Are Sotheby’s and Christie’s or all major auctions houses still the reference to establish the value of your art works? I wrote this article many years ago,
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 , Modigliani’s merchant, after a while the famous Katia Granoff bought it in the 1940’s, and stayed in this family until the 1990’s. In the mean time our painting was exhibited in more than 30 museums or major galleries for Modigliani’s 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 90’s 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 husband’s archives as an authentic Modigliani painting. ( of course she can prove this ).
I find an investor in Florida who is willing to pay $ 4,500,000.00 for the painting. ( in my opinion this painting will fetch in auction 7 to 8 million $. For personal reasons the owner doesn’t want or can’t put this painting for auction, not necessary to explain that the IRS of his country has something to do with this.
My investor, is in love with the painting, but still wants to have Sotheby’s and Christie’s 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!. Are they saying that the painting is maybe a fake? They didn’t say this but what must the investor think?
The painting is under suspicion!
Because the gentlemen from Sotheby’s and Christie’s in charge of the Modern and Impressionist art have cold feet or they don’t have enough experience or are they just trying to have the investor to 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?: it 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 Modigliani’s art to be part of their so difficult to assemble paintings exhibitions. It is evident that Sotheby’s and Christie’s are killing an artwork of major importance , and gave it a “ suspicious “ label for their personal reason, that I will qualify as financial interests reasons. My investor didn’t buy the painting and it went back to Europe..I didn’t make any commission for a very difficult work that took me several months and costs 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 disappointed if you want to sell that major art work you thought has so much value only because of Sotheby’s and Christie’s 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 Sotheby’s and Christie’s 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 did find on the web:
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/110962
Gerard,
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that you may have a legitimate case of tortuous interference. In my opinion you would be doing the art world a favor. An individuals, or a a companies held in hi regard should pay for their disparaging comments.
Based on what I read, the provenance of the piece is documented. Was it a lack of knowledge, or more a case of financial collusion? As far as tortuous interference it matters not.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI wrote this article many years ago.
The reality is: these auction houses are afraid for lawsuits for several reason:
1- if they decided to present a Modigliani without the Ceroni, they will have serious problems with the owners of Modigliani paintings whom the access to their auction was denied in the past because of the lack of inclusion in the Ceroni Catalogue raisonne. They put themselves in an awkward situation.
2- this situation is even more difficult since the Wildenstein accepts Modigliani paintings not inventoried in the Ceroni catalogue as authentic Modigliani paintings and decided to include them in the catalogue raisonne. The principal question is will they accept the Wildenstein as an enough warranty for the authenticity : response NO.
I have 2 clients in that case, several museum exhibitions, Lantheman, pfanstiel, etc the notice from the Wildenstein Foundation that the painting will be included in the new Modigliani . Sotheby's and Christie's refuse the painting for auction. This is of course very awkward since they accept the Wildenstein Foundation catalogue raisonne inventoried paintings by Monet, Manet, Gauguin etc ..
For one painter like Monet the Wildenstein is sufficient but not for Modigliani.
Here raises a new problem : is the insertion of a painting in a catalogue raisonne a warranty of authenticity. I will come back later on this matter.
3- They need to clean their looks since these auction houses have so many problems with
a/ fakes they sold: Giacometti sculptures etc
b/ the stolen artworks stolen in Europe , principally in the 60's- up to the begin of the 90's , were sold in total impunity in the US auctions houses. The internet and access to information made an end to these practices. For 30 - 40 years, stolen commodes from French, Italian, etc castles and houses were sold in NY, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Montreal without any verification
c/ Artworks that belonged to Jewish people before WWII, despite the lists of described artworks available major auction houses sold these properties in auction. On a regularly bases artworks are erased from the catalogues for upcoming auctions because heirs of these assassinated Jewish people
discover these items in catalogues online.
The major auction houses are in a very comfortable position:
People bring their art to them and ask auction houses to sell it
Auction houses charge between 10 and 30 % of the hammer price to the seller
They charge between 10 and 30 % of the hammer price to the buyer ..
The percentage they charge will depend on the hammer price, how higher the price how lower the %.
This explanation is simplistic, they have of course important costs, but still if they have net a 10 % left over on a sale of 104Million $ like they obtained for the sale of the Walking Man I by Alberto Giacometti in 2010, this is still net 10 M $ for 1 item!
I imagine what are their net profits on the sales of Picasso artworks, which should be a couple billions each year in auction at 10 % - 15 % - 20% ....
Luckily only a small fragment of the available artwork is sold in auction.
Most of the artwork is sold privately.
A famous forger of fakes told me once that he will never buy anything in an auction house !
Since that day, I look at the upcoming auctions in a total different manner.
It's not only Sotheby's and Christie's of course, major French auctioneers are in the same situation.
For 30 years now since I follow weekly the Gazette de Drouot, which is the announcement of all the upcoming auctions in France, I see in the Gazette of 200 pages minimum, fabulous commodes, tables, desks, week after week....how is this possible? You have every week a minimum of 50 commodes that are for sale in auctions.. I guess in the 18 th century everybody was rich and they didn't had poor made commodes..