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A Paris court had to decide on March 30th whether Jean-Marie Tasset defamed Jean-Claude Binoche when he wrote that in his opinion «Garden in Auvers» was a fake and suggested that the auctioneer had omitted to mention in his sale catalogue that French painter Emile Schuffenecker, suspected of having produced Van Gogh forgeries, had been the first owner of that painting.

Jean-Marie Tasset also wrote that the heirs of French banker Jean-Marc Vernes, who had bought «Garden in Auvers» in 1992, four years before his death, had sued Jean-Claude Binoche and Jacques Walter, the previous owner of that painting, on the belief that this work was no longer saleable following the controversy stirred by «Le Figaro».

Jean-Claude Binoche counter-reacted with a study conducted by the laboratory of the French museums, which concluded that «Garden in Auvers» was a genuine work by Van Gogh. All the more, Anne Distel, curator of the Orsay Museum, came up with the evidence that this work never belonged to Schuffenecker but that it had been in fact in the possession of Johanna Van Gogh, the widow of Theo, his brother.
Jean-Claude Binoche said he had been defamed by Jean-Marie Tasset especially as the latter had sent a letter to the heirs of Jean-Marc Vernes saying that the painting had been executed according to a method used by forgers. The journalist told the court that he had not described the painting as a fake and that he had only listed facts adding that several specialists had cast doubts on the authenticity of this work.