Seized by the Nazis and not seen for 100 years: Van Gogh painting auctioned for record price

The Dutch artist Van Gogh (1853-1890) made “Meules de blé” in 1888 while living in Arles, in the south of France. In 1913 the canvas was bought by Max Meirowsky, a German Jew with an enormous art collection. Due to the persecution of the Jews, he had to flee to Amsterdam in 1938, and he gave the painting to a German art dealer in Paris for safekeeping. Subsequently, the work came into the possession of Alexandrine de Rothschild, a member of a Jewish banking family.

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