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Auvers-sur-Oise, a village near Paris famed as an artist\u2019s paradise, is also where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final days and it has long drawn tourists to walk in the tortured painter\u2019s last footsteps. But ever since art experts identified his final work before he took his life, there has been strife in the town. <\/span><\/p>\n Van Gogh\u2019s final painting<\/a> was disputed for decades, because he didn\u2019t date his works. But in 2020 experts concluded that gnarled tree roots protruding from a hillside in Auvers, as depicted in his \u201cTree Roots,\u201d <\/a> was made on the day he died. This finding may have settled one dispute, but it immediately stirred another, this one between the municipality and the owners of the property where the roots grow.<\/p>\n The main root depicted in the painting \u2014 from a black locust tree and dubbed the \u201celephant\u201d by enthusiasts \u2014 abuts a public road. After the discovery of its historical value, the municipality claimed a section of privately owned land near the road as public domain, saying it was necessary for maintenance. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois and H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Serlinger, the property owners, fought the village, and an appeals court recently<\/a> concluded there was no basis for the municipality\u2019s claim. <\/span><\/p>\n But the mayor of Auvers, Isabelle M\u00e9zi\u00e8res, has pledged to keep fighting, and she can still appeal to a higher court. After the decision, she insisted that the site should belong to the public, not private owners. \u201cThe Roots belong to the Auversois!\u201d she wrote on social media<\/a>, referring to the citizens of the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The continued fight over Van Gogh\u2019s tree roots has cast a pall over what is usually a celebratory season in Auvers, population 7,000, where art tourism is a big business that heats up in the spring. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That the village has been depicted by other notable painters, including Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Camille Pissaro. has only added to its attraction. Its popularity is such that the French transit authorities run a seasonal line from Paris, dubbed the \u201cImpressionists\u2019 Train<\/a>,\u201d and people come from afar to see what the local tourist board<\/a> calls \u201cthe open-air museum that Auvers has become over time.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The property owners say the conflict is endangering the historic site, as the mayor has blocked them and experts from properly protecting the roots since their significance was established. In a phone interview, Mr. Serlinger accused the municipality of using the administrative case as a pretext for \u201can attempted takeover of a culturally significant site\u201d and of simultaneously endangering the roots by \u201cobstructing the installation of a permanent protective structure.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The municipality and the mayor declined requests for comment. But it is perhaps fitting that these tree roots should be the subject of such a knotty dispute. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Van Gogh\u2019s famous painting depicting the tangled tree shows \u201cthe struggle of life, and a struggle with death,\u201d Wouter van der Veen, the researcher in France who identified the roots, said in 2020. <\/p>\n Still, the painting is bright and lively, made at the end of a productive period in Van Gogh\u2019s troubled existence \u2014 after he famously cut off his ear and spent time in an asylum \u2014 and the village celebrates the Dutch painter whose work was rejected in life and embraced after his death. Van Gogh is a major attraction, including for the Serlingers. <\/p>\n The couple moved to Auvers in 1996 because Mrs. Serlinger, an artist, wanted to live where Van Gogh had worked. In 2013, they bought a small additional parcel of land near their house, connected to their yard, extending their territory. Only years later did it turn out that the roots on that new property were an important part of art history.<\/p>\n