More than a century of the death of Vincent van Goghone of its trees could be causing more fuss than its stormy brushstrokes: in the picturesque town of Auvers-Sur-Oise north of Paris, where the artist spent his last days, a tree portrayed by the Dutch painter has unleashed A lit dispute between the neighbors and the local town hall. The reason: Who is the true owner of the land where this living relic grows?
The conflict began after the publication of a study by an art historian who identified an elm tree (still standing) as the protagonist of the painting “Tree roots”, a work that Van Gogh would have painted just the day he decided to take his life. The finding, of great cultural and tourist value, made both local residents and the Consistory They will be interested and faced for land rights where the tree grows.
“He was always in our garden”
Current property residents, Jean-François y Hélène Serlinger They fought against the people, and an appeal court recently concluded that the municipality’s claim had no basis for the initiative to declare the couple’s garden as a public place.
However, Isabelle Mézièreshas pledged to continue fighting, and can still resort to a superior court under the pretext that the tree, according to certain historical documents of the nineteenth century, could have been planted when the area was still communalinsisting that the place must belong to the public, not to private owners: “The roots belong to the Auversois,” he wrote on the networks, referring to the people of the place.
For its part, the family has shown writings and cadastral planes that indicate that the tree It is located just within the limits of its land: “The City Council tried to expropriate the land claiming that it was part of the road, but the decision of the Court of Appeals was clear, and now we can concentrate all our efforts on maintaining the site,” he said.
This space is not the only one that the painter immortalized in his works: he had already painted the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in his picture ‘The Church of Auvers-Sur-Oise’, as well as many works of landscapes, such as ‘Plain of Auvers’ and ‘Branches of brown in flower’.
While Van Gogh would never have imagined that one of his painted trees would cause such a legal disputethe controversy highlights a deeper question: who belongs to art when it mixes with real life?
For now, neither the roots of the tree nor those of controversy seem to move. The truth is that, in Auvers-Sur-Oise, Van Gogh is still giving what to talk about, not with words, but with immortal branches, leaves and strokes.
Google Maps Photos | Wikimedia
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