Kazimir Malevich's heirs sued Amsterdam over 84 works held since 1958; in April 2008 the city returned five paintings

Malevich was called back to the Soviet Union in 1927 and could not return to Berlin to retrieve the works he left there. Amsterdam says it bought the collection in 1958 from a Dr. H. Häring and acquired it "properly and honorably." The heirs said Häring had no right to sell. After the Iron Curtain fell, they pressed their claim. When the Stedelijk Museum lent 14 works to two US museums in 2003 and 2004, the heirs sued the City of Amsterdam in federal court in New York. The Art Newspaper reports they argued that all 84 Malevich works in the Stedelijk's possession had been wrongly taken. Reports give the number of heirs as 35 or 37. On 24 April 2008 the city and the heirs announced a settlement covering the whole group of works. The heirs received five paintings, the rest stayed with the city on long-term loan to the Stedelijk, and the US action was withdrawn. One of the returned paintings later went to the Art Institute of Chicago through Gagosian at an undisclosed price. A Suprematist canvas sold at Sotheby's in 2008 for $60 million^†, and one sold in 2018 for $85.8 million^†.