[MSN] A Greek family has claimed ownership of a notebook they believe to contain early sketches by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh missing since the First World War

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Family claims back seized 'Van Gogh notebook'

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:34pm GMT 31/12/2007

A Greek family has claimed ownership of a notebook they believe to contain
early sketches by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh missing since the First
World War.

Among the host of images contained within its pages are detailed drawings of
figures in the masterpieces The Potato Eaters (1885) and Portrait of Pere
Tanguy (1887).
 	
Van Gogh's Portrait of Pere Tanguy:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/01/wgogh101.xml


The book contains what appear to be sketches for several of Van Gogh's
masterpieces, including Portrait of Pere Tanguy

The notebook has been kept in an Athens bank vault since the Greek
resistance seized it, along with a framed photograph of Van Gogh, during a
raid on a Nazi supply train as the Germans pulled out of the country at the
end of the war.

Doretta Peppa, the current owner and daughter of one of the resistance
fighters, conceded it was likely the book was plundered by the Nazis but
added that no claim of original ownership had surfaced.

The notebook - which has yet to be authenticated - apparently dates from the
year Van Gogh was enrolled at the Royal Academy of Art in Brussels in 1880,
a period that represented the post-impressionist master's only formal
training.

Mrs Peppa, a writer, is now recognised under Greek law as the owner of the
book, which she believes could fetch as much as £2.5 million at auction.

"It's an inheritance from my father and no one asked for it," she said.
"It's mine."

Patricia Bosboom, a spokesman for the Vincent Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam,
said its experts had been made aware of the sketchbook but no verdict on its
authenticity had been made available.

She said: "We get quite a few requests for authentication from people who
believe they have something by Vincent Van Gogh."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/