SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit demanding that Elizabeth Taylor turn over a Vincent van Gogh painting once confiscated by Nazis. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated a lower federal court properly ruled in 2005 that the statute of limitations had expired for the state law under which the family filed its claim.

Four descendants of the late Margarete Mauthner had claimed back in 2004 that Taylor failed to review the ownership history of "View of the Asylum of Saint-Remy" before acquiring the painting more than 40 years ago. According to the heirs, a sales brochure warned the work could have been confiscated by the Nazis.