The painting was bought in 1925 by Marcel Kapferer and next appeared in Georges Wildenstein's gallery in New York in 1943, where Maurice Wertheim bought it. She doesn't know, the Globe reported, whether the van Gogh was sold in that manner. The Fogg searched for answers. Three of the paintings cited by the Globe are in the famous collection given to the Fogg by Maurice Wertheim '06, A.M. '07. Our questions about art works don't stop when works enter the collection.
Objects are always in the light.
We try to establish what they are in every way. Past ownership is but one of those ways. Gaskell acknowledged in a January interview that gaps existed in the ownership records for these paintings. It may be that something is fishy, but maybe not. I am not aware of any piece in the collection with a demonstrated illegitimate title.