Christie’s auction house is embroiled in a bitter row over an Impressionist painting it sold as bona fide but which it now transpires was looted by the Nazis and even part of Herman Göring’s private collection.

The work’s rightful owners and the dealer who bought the painting from Christie’s have accused the auction house of failing to properly investigate its dark past, and then refusing to rescind the sale once its murky provenance became clear.

Next week, the current owner of Premier jour de printemps à Moret (First day of spring in Moret), painted by Alfred Sisley in 1889, is launching legal proceedings against the auction house.

"With Christie's, it's war," said Alain Dreyfus, a French dealer with an eponymous gallery in Basel, Switzerland. "They did not do enough research."

“If you buy a car in a garage and the police come and tell you that it’s stolen you hand it back to the garage and get your money back. That’s normal,” he told the Telegraph.