Lost van Gogh?

Factual Questions
1

In 1990 Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for $82,500,000 to a Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito. Saito put it in storage and it’s never been publicly seen since.

Saito said that when he died he planned to have his van Gogh cremated with him. In the face of public outrage, he claimed that was a joke. Saito’s fortunes took a downturn and he faced extensive financial, legal, and physical setbacks before his death in 1996.

After Saito’s death, it wasn’t clear who was entitled to the ownership of the van Gogh and who had the physical possession of it. Saito’s business heirs claimed to have it but never actually produced it.

Many people now speculate that in the confusion surrounding Saito’s death, the painting was sold to an unidentified collector. This alleged collector supposedly does not want to reveal his ownership because of fears that Saito’s creditors may claim the sale was illegal and they are entitled to the painting.

The other possibility is that Saito followed through on his boast and the painting was burned. In which case, I’d suggest exhuming Saito’s body and reinterring it in the bottom of the Tokyo sewer system.

So has anyone heard more about this? I know there was a book written on the subject but I haven’t read it. Has there been any credible witnesses who have seen the painting in the last five years?

2

According to this reprinted article from the Chicago Sun Times, it would appear that the Fuji Bank had the greatest claim to the painting, and they seem to have unloaded it to an undisclosed buyer.

Saito’s son claims it is in a private collection somewhere on the east coast of the United States, while others claim it is now in a private collection in Europe.

Because of the sordid past of the painting–Hermann Goering held it at one time after the great German smash ‘n grab of European museums–the new owner apparently does not want to become embroiled in others’ claims on the painting. The curator of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris reportedly contacted the new owner about displaying the portrait in a late-90s exhibit of the collection of… Dr. Gachet. The request was, unfortunately, refused.

3

Apparently it was still a mystery as of July 2000, according to this U.S. News article.

Here’s a New York Times article about the book, which was written in 1998. The book ends with Saito’s purchase of the painting, so it won’t shed much light on where it is now. In the U.S. News article, the book’s author is quoted saying that she hears a lot of rumors about where the painting is, but all of them turn out to be dead ends.