Paul Graupe, Arthur Goldschmidt and the dispute over an Adriaen van Ostade painting in wartime France.

This article focuses on the provenance research and restitution settlement concerning Adriaen van Ostade's painting *Customers Conversing in a Tavern*, involving the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), collectors Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, and the heirs of Jewish art dealers Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt. The painting, part of the Weatherbies’ promised gift to the MFA, was identified in 2017 as a Nazi-era loss linked to Graupe and Goldschmidt, who had fled Nazi-occupied Europe and whose complex business dealings during the war led to the painting’s dispersal and eventual sale to agents of Adolf Hitler. The MFA’s research revealed the painting was sold under duress amid wartime persecution, with unresolved disputes between Graupe and Goldschmidt over ownership and proceeds, and that it was restituted postwar but not returned to Graupe, instead entering the French art market. The parties reached a financial settlement in 2023, with the painting remaining in the Weatherbies’ collection but pledged to the MFA, highlighting challenges museums face in provenance research, donor relations, and ethical considerations in restitution claims involving Holocaust-era art.