Elizabeth Taylor wins Van Gogh battle

Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor has won her battle to keep a Van Gogh painting claimed by the heirs of a German woman who said it had been stolen by the Nazis.

A federal judge ruled that state law permitted the claimants to file only within three years of the purchase.

Taylor acquired the painting View of the Asylum of Saint-Remy in 1962 for US$257,600 at a London auction. She claimed never to have known it had been confiscated by the Nazis. The painting is now said to be worth between US$10 million and US$15 million.

The painting had been claimed by three South Africans and a Canadian who were descendants of the late Margarete Mauthner and filed a lawsuit in July.