Weis Family Files Counterclaim In $4 Million Soulages Painting Dispute

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The three children of Patricia G. Ross Weis and Robert F. Weis filed an answer and counterclaim in a New York court on Tuesday, seeking to establish their ownership of a Pierre Soulages painting. This legal action is part of an ongoing dispute initially brought in July by members of the Zeckendorf family, who allege that Soulages's 1958 abstraction, Peinture 161 x 200 cm, 14 novembre 1958, was stolen between 1977 and 1980. During that period, a trust controlled by the Zeckendorf real estate development family owned the artwork.

At the core of both legal filings is the question of which family is entitled to the $4 million hammer price from the Soulages painting's sale at Christie's last November. The final price, including the buyer's premium, reached $4.955 million, against an estimate of $5 million to $7 million. Both parties agreed to allow the sale to proceed, with the proceeds held in an escrow account until a court determines legal ownership.

Jennifer Weis, Colleen Ross Weis, and Jonathan Weis, identified as personal representatives of the Estate of Patricia R. Weis, stated in their response that the estate is seeking these funds and“rejects the unfounded and moving-target theories alleged by the Zeckendorf,” calling them“flatly false.” They have asked the court to confirm the estate's“lawful prior ownership” of the work and the $4 million held in escrow. Their filing also characterizes the Zeckendorfs' initial complaint as containing“irresponsible and now-withdrawn allegations,” which it claims were“offered for no purpose other than to garner negative press attention.” An attorney for the Zeckendorf family declined to comment when reached by ARTnews.

While both families agree that Marion Zeckendorf purchased the work in 1959 from the Kootz Gallery, its fate after Marion's death in 1968 is contested. The Zeckendorfs assert that, per Marion's will, the work was to transfer to a trust upon the death of her husband, William Zeckendorf Sr., which occurred in 1977, and that he never owned it. The Weis children, however, claim in their complaint that“available evidence is to the contrary and overwhelmingly indicates that William Sr. received the Artwork with the knowledge and consent of the family.” They added that the Zeckendorf family has since acknowledged that William Sr.'s fourth wife, Louise Betterly Malcom, allegedly“stole” the work from the Zeckendorf family. The Weis filing noted,“Indeed, the family's prior generation took no action to treat the Artwork as stolen for three decades. It is only the current generation that is pretending William Sr.'s receipt of the Artwork was illegitimate.”

Before the painting's recent sale, Christie's published a provenance record indicating that the Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery in New York sold the painting in 1984 to Patricia and Robert Weis. However, this record does not specify when Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer acquired the painting or received it on consignment. The Weis family's counterclaim states that Robert Weis purchased the work for $35,000 from the Niveau Gallery in August 1984, a transaction documented by an invoice signed by Richard Librizzi, a gallery employee at the time. The filing described this as“an arms-length transaction” with the price paid as“a fair and reasonable amount for the Artwork in 1984.” The original complaint from the Zeckendorf family had labeled the Niveau invoice“a fabrication,” a characterization the new Weis filing calls“wholly unfounded and nothing more than incredible deflection.” The Weis children argue that in 1984, the painting had“no red flags,” as it had not been“reported to law enforcement as stolen,” lacked an active“insurance claim for the theft or disappearance,” and was not listed with the Art Loss Register, thus confirming it was“obtained [in] good title.”

The Weis children decided to auction part of their parents' collection after Patricia's death in 2024. Christie's announced the sale in August 2025 for the following November. The Zeckendorf family lodged an ownership claim for the Soulages painting on November 11, 2025, less than a week before the sale. The Weis children's filing claims that the Zeckendorf family's account of the painting's transfer has shifted. According to the Weis filing, a letter from the Zeckendorfs' attorneys on November 11, 2025, stated that the Soulages was placed in“a trust for the benefit of William Sr. during his lifetime” and that after his death it“should have passed to another trust for their benefit, the assets of which were distributed to the Zeckendorfs in 1980.” However, a letter from February 12, 2026,“conceded” that Marion's will did allow William Sr.“to have received title to artworks that Marion had included within her estate 'as necessary' for his well-being.” The February 12 letter also added, per the counterclaim, that the Zeckendorfs“were told by their parents that Malcom, the fourth wife, stole many personal items from William Sr.'s residence after he died, including a number of silver frames and the Artwork.” The Weis filing notes that this letter“failed to explain, or even address, why no action was taken to report the Artwork as stolen.”

The Art Loss Register (ALR) did not receive a claim for a Soulages painting titled Peinture 161 x 200 cm, 14 novembre 1958 until 2008, and that registration never included images. In July, ALR director James Ratcliffe told ARTnews that without images,“it is difficult to be absolutely certain that the works are one and the same although we worked on that basis.” The ALR registration was terminated in 2025 after the nonprofit received no further information“to substantiate” the ownership claim and obtained written confirmation that the registering party“did not wish us to stand in the way of the [Christie's] sale and understood we would be removing the registration from our database.”

The Weis estate's counterclaim further adds that Marion Zeckendorf purchased a second Soulages painting, Peinture, 130 x 130 cm, 29 decembre 1958, from the Kootz Gallery in 1959. The artist's catalogue raisonné, according to the suit, lists that work as having been sold by Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer after Marion's ownership. The claim alleges that“Marion's trust documents fail to account for this Second Soulages” and that this“failure to account for the Second Soulages suggests that the trust's recordkeeping is inaccurate, and the trustees may have confused this Second Soulages, from the same year,” with the one sold at Christie's in November.

Paul Cossu, a partner at Pryor Cashman, representing the Weis children, stated:“The Zeckendorfs' claims against the Weis Estate's good and lawful title to this artwork and its sale proceeds are baseless. The Estate eagerly looks forward to litigating the unfounded allegations of the Zeckendorfs and proving the Estate's entitlement to the artwork's sale proceeds.”

Source: ARTnews

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