A strip of land along a roadside in Auvers-sur-Oise, identified as the scene of Van Gogh’s last work, painted on the day of his shooting and death in 1890, can’t be taken from its owners by town officials, an appeals court in Versailles has ruled.
The land, part of the garden at 48 Rue Daubigny, was identified in 2020 as the scene depicted in the painting, and the homeowners, Jean Francois and Helene Serlinger, put up a fence and began charging art lovers €8 for guided tours.
Isabelle Mézières, the village mayor, launched a bid to seize the land, saying it should be public, and claiming it was part of the public road. The Serlingers went to court, and a lower court ruled in their favor in 2023, but the mayor appealed.
Now the appeals court has upheld the decision, ruling that “The embankment containing the tree roots painted by Vincent Van Gogh does not constitute an accessory to the public highway.
