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Francesco Polizzi
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The so-called Oka-Grauert principle states that for any Stein space $X$ the holomorphic and the topological classification of complex vector bundles on $X$ coincide. See

[H. Grauert, Analytische Faserungen über holomorph-vollständigen Räumen, Math. Ann. 135, 263–273 (1958)].

As a consequence, every locally free sheaf $\mathscr{F}$ defined on a contractible subvariety $X$ of $\mathbb{C}^n$ is free.

Of course, if $\mathscr{F}$ is not locally free this is no longer true. For instance, take a closed analytic subvariety $Z \subset X$; then the ideal sheaf $\mathscr{I}_Z \subset \mathscr{O}_X$ is coherent but not free.

Francesco Polizzi
  • 66.3k
  • 5
  • 180
  • 283