the artist's life and work throughout the town, including the tree roots on their property. The tours offer an 'immersive experience' of the area that is 'deeply linked' to the artist's final painting and last stretch of his life, according to the site. Despite the municipality losing their case twice in a row, the town has vowed to try a third time. 'We are considering a possible appeal,' Michel Gentilhomme, the town's lawyer, told Le Parisien. 'There is a desire for private individuals to appropriate this property, in the interest of the municipality's residents. This issue must be resolved so that the municipality is not criticised for having abandoned its roots.' For their part, the Serlingers said they wanted to 'turn the page' and put the legal battle behind them, while pursuing other ways to develop the site. 'There's no doubt about it, we own the land right down to the street,' the couple told Le Parisien. 'We've won a second time. We're within our rights.' The initial connection between the local roots and the painting was made in 2020, when Wouter van der Veen, a local van Gogh expert, stumbled on an old black and white postcard in his collection that showed a man walking his bike along the village's Rue Daubigny. The familiar ancient roots growing out of the road caught his eye and, in a eureka moment, he made the connection between the photo and the painting. The new tourist season officially started on Saturday, which came with an air of tension in the village amid the ongoing row. 'It created a deep sense of insecurity around a site that calls for calm and serenity,' Mr. Serlinger told The New York Times. 'We have a feeling of insecurity with a mayor who is still in a war.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Court rules in favour of homeowners in land dispute over site of Van Gogh's final painting
In the final hours of his life, a 37-year-old Vincent Van Gogh set up his easel beside a tangled slope of roots and painted with furious intensity. The result - Tree Roots (1890)- was a chaotic burst of colour and form, interpreted by many as a visual cry from a mind in anguish. It is widely believed to be his last work before he shot himself in a nearby wheat field later that same day. More than 130 years later, that very spot - a quiet patch at the bottom of a garden in Auvers-sur-Oise - became the unlikely centre of a longstanding, bitter legal battle. Since Van Gogh's final painting was identified to the garden of 48 Rue Daubigny in 2020, the homeowners, Jean-François and Hélène Serlinger, have turned their land into a destination for art lovers, offering guided tours (currently €8 per visit) and drawing visitors from around the world. However, the village mayor, Isabelle Mézières, launched a legal bid to seize the land, arguing it should belong to the public, not private individuals, and claiming it was part of the public road. The Serlingers insisted otherwise. They bought the land in 2013, long before its significance was discovered. A lower court ruled in the couple's favour in 2023, and now the Versailles appeal court has confirmed the decision, bringing the long-running feud to an apparent end. "The embankment containing the tree roots painted by Vincent Van Gogh does not constitute an accessory to the public highway," ruled the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal. Since the ruling, Mézières has taken to social media to denounce the ruling and vowed to continue legal action, declaring: 'These roots are not a commodity - they belong to the people of Auvers." She added: 'We are continuing our appeal. There is no question of giving in to the public interest of the people of Auvers over private interests. The question of ownership is not settled." The location of the legendary Dutch painter's suspected final artwork was identified by Dutch researcher Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute in France. He made the discovery after recognising that the scene depicted in the painting matched a faded postcard showing a man standing next to a bicycle on a backstreet in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent his last weeks. The postcard, which included the name of the street, offered a crucial lead. Van der Veen's identification revealed that Van Gogh had painted Tree Roots on a sloping bank just outside the village, around 35 kilometres (21 miles) north of Paris. This discovery also provided a new insight into Van Gogh's final hours, confirming that he worked on the piece into the afternoon of his death. 'There has been a lot of speculation about his state of mind, but one thing that is very clear is that he spent quite a bit longer working on this painting right through the afternoon. We know that from the light fall in the work,' Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, told The Associated Press at the time of the discovery. 'So, you know, he really was at work right up to to the end.' According to the museum's account of Van Gogh's life, after working on Tree Roots, the artist walked into a nearby wheat field later that day and shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died two days later, on 29 July 1890, at the age of 37.
Euronews
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Court rules in favour of homeowners in land dispute over site of Van Gogh's final painting
ADVERTISEMENT In the final hours of his life, a 37-year-old Vincent Van Gogh set up his easel beside a tangled slope of roots and painted with furious intensity. The result - Tree Roots (1890)- was a chaotic burst of colour and form, interpreted by many as a visual cry from a mind in anguish. It is widely believed to be his last work before he shot himself in a nearby wheat field later that same day. More than 130 years later, that very spot - a quiet patch at the bottom of a garden in Auvers-sur-Oise - became the unlikely centre of a longstanding, bitter legal battle. Visitors view the barricaded site where Van Gogh painted his final work, Tree Roots, in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris (July 29, 2020). Credit: AP Photo Since Van Gogh's final painting was identified to the garden of 48 Rue Daubigny in 2020, the homeowners, Jean-François and Hélène Serlinger, have turned their land into a destination for art lovers, offering guided tours (currently €8 per visit) and drawing visitors from around the world. However, the village mayor, Isabelle Mézières, launched a legal bid to seize the land, arguing it should belong to the public, not private individuals, and claiming it was part of the public road. The Serlingers insisted otherwise. They bought the land in 2013, long before its significance was discovered. A lower court ruled in the couple's favour in 2023, and now the Versailles appeal court has confirmed the decision, bringing the long-running feud to an apparent end. "The embankment containing the tree roots painted by Vincent Van Gogh does not constitute an accessory to the public highway," ruled the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal. Tree roots at the exact spot where Van Gogh painted his final work, Tree Roots, now protected by a barrier in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, 29 July 2020. Credit: AP Photo Van Gogh's 'Tree Roots' (1890) Credit: Vincent Van Gogh Foundation Since the ruling, Mézières has taken to social media to denounce the ruling and vowed to continue legal action, declaring: 'These roots are not a commodity - they belong to the people of Auvers." She added: 'We are continuing our appeal. There is no question of giving in to the public interest of the people of Auvers over private interests. The question of ownership is not settled." How was the real-life spot of Van Gogh's final painting originally identified? The location of the legendary Dutch painter's suspected final artwork was identified by Dutch researcher Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute in France. He made the discovery after recognising that the scene depicted in the painting matched a faded postcard showing a man standing next to a bicycle on a backstreet in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent his last weeks. The postcard, which included the name of the street, offered a crucial lead. The postcard showing a man by a bicycle in Auvers-sur-Oise which helped Dutch researcher Wouter van der Veen pinpoint the exact location of Van Gogh's final painting Credit: AP Photo Van der Veen's identification revealed that Van Gogh had painted Tree Roots on a sloping bank just outside the village, around 35 kilometres (21 miles) north of Paris. This discovery also provided a new insight into Van Gogh's final hours , confirming that he worked on the piece into the afternoon of his death. 'There has been a lot of speculation about his state of mind, but one thing that is very clear is that he spent quite a bit longer working on this painting right through the afternoon. We know that from the light fall in the work,' Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, told The Associated Press at the time of the discovery. 'So, you know, he really was at work right up to to the end.' According to the museum's account of Van Gogh's life, after working on Tree Roots , the artist walked into a nearby wheat field later that day and shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died two days later, on 29 July 1890, at the age of 37.
