Are Sothebys and Christies or all major auctions houses still the reference to establish the value of your art works?
It is not my intention to have them sue me for my thoughts in this letter. Nonetheless there are so many events these last months that I want to bring in daylight some evidence that these major auction houses are interfering in the daily merchants business of antiquities dealers, fine art galleries from all over the world.
Take the time to read what happened to me recently, it is juicy.
One of my clients has a fantastic Modigliani painting from 1918, representing a lady, one of most beautiful paintings by Modigliani if you ask me. This painting comes with a provenance history since the day it was created. First it was bought by Leopold Zwoborowski , Modiglianis merchant, after a while the famous Katia Granoff bought it in the 1940s, and stayed in this family until the 1990s. In the mean time our painting was exhibited in more than 30 museums or major galleries for Modiglianis retrospectives : so Galerie Granoff, Galerie Charpentier etc etc., we have of course most of these exhibition catalogs where the painting was represented and even was on the front page of these catalogs. The painting went on world tours, in Italy, Spain, USA, Japan. In Tokyo in the late 90s our painting was even the poster you could see in the streets of Tokyo, of course we have this poster also.
The painting comes evidently with several certificates: Lantheman, Andre Schoeller from 1954, Mrs L. Zwoborowski, and the famous Mr.Christian Parisot expertise, which is the administrator of legal archives of Modigliani. Of course our painting is repertoried in several catalogue raisonne so the Lantheman etc. Not illustrated in the Ceroni catalogue raisonne but we have the hand written letter of Mrs. Ceroni stating that the painting is repertoried in her late husbands archives as an authentic Modigliani painting. ( of course she can prove this we assume).
I find an investor in Florida who is willing to pay $ 4,500,000.00 for the painting. ( in my opinion if this painting came in auction it will have a value of 7 to 8 million $. For personal reasons the owner doesnt want or cant put this painting for auction, not necessary to explain that the taxes administration of his country have something to do with this.
My investor, is in love with the painting, but still wants to have Sothebys and Christies opinion about the value of this painting. The response came rapidly: they will not accept this painting for their auctions because it is not in the Ceroni archives as a first response, and as a second response when they find out that the painting is repertoried in the archives, because it is not illustrated in the Ceroni catalogue!. Other ways they are saying that the painting is maybe a fake? They didnt say this but what must the investor think?
The painting is under suspicion!
Because the gentlemen and women from Sothebys and Christies in charge of the Modern and Impressionist art have cold feet or they dont have enough experience or are they just trying to have the investor buy their own products, where of course at this rate they will make a profit of $ 1,600,000.00 if my investor buys from them a similar value painting? This will stay without response. What is evident: is the fact that this painting exhibited in so many museums, repertoried everywhere, seen by millions of people , a painting that was chosen by eminent curators as a jewel of Modiglianis art to be part of their so difficult to assemble paintings exhibitions. It is evident that Sothebys and Christies are killing an artwork of major importance , and gave it a suspicious label for their own reason, that I will qualify as financial interests reasons. My investor didnt buy the painting and it went back to Europe..I didnt make any commission for a very difficult work that took me several months and cost me a serious amount of $ in insurance to ship the painting to the USA.
I conclude that if you have some very important art, with all the certificates you want, with the best provenance possible, you may be highly disillusioned if you want to sell that major art work you thought has so much value only because of Sothebys and Christies may decide it so! For me this is manifestly a conflict of interests in the art business. An auction house is where you sell your art at the highest bidder, the managers should not interfere in the authentication process by taking a position as negative as they did in this case. I mentioned each time Sothebys and Christies at the same time, even if my investor was working with one of them, but through personal verification I find out that they are working under a same umbrella, so they did in the past so commented here in articles I find on the web:
The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal http://www.karisable.com/crwc.htm/
2000: Sotheby's and Al Taubman The world's elite were ripped off by years of price-fixing on the part of those supposed bitter competitors, auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's. Sotheby's chairman, Taubman, was found guilty of conspiracy last year. He is yet to be sentenced http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
US charges NYC Gallery owner in multimillion $ global scheme to sell real masterworks and forged copies, this is a US Gov. website. http://www.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel04/art031004.htm
Top auction houses sell looted art, claims Howells Kim howells, the culture minister, is accusing Britain's leading auction houses of trading in looted antiquities and demanding that they do more to ensure the provenance of objects they sell. Mr Howells, who caused uproar last week when he accused American film stars of being too terrified to fly to Europe, has now infuriated British auctioneers and art dealers with a suggestion that they could be supporting the trade in stolen goods. http://www.museum-security.org/03/088.html
The Great $50 Million Art Swindle Another evidence of conflict of interests: Auction house loans money to art dealer! http://www.forbes.com/2001/02/06/0206artfraud.html From Library Journal The sometimes shady world of the international art market has become a popular subject for writers and television reporters. Stolen treasures, smuggled antiquities, and the seemingly endless cultural atrocities of World War II have been covered in a spate of recent works. Watson, a journalist and author of the art-crime work The Caravaggio Conspiracy (LJ 2/1/84), here turns the harsh light of publicity on the elite auction rooms of Sotheby's. Using information from a former Sotheby's employee and the familiar, if sometimes distasteful tactics of investigative reporting, Watson builds a case that the auction house has systemically abetted the transportation of antiquities and Old Masters in contravention of various national and international laws. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679414037/103-7333389-6450260?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance
Be on Your Avant-Garde! A complete collection sold is fake? http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/avan0498.htm
Former leaders of Christie's and Sotheby's were indicted for auction price-fixing http://www.skeptic tank.org/slatkin/rslat008.htm
A Fraud! Auction 'Rivals'By Devin Leonard Christie's and Sotheby's have always acted like mortal enemies whose well-bred staffs jockey for the next vault of impressionist oil paintings. Their top executives fuel that perception by trading polite insults as exquisitely wrought as a Cezanne still life. It turns out, however, that for the past eight years, the grand old rivalry between Christie's and Sotheby's has been a bit of a forgery. Only now is it igniting for real. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,371429,00.html
MORE WOES FOR SOTHEBY'S; LO80 IDENTIFIED; LVMH BU YS TAJAN AUCTION HOUSE; STATE AND FED CRACKDOWN ON INTERNET AUCTION FRAUD http://www.iphotocentral.com/news/issueview.php/11/12
ALFRED TAUBMAN SENTENCED http://www.artcult.com/na289.html
Van Gogh Sunflowers fake sold by Christies ? http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=160896
http://www.vggallery.com/misc/fakes/fakes5c.htm
Many other auctioneers, including Christie's and Sotheby's have sold such fakes on the market and though they cannot be suspected of having lent a hand to the fraud the competencies of their experts might at least be seriously challenged http://www.artcult.com/forger2.htm
My conclusion is very simple, Sothebys and Christies are manifestly in conflict of interests when they sell art work for their clients or when then analyze an artwo rk. Of course it is their freedom to accept or not to accept a Modigliani in their auctions. But my question will be : the paintings repertoried in the Ceroni are almost all sold, what will they do in the future? No more selling Modigliani paintings? I doubt it. They will very rapidly find a solution to this and accept the many other authentic paintings by Modigliani hanging at this time in Museums or in vaults or on the walls of collectors and not repertoried in Mr. Ceronis catalogue raisonne. The art world needs an independent source of estimation like the auction house was supposed to be years ago.
Thank you to all the writers of these so interesting web pages mentioned in my links. Gerard Van Weyenbergh - http://www.vanweyenbergh.com
Gerard Van Weyenbergh has spent the last 25 years working as an independent broker dealing with galleries throughout Europe. Working together with his son Arry Van Weyenbergh the two have been traveling extensively througho ut the world, appraising and researching contemporary and old masters. Gerard is a recognized expert in 17th - 20th century European paintings , while Arrys expertise: modern and international contemporary painters. Together their education includes art history degrees from- Ecole du Louvre, University of Montpellier and Ecole Saint Luc. With an extensive background in architecture Gerards vision in art incorporates the total aesthetics of art placement and environment for his clients collections
Author:: Gerard Van Weyenbergh
Keywords:: Sotheby's, Christie's, conflict of interests, reality of the art market.
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