Gallery 'stalling' on Nazi art probe THE National Gallery of Victoria has been accused of failing to co-operate with international investigators who are attempting to establish whether a portrait in its collection was painted by Vincent van Gogh. The 130-year-old painting Head of a Man was bought by the NGV in 1940 but was recently found to have come from the collection of wealthy Jewish industrialist Richard Semmel. Semmel was forced to flee Germany and, in 1933, under duress, sold off his renowned collection of more than 100 artworks in Amsterdam. For the past decade Semmel's heirs have been seeking restitution for artworks they can track down but until recently they didn't know of Head of a Man's existence. After The Australian revealed the painting's connection to the Semmel heirs six weeks ago, their Swiss-based lawyer Olaf Ossmann contacted the gallery. He said his clients were eager to establish who painted the portrait, which his researchers had discovered was considered one of the more significant artworks in Semmel's collection. "As far as we know it's the only one from the collection that went to Australia," he said. Until 2007, Head of a Man was thought to be the only van Gogh in a public collection in Australia. But that year, an expert report by the Van Gogh museum in The Netherlands concluded the painting was by a contemporary of the artist. Mr Ossmann said the NGV was not being helpful. "We haven't seen the whole expert report because (the NGV said) they are not allowed to show it to us because it's property of the (Van Gogh museum) and the Dutch say they made an expert report for a private client," Mr Ossmann said. He has accused the gallery of flouting international conventions governing Nazi-confiscated art, the so-called Washington Principles to which Australia is a signatory. Mr Ossmann said he "found it funny" to read in The Australian that NGV director Tony Ellwood did not intend to contact the heirs of the estate when the Washington Principles required the gallery to do so. "If he finds something irregular from this period and he knows who the former owner was then it's his (responsibility to contact) them," Mr Ossmann said. The relevant principle requires "every effort should be made to publicise art that is found to have been confiscated by the Nazis." When Head of a Man was thought to be by van Gogh it was valued at $5 million. Since the deattribution, it is worth considerably less. Mr Ossmann said his clients, the grandchildren of Semmel's companion who inherited his estate, were more concerned with establishing the story of the artworks than their financial value. The NGV declined to comment while negotiations with Mr Ossmann are under way.