Dutch museum sued over paintings

The family of Kazimir Malevich say 14 pictures were sold too cheaply

The heirs of a long-dead Russian artist, Kazimir Malevich, are suing the city of Amsterdam to recover 14 of his paintings.

They claim the city bought the works of art illegally, for a pittance in 1950.

They are now said to be worth at least $150m.

The relatives have taken a case to a court in the US claiming that the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam should hand back the 14 paintings.

Kazimir Malevich is known as one of the earliest abstract artists.

His groundbreaking work was "white on white", featuring white paint on white canvas in 1918.

Now 31 relatives of the artist have taken a case to the district court in Washington - claiming that the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam should hand back the paintings.

Work denounced

They say Malevich left them behind after an exhibition in Berlin.

Because his work was denounced by the Russian government and the Nazi regime, he was not able to recover the paintings, the BBC's Geraldine Coughlan in The Hague says.

Lawyers for the relatives said the city of Amsterdam knew the children of a German friend of Malevich had no right to sell the paintings 20 years later.

Other works from the same Berlin exhibition ended up at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at Harvard University.

Both have made settlements with the Malevich heirs.

The New York museum gave the relatives $5m and a painting worth $10m in exchange for keeping 15 other paintings.

A spokesman for the Stedelijk museum said that he did not wish to comment on the legal action which was now in the hands of their lawyers.