Linkedin Personal Property Group

As many appraisers are aware, and becoming aware of the importance of social media sites, I wanted to remind Appraiser Workshops readers of one of the faster growing LinkedIn appraisal groups, called the Professional Personal Property Appraisers Group. It is already one of the larger personal property groups and continues to grow.

Some of the recent discussions included

• Photo Formats

• Digital vs 35 mm

• Appraisers and Online Presence

• USPAP rules for 2010

• Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies

and much more.

Click HERE to join the LnkedIn group.

Tech News: Secure Repository

Secure Repository is an online, secure website to both store and share records and files.  The appraiser assigns a user name and password to a client, and that client can then access his appraisal report securely online.  The process fits nicely with the green outlook in saving paper and in ink usage.

As the appraisal community is rather small, we dont often see programs, new web 2.0, and cloud computing options available specifically for our appraisal needs. 

According to the Secure Repository website an appraiser would 

 

upload the document to secure repository.

• Use the very simple Secure Repository interface.

• You do this on your secure domain. Example: https://yourcompany.securerepository.com

then create a username and password for your client.

• You assign the uploaded document a permission to this username.

• Permission is granted only by you and to whom you elect to download to.

• Users can only view documents assigned to them.

You issue your client the username and password.

• Your client logs on from a secure link on your web site.

• If you do not have a web site you simply instruct your client to go to:

https://yourcompany.securerepository.com

• From there, they are able to download the report using their username and password.

Secure Repository is a convenient safe way to provide your clients secure online access to their appraisals 24/7, and also makes document retention compliance easy and convenient. With USPAP requirements requiring recordkeeping for five years or more, Secure Repository is a dependable solution.



Personal Property Appraisers prepare many huge reports and to print and mail them to their clients, insurance companies, and attorneys can be costly and time consuming and not friendly to the environment.

With Secure Repository appraisers can upload the appraisal report, set who has access, and only the appraiser and their client have access to the report. It is that simple to maintain confidentiality. Appraisers have access to a true original copy of their appraisal at any time satisfying industry report retention requirements.

Visit Secure Repository at www.securerepository.com 

Heading to Toronto for ISA Conference

I will be leaving Thursday morning, heading toward Toronto and the ISA annual conference and board meeting.  I have a few posts scheduled, and I will also try to post while at the conference with updates on market news and the conference.  I return to Alexandria on Wed May 5th.

I wanted to post on the Christie's Dubai sale which tripled its pre sale estimate showing excellent results as well as the NY Print and multiple sale which sold over $8 million.

Over the past weekend I posted that the Google/blogger spam bots had again detected a false positive review of the Appraiser Workshops blog.  As you may recall, the last time this happened they shut the AW Blog down for nearly two weeks.  This time I was allowed to continue to post, and the site was cleared again within about 12 hours.  So all is well, for now.

Todd

LA Dealer Admits to Selling Fake Picasso

The Wall Street Journal has a short article on a Los Angeles art dealer who had a fake copy of Picasso's Woman in a Blue Hat made (see image), and latter sold with a false provenance that it came from the late Malcolm Forbes collection.  The dealer sold the fake Picasso for $2 million. The purchaser eventually grew suspicious and had the painting authenticated, then notified the FBI.

The WSJ article is short, so I will post in its entirety.

A West Hollywood art dealer pleaded guilty today to selling a fake Pablo Picasso drawing of a woman in a blue hat for $2 million, according to the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.

An anonymous buyer of the fake drawing grew suspicious about the work's authenticity two years ago and reached out to a Picasso expert, who later contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ms. Khan told the FBI she had acquired the drawing of a prim woman wearing an indigo-plumed hat from an acquaintance, according to her plea agreement. She later confessed to the FBI that she had asked the restorer to lie about copying the work. (The original work belongs to a private collector, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ranee Katzenstein.)

Ms. Khan, 70 years old, will appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles early next month to enter a guilty plea on two felony counts: making false statements to the FBI and witness tampering. As part of her plea deal, she has agreed to pay back the $2 million and give up a Willem de Kooning abstract work she bought with a portion of the sale proceeds. She faces a federal prison sentence of anywhere from 21 months to 25 years.

Ms. Kahn's attorney, James W. Spertus, said that his client has had a 45-year career as an art dealer and hopes to continue her profession after "accepting responsibility for making a false statement to the FBI."

Phillips on the Move

I have reported in the past that auction house Phillips de Pury was opening a location in mid town Manhattan at 450 Park Avenue Erica Orden and Kelly Crow writing for the Wall Street Journal report on the move and the strategy behind it. The new location is going to be an additional Manhattan location for Phillips in addition to its NY Headquarters in the meatpacking district of the City. The 25,000 three floor space on Park Avenue will included sky boxes and additional exhibition space while catering to younger affluent and new art collectors.

Orden and Crow report

The expansion signals more than Phillips's desire for additional square footage. Since it was acquired in October 2008 by Russian retailing giant Mercury Group, the London-based auctioneer has added sales and retooled its catalogs to appeal to wealthy people who are newcomers to the art market. Its forthcoming Midtown location will put Phillips in closer proximity to its bigger rivals, Sotheby's and Christie's, as well as to a pool of current and potential buyers who don't typically troll the narrow industrial blocks on the western edge of lower Manhattan where Phillips has conducted auctions for the past seven years.

Chairman Simon de Pury said the expansion is an attempt to gain greater visibility.

"Everybody drives down Park Avenue a few times a day around there," he said. "The location is as optimal as can be."

The hyper-local strategy comes at a time when collectors from Hong Kong to the Hamptons are skipping far-flung art events and doing more of their shopping close to home. Phillips, with its two salesrooms, aims to sort its goods to suit them. The modernist Midtown venue will include the ground floor of the building, and will host the house's single-owner sales, evening auctions and jewelry sales. The company's red-brick Meatpacking District location, which overlooks the High Line promenade, will remain home to administrative offices, as well as design and photography sales. It will also continue to host its new slate of theme sales, which offer artwork grouped by topical categories like "Sex" or "Film."

"While downtown is a space where contemporary-art lovers frequent, there are still a lot of clients based uptown, so this will be a small convenience for them to have more access to us," said Mr. de Pury.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Christie's Storage Facilities

I have reported how Christie's is aggressively moving into other art related businesses, this of course includes appraisals, but also insurance, primary art galleries and art storage.  In addition to Geneva and Singapore, Christies is now developing waterfront property in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn for a large art storage facility.  Kelly Crow, reporting for the Wall Street Journal says the renovated warehouse will open in June as a high security storage site for fine and decorative art. Chirstie's will perform credit checks on clients and also check the stored art against known stolen art registries.

Why is this important to appraisers, the more knowledge we have of these ancillary services the more value added options we can offer our clients.  Appraisers need to be aware of not only trends in value, but any trend that may be of use to our clients and providing valuation and other services.

Crow states

Christie's said it will run credit checks on customers and check stored items against registries of stolen art, but added that it can't police everything it brings into its new warehouse.

The company will also need to convince collectors that an auction house can double as an art holder. Competitor Bob Crozier, who owns five art warehouses in the area, said the new venture could allow Christie's to gain intelligence about collectors that could lead to more lucrative consignments for auction. Longtime New York collector Zöe Dictrow said her colleagues might feel "self-conscious" about storing pieces at a site overseen by an auctioneer.

But Christie's Fine Art Storage Services, or CFASS, the subsidiary that runs Christie's storage operation, said its independent storage staff won't divulge anything about its clients or their holdings, even to Christie's auction specialists.

"We aren't sharing Rolodexes," said Joe Stasko, the subsidiary's international managing director.

The company's new storehouse on Brooklyn's western waterfront looms over a block of Imlay Street warehouses that store ginger and beer. During a recent visit, Joel Weinberg, general manager of CFASS, had pricier cargo in mind for his new headquarters. After burrowing into the building's cavernous recesses, he pointed to a dim corner and joked: "Here's where we're planning to put the Ark of the Covenant."

To read the full WSJ article, click HERE.

A Conversation with Bernard Ewell, ASA

I have posted several times over the past year on the ongoing issues of Park West Gallery and the Fine Art Registry. I have tried to be very fair and have posted both sides of this contentious and litigious issue. I will try to continue with that fairness, but as I dont have full knowledge of the case and many particulars or specifics, I can only pass along what I read and have been told. I try not to be an advocate for either side, as that is not what the Appraiser Workshops Blog is about.  I also try hard to only report news and in most cases attempt to stay away from opinion, although every now and then I will editorialize, but only a little.

The AW Blog is pleased to pass along information that is beyond what is in the news and the typical links found on the internet, but comes straight from parties involved in the litigation for your consideration.

This past Friday I had a very interesting conversation with Bernard Ewell, ASA. Many appraisers are familiar with Bernard as he has been a long time participant and active member of the personal property appraisal community. Bernard is also one of the better known appraisers and authenticators of works by Salvador Dali. According to Ewell, he has reviewed and inspected over 50,000 works by Dali, and has been called as an expert witness on numerous occasions.

Many may also know that Bernard does the Dali authentication for Park West Gallery (PWG). He was recently a plaintiffs witness in the defamation suit against the Fine Art Registry (FAR). As posted here on the AW Blog and other sources, the jury did not find that FAR defamed PWG. FAR also counter sued for defamation and trademark infringement. The jury found against the defamation charge, but awarded FAR $500,000 on the trademark charge.

As I have mentioned in past AW blog posts, the recent lawsuit and verdict did not consider the authenticity, value or if the prints were enhanced, although these topics were presented by each side to support their defamation charges and counter charges. The jury was tasked in the complaint to find on the basis of defamation, which typically includes a very high burden of proof. It is possible some of the evidence presented on the prints in question led the jury to believe there are issues of representation, and therefore supported the decision to not find in favor of PWG on the defamation charge. Many of the buyers who testified against Park West Gallery are also involved in a consolidated Federal case against Park West with claims of $22 million. The cases will be heard in Seattle in 2011.According to Ewell, there are also cases in Michigan state court in June as well. These cases, if not settled before hand, very well could be based upon how the jury determines the authenticity of the art and how evidence is presented by the plaintiffs and defendants attorneys.

Now, back to my conversation with appraiser Bernard Ewell. On one of his recent blog post Ewell mentioned that because there are so many different signatures by Dali, authentication is difficult and the signature should only be a small component of the Dali authentication process. (Click HERE to read that blog post by Bernard Ewell.) Ewell states “I and other witnesses testified that Salvador Dali signed his name in so many different ways that it was not a reliable approach. Anyway, I have always followed the dictum that the artwork should authenticate the signature rather than the signature authenticating the artwork.”

Given the amount of press reports in this case there are statements circulating that some of the Dali works sold by PWG and authenticated by Bernard Ewell were in fact true Dali works, but the signatures were not those of the artist Dali. Ewell insists he has not acted as an advocate of PWG, being true to his appraisal ethics and focusing only on authenticating the art. My main question to Ewell was did he authenticate Dali works for PWG with questionable signatures. He said all of the prints in question with signatures, in his opinion were signed by Dali. The FAR experts seem to agree that some of the prints in question are in fact authentic works of Dali, but they  contend the signatures are not by Dali. Not unusual in a court of law to have differences of opinions by different expert witnesses. It comes down to which side can produce the better witnesses and most credible evidence. Ewell also believes there are ulterior motives involved by other Dali dealers and specialists in attempts to discredit the authenticity and legitimacy of the PWG collection of Dali artwork. To many outsiders, that might sound like paranoia or conspiracy theories, but on many occasions it is business as usual in the art world. It is yet to be determined in this particular case.

Ewell stated he has reviewed and studied the provenance of the PWG Dali inventory and found in favor of the art work and signatures being legitimate. Ewell thought he was not able to reveal enough relevant information at the trial on the provenance of the PWG Dali inventory, on his experience, credibility and his authentication process. Ewell also stated to me PWG has shown him Dali’s in the past which they were considering for purchase, and which were not correct in his opinion and PWG declined to purchase.

Ewell also thought his time on the witness stand was cut short by a time allotment by the Judge in order to speed the trail. This, according to Ewell is perhaps why some of the provenance issues were not strongly featured in his testimony and reinforced to the jury. There was also concern that the PWG attorney wanted a more structured testimony from Ewell instead of a narrative on his authentication process which he believes works more favorably with jurors in art authentication cases.

Many appraisers have seen and inspected cruise ship art purchased at sea with little secondary market value. We have also seen this art come out of galleries as well, much property is poster art, lithographic prints, giclee prints and prints with artist enhancements. The art comes with certificates of authenticity and appraisals, but in many cases we find there is little value on the secondary market for this decorative property. At times, purchasers are disappointed to find what they thought had value, when in reality, it did not. It is unfortunate that many of these buyers are a captive audience on the cruise with excess time and funds and decide to make an “investment” in art. As we know as appraisers, novices and art investments usually dont mix. Many of these buyers believed in the reputations of the cruise lines and in PWG and therefore had a sense of security. Many made large volume and dollar purchases without doing any due diligence, seeking expert consultations or value research.

So are we back to square one with cruise ship art. Not necessarily, but there still are other cases in June in Michigan and sometime in 2011 in Seattle where the courts and jury will hear how the PWG art was represented and how it was authenticated. These suits are buyers of PWG art who are now directly suing PWG. There still we be opposing experts, with each side presenting specialists to support their claims and positions. Ultimately, it will come down to the credibility of the witnesses and the evidence presented. Working against PWG is the failed defamation case. Meaning, the published articles and statements by FAR may not have been false or at least they did not defame PWG based upon the recent jury verdict.

Additionally, if the prices the clients paid for the art is in fact greatly out of line with the true value of the art, and that is admissible in court, there could be concerns on how the jury would deliberate the price to value evidence. Ewell stated to me he only authenticated the art for PWG and never appraised or valued it. PWG did their own in house appraisals, and as we know as appraisers, that is really not an acceptable valuation within the profession, nor an arms length transaction. Certainly a potential conflict of interest..

A little on business practices, and I asked this of Ewell and he did not have an answer. PWG has stated at their peak, total art sales were in the $300 million range per year, both for fine and decorative art. This includes the cruise ship sales and gallery sales. PWG claims 1.2 million satisfied customers. I wanted to know why PWG would not make those few customers who were unhappy whole or find mutually agreeable settlement terms. Or just refund the purchase price less shipping and a stocking charge and resell the art. It is only a small percentage of total sales, and the bad publicity being generated would certainly be ratcheted down. I think the negative publicity and press coverage has done more to hurt PWG than their sales practices. Is it arrogance? Is it that you just get too big and powerful as a company you feel you don’t have to work with dissatisfied clients. Perhaps PWG believe they are in the right and doing the right thing, the work was authentic, represented fairly and if so, why refund? Regardless, I would think a refund and confidentiality statement would have made most of this go away, at least in the courts, and it would cost far less in lost sales, legal fees, and the public relations campaign to support their corporate image, not to mention the debate in the court of public opinion.

It will be interesting to see how the June lawsuits in Michigan against Park West Gallery will be decided. It should help the appraisal community bring some form of closure to the value of cruise ship art and the issues of provenance, sales practices, how the pieces are represented and auctioned and statements of authenticity and value.

As with the past trial, Bernard Ewell says he again looks forward to testifying in the upcoming cases.

AW Blog Update

My Blogger dashboard has just notified me that the AW Blog has again been tagged as a spam blog by the blogger spam bots.  Many may recall I went through this last November and it took about two weeks to get the site reactivated.

Right now, Blogger has not shut the site completely down like last time. I still have access, but I dont know how long that will last and blogger could block it completely at any time.  So if the AW Blog posts stop coming, you will know why.

I have already requested the review, and started the process of reactivation, but I have seen it take a day to several weeks.  If this is a recurring problem I might have to shift away from blogger and to another provider.

I hope this time the process is quicker and easier, and that I can still post.

I will keep you posted as news is avaialbe, but if I am blacked out for a while you know why.

Thanks for all of your support.

Todd

Results: Sotheby's NY Russian Sale

Was it a sign of a softening market, or perhaps a volcano in Iceland.  Reported results from the recent Russian sale at Sotheby's in NY are mixed.  There were only about 30 bidders in the room, and 30% of the lots failed to sell.  Some of this is blamed on the inability of Europeans to fly from Europe because of the closed airports and canceled flights because of ash from the volcano in Iceland.

With few attending, many items were sold at very reasonable prices, although, the private collections within the sale did do well.  The sale totaled $13.6 million, falling into the mid range of the pre sale estimates of $10.7 million to $15.1 million. The private Faberge collection of Frances Jones sold 98% of its lots and contributed $1.8 million toward the sale total against pre sale estimates of $1.2 million. The top lot was a bronze by Evgeny Lanceray (1848-86) selling to a Russian collector for $326,500 (see image).

Even though the bought in lot ratio was high, the results still fell within the pre sale estimate, and I wonder if all who wanted to attend could, the sale would have been better.

Katya Kazakina of Bloomberg reported on the sale

A day before the sale, Sotheby’s sent out an e-mail to its clients confirming that the New York auctions will proceed as planned despite “recent travel complications across Europe.”

“People didn’t want to wait till the last moment or risk missing their flights to New York,” said Andrei Chervichenko, Moscow-based collector of Faberge and former owner of Spartak soccer club. “That definitely had an impact on today’s prices. With fine art, you have to touch things, examine things before buying expensive works.”

Seven-Hour Wait

Chervichenko had to wait seven hours at the airport before boarding a plane to New York on Monday. He took advantage of the often muted bidding and bought several works from the Jones estate, including a carved elephant for $31,250 and a Faberge nephrite box with gold and jeweled lock and hinges for $15,000.

“The prices are much lower than they used to be,” he said. “It’s a great time to buy, especially the pieces that are not so obvious.”

To read the Bloomberg article, click HERE.

More on Park West vs Fine Art Registry

The following is a statement from one of Park West Gallery websites on the recent court trial on verdict. The last sentence of the statements says that Park West will again sue the Fine Art Registry for defamation. I am sure the Fine Art Registry will also soon release a statement about the case. When released, I will post on the AW Blog.

Park West Gallery Successfully Defends Reputation In Defamation Trial

SOUTHFIELD, MI—April 22, 2010—Park West Gallery is pleased with the recent verdict determining that Park West had not defamed Fine Art Registry, but is disappointed that the jury determined that FAR had not defamed Park West Gallery. FAR’s testimony was that their false and malicious statements were only their opinions and hyperbole, and they pled a defense based on the first amendment.

Park West was seeking damages from the web-based art tagging and art sales site for its nearly three year cybersmear campaign against the gallery. The campaign, which began in 2007 and continues to this day, includes hundreds of internet postings, numerous press releases and nearly 100 videos, all containing false information.

“Although not the central issue of this defamation case, this trial gave us the opportunity to reaffirm the authenticity of Park West’s artwork, which was defended compellingly by our witnesses,” said Mr. Young. The court accepted without reservation the qualifications of the three expert witnesses presented by Park West: Bernard Ewell, American Society of Appraisers and Daniel David, publisher and copyright holder of the Divine Comedy by Salvador Dali as well as retired FBI Art Crime Team agent Robert Wittman, who formed the FBI art crime team and presented expert testimony on art fraud as well as practices and procedures within the art industry.

During the trial, FAR attempted to present three experts on authenticity of art and signatures. None of the three had previously been accepted as experts in any court of law. Two of them—Nicholas Descharnes and Roy Saper—were totally rejected by the court as experts and were determined to have no expertise in the authenticity of graphic art or signatures. The third, Frank Hunter, although accepted by the court subject to cross examination as an expert in graphic art, admitted at his deposition and at trial that he was not an expert on signatures. Their expert witnesses presented an uncompelling account, which the jury rejected, as FAR’s defamation claims against Park West were rejected in totality.

During the trial FAR’s attorneys and witnesses were cited twelve times for violating the court’s rulings regarding the presentation of evidence. Seven of the violations were by the attorneys themselves. On the second violation, Donald Payton, lead counsel for FAR, was told by U.S. Federal Judge Lawrence Zatkoff that he believed that the violation was intentional. On the twelfth violation, Judge Zatkoff imposed a $5000 sanction against Jonathan Schwartz, another of FAR’s attorneys. “Despite the best efforts by the court, the harm could not be undone,” said Mr. Young. “Also, we believe the jury’s award to FAR for a Lanham act violation had no basis in the evidence presented at trial. We are confident that we will prevail at an upcoming new trial, where we are again suing FAR for defamation.”

Park West will continue to aggressively defend its reputation, its brand and the art of its 1.2 million satisfied customers.

Update: Park West Gallery - FAR Awarded $500,000

The Detroit Free Press states that not only did Park West lose in its defamation suit against Fine Art Registry, but the Fine Art Registry was awarded $500,000.00 in its counter suit against Park West. Park West plans on asking the judge to throw out the jury verdict and promises to appeal the jury decision. I understand the jury verdict was unanimous and the $500,000 award was for a trademark infringement and not part of FARs additional counter claims for defamation and tortious interference.

It is also important to keep in mind this case was about defamation and the jury did not decide on if the prints in question and used as exhibits in the suit were authentic, fake or enhanced, although both sides produced experts to either support or discredit the authenticity.  Many of the buyers who have testified against Park West Gallery are also involved in a consolidated Federal case against Park West with claims of $22 million. The cases will be heard in Seattle in 2011.These cases, if not settled before hand very well could be based upon how the jury determines the authenticity of the art as presented by the plaintiffs and defendants attorneys.

The Detroit Free Press article is short, but contains a lot of information, so instead of summarizing I will post it in its entirety,

Southfield-based Park West Gallery took a $500,000 hit Wednesday in a legal brawl with a Phoenix-based Web site that said the gallery defrauded customers in art auctions aboard cruise ships.

"The verdict vindicates everything my client ever said about Park West," Farmington Hills lawyer Donald Payton said after a federal jury in Port Huron awarded $500,000 to Global Fine Arts Registry and its founder, Theresa Franks, for trademark violations involving registry Web sites.

"I'm ecstatic," Franks said. "I'm thrilled. After three years of hell, I've finally gotten a sweet, sweet, sweet victory."

Park West's lawyer, Rodger Young of Southfield, who had sought a $46-million defamation judgment against the registry, said he would ask U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff to throw out the verdict.

"Needless to say, we are going to vigorously appeal," Young said, adding that the gallery also would ask Zatkoff to find that it was defamed.

Park West sued for defamation in 2008, alleging that the registry engaged in a smear campaign by posting articles saying Park West had sold overpriced, forged and fraudulent artwork to unsuspecting customers during auctions aboard cruise ships.

The registry countersued, charging that it was Park West doing the smearing. Among other things, the registry said Park West had created Web sites with names similar to the registry's to divert readers. The registry said those Web sites made disparaging remarks about the registry.

Park West, founded in 1969, describes itself as one of the largest independently owned art galleries in the world. A large part of its business involves cruise ship art auctions.

The Fine Arts Registry, which devotes part of its Web site to exposing fraud and deception in the art world, said it began investigating Park West after reading news accounts and receiving customer complaints. It insists that its stories about Park West were true.

Update: Park West Gallery Suit

It appears that Park West Gallery has failed in its defamation, interference with business advantage and conspiracy suit against Fine Art Registry of Phoenix, AZ.  Park West Gallery is  the large Michigan based gallery selling art on many cruise ship lines. Park West had been accused of misrepresenting their artwork by Fine Art Registry and from buyers during cruise ship auctions.  Fine Art Registry has been campaigning against the practices of Park West and advocating for buyers rights who claim misrepresentation in what they purchased from Park West. In response to Fine Art Registry actions Park West sued to protects its name and business practices. As appraisers, many of us have seen what we commonly refer to as cruise ship art. Much of the debate between Park West and Fine Art registry is over the legitimacy of Dali prints, amongst others prints by numerous artists.

I dont have the details of the verdict yet, but the trial has been going on for about the past month and went to the jury earlier this week.  Fine Art Registry has posted on their website that "Fine Art Registry Wins Case in Federal District Court in Michigan" with details to follow. I have not been able to confirm the results or if there are any issues or caveats in the decision. I am posting this on Wed evening for email delivery Thursday morning. I hope to have more information to report on Thursday on the outcome.

Because these cases are difficult to prove, some legal experts thought Park West had a good chance of being successful in its suit against Fine Art Registry based upon the Federal courts willingness to hear the full case.  If the verdict is correct, as Fine Art Registry has posted, this means the upcoming class actions suit against Park West Gallery will probably gain additional momentum, strength and credibility. It could also mean Park West will be more inclined to settle before a trial.

I'll try to get information from both sides as soon as it is available.

Update: Blacklist

Sarah Douglas of ArtInfo has a good article and update on artist Marlene Dumas’s blacklist I reported on yesterday. Douglas has a lot more information on the situation and reports about New York art dealer Jack Tilton who once represented Dumas and confirmed in court the existence of a collector blacklist. On the stand Tilton not only described how the list worked but also named names of dealers and collectors who were associated with the list. The case revolves around Miami collector Craig Robins and dealer David Zwirner who sold a Dumas painting for Robins and is accused of breaking a confidentiality agreement,which eventually caused Robins to be blacklisted by Dumas.

This is a good inside look of the upper end of the art market. It is not often as open or as exposed as we are seeing in this particular case. It therefore makes for some very interesting reading for the dealer and appraisers.

Douglas reports

For art-world insiders, the particularly juicy revelations in Tilton’s testimony are the additional names that apparently figured on this blacklist. In questioning by lawyers for Robins and Zwirner, Tilton explained that the list (or lists) was regularly updated by Dumas’ dealers — Galerie Paul Andriesse in Amsterdam, Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo, Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, and himself in New York — when they learned that collectors had been actively buying and reselling works.

Tilton admitted that he had recommended several names which were added to the list, including that of New York dealer Marc Jancou, American collector Richard Cooper, and, possibly, Aspen, Colorado–based collector Daniel Holtz (Tilton referred to him as “Danny Holtz”), who is currently on the board of trustees of the Aspen Art Museum. Whether these names currently reside on such a blacklist is unclear from today’s hearing. Perhaps most surprisingly, when questioned by Zwirner’s lawyers, Tilton admitted that he had gotten Zwirner’s name added to the blacklist around March 2005, when the dealer mounted a secondary-market exhibition of Dumas’ work at Zwirner & Wirth, the New York gallery that Zwirner ran jointly with Swiss dealer Iwan Wirth.

The Greylist

Tilton’s testimony and exhibits presented by lawyers on both sides appear to confirm the existence not only of a blacklist barring certain collectors who had resold Dumas works on the secondary market from buying primary market works by her, but also of a somewhat murkier “greylist” which may have come with less restrictive terms. According to Tilton, the lists were treated in the same manner, but it now appears that Dumas’ Amsterdam studio manager Jolie van Leeuwen may have maintained more than one list of collectors.

Dueling Definitions of Confidentiality

Tilton, who represented Dumas from the late 1980s until she left him for Zwirner in 2008, testified that Robins came to him in 2004 with an interest in reselling Reinhardt’s Daughter, which Robins had purchased on the secondary market. The two took it to David Zwirner, who had a ready buyer, and completed the sale, according to Tilton, who said that price and the importance of confidentiality were discussed with Zwirner at that time. Zwirner, according to Tilton, agreed to those conditions. Tilton said that at a certain point after that Robins worried about Zwirner telling someone about the sale, so Tilton “had to reconfirm [with Zwirner in a telephone conversation], and he agreed.”

Confidentiality, Tilton explained to the court, is a “key element” in such transactions, because “collectors don’t want their business known” and “don’t want it in the press.” The limits of the confidentiality of those transactions have become central to the case. While Zwirner’s legal papers have contended that any unstated confidentiality in art deals is expected to last only during the duration of the transaction, Tilton maintained that any sale “should never ever be mentioned, forever.”

To read the fulla article, click HERE.

Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies 2010 is Now Available

The Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies - 2010 is now ready to order. I have ordered a supply to sell at the ISA conference coming up next week, and the printer/distributor Lulu is now ready to start fulfilling internet orders.

The cost is $55.00 plus shipping and can be ordered by clicking HERE.

More information is on the website at www.appraisaljournal.org

Please support this worthy cause as proceeds go to assist the educational initiatives of the Foundation for Appraisal Education.  The Journal has contributions from ASA, ISA, AAA, ANA and independent appraisers and dealers.  The list of authors and title of their article follows. There is no other publication available for the personal property appraiser which publishes articles with both depth and expertise as the Journal of Advanced Studies.

Andrew Richmond and Hollie Davis of Maine Antique Digest and the Young Collectors column are contributors, as is Judaica expert Elizabeth Berman, AAA, attorney Mark Gold looks at the deaccession debate, while fellow Appraiser Workshops partner Jane Brennom, ISA CAPP writes on appraisers versus authenticators.  I write on price anomalies, touching on the Walking Man, and the Philadelphia Queen Anne compass seat stool amongst other items, Brian Kathenes, ISA CAPP  introduces appraisers to coins and Soodie Beasley, ASA AM discusses several furniture designers of the 20th century, and Jerry Sampson, ASA writes about the appraisers library.

In total 18 articles and over 300 pages of personal property appraisal related articles.

Buy your copy today, click HERE to order.

• Logan Adams – Building Bigger and Better Business with the Moving Industry

• Soodie Beasley - Fantasy Furniture by Designers: Mark, Mont, Duquette and Springer

• Elizabeth Kessin Berman – A Time to Value and a Time to Creatively Value Appraising Church and Synagogue Collections

• Jane C. Brennom – Appraisers vs Authenticators

• Robert W. Cook - Lack of Objectivity Leaves Appraisers at Risk: Index Adjusted Good-Better-Best Appraisal Model Offers Partial Solutions

• Robert J. Corey – Lack of Objectivity Leaves Appraisers at Risk: Index Adjusted Good-Better-Best Appraisal Model Offers Partial Solutions

• Hollie Davis – For Love or Money: Antiques as Investments

• Mark S. Gold – The Deaccessioning Debate: What Appraises Need to Know

• Brian Hiatt – Comparison of Different software to Prepare Personal Property Appraisal Reports

• Brian Kathenes – Appraising Stamps and Coins: Tips, Tricks and Hints for Taking the Mystery out of Stamp and Coin Appraising

• Jill Kent – Folk Art for Appraisers

• Elin Lake-Ewald – Original Research and Innovative Appraisals

• Judy Nelson – Reading a Two Dimensional Atrwork; Suggestions for the Generalist Appraiser

• Andrew Richmond - Love or Money: Antiques as Investments

• Felicia N. Rossomando – The Application of Blockage Discounts For an Artist’s Estate: An Art Business Approach

• Jerry Sampson – Establishing the Appraisers Library

• Elizabeth Sebesky – The Art Market: How Lending Fuels Art Crime

• Paul Shutler – The Importance of Being Provenanced

• Todd W. Sigety – Price Anomalies

• Scott Zema – Personal Property Appraising and the Element of Time

Click HERE to order.

Blacklist for Art Speculators

I hate to say it, but I missed a great article in the NY Times last week.  Thanks to fellow appraiser Francine Proulx for sending me the link.  There is a current lawsuit now involving collector Miami collector Craig Robins who claims he has been blacklisted from purchasing contemporary art by artist South African-born artist Marlene Dumas. The suit also involves confidentiality agreements as the David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea which sold the painting for Robins was to keep the seller and sale confidential, but word got back to the artist, Ms Duams, and the blacklisting of the collector. Ms. Dumas has seen her work sell for as high as $6 million at Sotheby's, so we are not talking about insignificant sums of money.

As the contemporary art market gains momentum and over past years where the increase in value from year to year was significant, there certainly was the ability and perhaps temptation for a little art arbitrage.Many successful contemporary artists do not wish to see their art used as speculative commodities, and hence the development of blacklists or refusing to sell to certain clients.

As for the supposed blacklist, the lawyers added, as if addressing a purely philosophical problem, “If such a list exists, and if Robins is on it, Zwirner did not put him there and cannot take him off.”

But several dealers, art advisers and collectors specializing in contemporary art said in recent interviews that with the explosion of the art market over the last several years and a sharp rise in the number of speculative buyers entering the market, those who sell art have become much more wary of collectors’ motives — and that they keep, in addition to secret waiting lists for in-demand artists, another even more secret list of buyers suspected of wanting to flip art for a quick profit.

“This is the biggest fear for most artists for whom there is serious demand,” said Allan Schwartzman, a veteran art adviser and curator, who, like others involved in selling work, described an increasingly complex interplay between contemporary artists’ market value, collector base and long-term reputation.

“In general,” Mr. Schwartzman said, “there has been so much profiteering in recent years, even from so many people who are seen as being serious collectors.” (Of course, dealers and auction houses also earn commissions on this kind of profiteering.)

Jeffrey Deitch, the longtime dealer and art world dealmaker who is closing his SoHo gallery this summer to become director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, described collectors whom “we have to chase away, who are at the gallery trying to buy, in the primary market, work by desirable artists,” only to end up selling it a year and a half later at auction for a steep profit.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Chrisite's Looks Toward China

The Wall Street Journal has an interview with François Curiel, president of the auction houses Asian operations. Curiel was sent to China earlier this year with the mission to build a strong auction operations and become the auctioneer of choice for China. The introduction mentions the two bronze animal heads Christie's auctioned which caused some reason for concern between China and Chrisite's. But from the interview with Curie, Christie's is ready to be culturally sensitive to the needs of the Chinese and also build a foundation of specialist who can communicate easier with the Chinese.

Overall an interesting article and interview on how a large auction house plans on competing and growing in China.

WSJ: How will you tap the Chinese market?

Mr. Curiel: Part of my job is to make it easier for mainland Chinese buyers to come to us by having more Chinese speakers, more Chinese representatives. I want to help our Chinese clients understand that it can be a dialogue with our experts. It's a long process of education. Also, do we grow organically or do we buy an auction house and develop it? Do we do a joint venture? And how do we deal with the two centers of Beijing and Hong Kong? We had the same question in Paris when we opened there in 2000. Until then, all art sourced in Paris was sent to New York or London. But the answer was there was enough for Paris, London and New York. Same will happen here. The pie becomes bigger.

WSJ: How will the competition in China affect your business?

Mr. Curiel: It's extremely important. There are 400 auction houses in China, and maybe 20 are doing more than $50 million a year and five are doing more than $150 million a year. That's very helpful. In France, the No.3 auction house does about $80 million and No. 4 is $20 million.

WSJ: Are you concerned about a bubble in Chinese art?

Mr. Curiel: I don't think there's a bubble around Chinese art. It might come if those who made a lot of money out of real estate or selling their companies suddenly have less money. That's what I'm worried about. I think we still have a long way to go before the Chinese market slows down.

To read the full WSJ article, click HERE. (Many articles on the WSJ journal are only accessible for subscribers, sometimes the link might open the full article to those who do not subscribe, sometimes it might as for you to subscribe to the WSJ, not sure which will happen, hopefully the complete article and interview opens).

Mei Moses Art Index Releases 2009 Results

The results are not good for 2009, showing an overall decline from 2008 of 23.49%.  With every sector showing losses and surprisingly led by the old master sector with a decline of just over 30%.   Many reports over the past year were that old masters declined less than the other sectors and had much more stability.  Post war and contemporary was not far behind at over 29% decline.

Most of the declines can be reasonably expected as the turnaround and stabilization did not really come until the 4th quarter of 2009.  In all honesty, I was expecting to see declines for 2009, but just not as severe as what Mei Moses is reporting.  A possible explanation,  the top end of the market is performing better, but the middle markets are still rather sluggish which could have an influence on the index.

The Mei Moses indexes are:

• Closing Value of Mei Moses® All Art Index for 2009: 204.3 Percentage Change from Year 2008 Closing Values of Mei Moses® All Art Index: Down 23.49%

• Latin America Index: Down 8.41%

• American Before 1950 Index: Down 12.16%

• Impressionist and Modern Index: Down 10.07%

• Old Master and 19th Century Index: Down 30.11%

• Post War and Contemporary Index: Down 29.88%

England's National Gallery to Exhibit Fakes

The Financial Times is reporting that the National Gallery will exhibit this summer a group of fakes purchased by the museum. This includes the fake An Allegory by Sandro Botticelli (see image) purchased in the 1840's. The article is short, and sometimes you need to register for a FT article, so I have taken the liberty of posting the full article. Some of the exhibit will include not only miss attributions, but actual attempts to defraud and deceive. The National Gallery exhibit called Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries will run from June 30 – September 12. If in England over the summer it would be a good exhibit to attend.

The Financial Times reports:

The National Gallery’s biggest blunders – such as the supposed masterpiece by Sandro Botticelli, entitled An Allegory – are to be aired in public for the first time in a summer exhibition.

Modern technology has made it much easier to assess accurately the date of a painting – with occasionally embarrassing results. Among the works on display is the gallery’s “prize fake”, according to Ashok Roy, its director of scientific research: a painting acquired by the gallery in 1845 as an important work by Hans Holbein the younger.

The attribution was soon doubted, and the resulting scandal caused the resignation of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, keeper of the National Gallery, in 1847.

Now fresh analysis of the painting’s wood panel support have proved the doubters correct. It shows that the work was executed in the 1560s – well after Holbein’s death in 1543. It was probably painted by the Flemish artist Michiel Coxcie.

Another mistake was made when the gallery bought what it thought were two paintings by Sandro Botticelli at an 1874 auction of works collected by Alexander Barker. One of them, Venus and Mars, is now regarded as one of the Renaissance painter’s masterpieces.

But the other, An Allegory, which fetched a higher price in the auction, was soon reassessed as an inferior work, probably painted by a follower. The two works will be hung side-by-side in the exhibition, which opens on June 30.

Mr Roy said that, although new techniques meant the gallery would no longer make serious dating errors, the question of authorship was a more subjective matter. “We will still rely on historical research and connoisseurship,” he said.

One of the exhibition’s rooms will focus on “deception and deceit”: deliberate attempts to fool experts. The gallery purchased a typical Renaissance-style portrait in 1923 believing it to be a 15th-century work. Scientific analysis carried out in the 1990s revealed the presence of pigments that were not available until the 19th century, however, and that the surface had been coated with a resin to simulate the appearance of age.

“It was heralded as a unique example of a painting by an unknown artist, and so it was – but it was an artist of the 20th century,” said Mr Roy. “It was created with the intent to deceive.”

The Art Market - Some Good News, Neutral News and Bad News

I did not post yesterday as I was finishing up with getting my new desktop computer set up. Between the installing the programs, the hardware and getting all of my data transferred, I was tired of looking at computers. But the change needed to be done, and I am so far pleased with the results. Now for some news.

Perhaps I should have named this post The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Christopher Michaud writing for Reuters and published in the Washington post states the art market, after taking some significant hits is ready for a rebound. He quotes some experts expecting art prices to climb by as much as 40% over the next couple of years.

So that is the good news, but it relates only to the top end of the market. The last sentence quickly sums up the lower end and the middle market. It states in effect, expectations for the lower end art market is rather neutral for the next two years and with the middle market seeing a further drop by nearly 20%.

We have seen very strong prices recently at the upper market levels, but there has not been much news of the middle and lower end sectors as it is not as exciting to many.  But as we have seen the upper sectors continue to add momentum, the middle is still way off. What is needed is a little bit of the trickle down effect. At the moment not many can middle market collectors can  afford to purchase or are concerned about purchasing due to the economy. With many in the middle markets struggling in a still poor economy with high unemployment, it appears it might take a while for the middle to bounce back.

Michaud states

In the art world, solid results boost confidence, encouraging owners of top-quality works to re-enter the market. The availability of rare or fresh-to-the-market pieces stokes bidding, which drives up prices, and a cycle is born.

Conversely, when sellers hold back, mid-range, often second-rate works tend to flood the market, drawing scant interest and tepid bidding -- if any. The result was the alarming drop-off in 2008 and 2009.

But as far back as December, Wedbush Securities upgraded Sotheby's, whose shares had been taking a beating, to outperform from neutral, citing a rebound in demand for collectible art. Sotheby's exceeded analysts' expectations with a 31 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue.

Optimism seems well-founded with prestigious, world-renowned and hugely valuable collections hitting the block in New York in May.

"You're going to see some great prices in New York," said Philip Hoffman, founder and chief executive officer of The Fine Art Group Fund, an art investment house.

"The rare pieces are going to go through the roof and make prices that you wouldn't expect to see in the economic climate we're in," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Combating Fakes on eBay

The Antiques Trade Gazette has a good article on combating fakes on eBay.  Unfortunately, those fighting against the misrepresented items is not eBay, but fellow collectors. I have heard of this before, and have posted on the AW blog about this type of collector self policing on eBay.  It is usually done after several complaints and with no action being taken by eBay to protect buyers rights.

In this instance there is a Sunderland lustre who over-paints the items and has represented them as in original condition. Some of the paint is household paint and is done in colors the Victorians would not have used. The collectors and experts complained about the seller with no luck, who it seems occasional will state the items have been restored. What they did was to post similar items which would come up in the same search with tips on what to look for in fakes and repainted items. The ATG article has some good inspection tips. Although, in looking at the repainted and embellished plates, I wonder how any collector, even a novice could think they were not overly restored.  The eBay tips seem to be working.

The ATG reports

EBay have also been presented with this information but have taken no action against a seller who apparently has an exemplary record as the vendor of more than 400 items. His 100 per cent feedback is full of glowing comments from buyers who are clearly unaware the items they purchased may have been embellished. “People who don’t know they’ve been duped leave positive comments,” said Mr Smith.

When the seller recently listed four more over-painted items, eBay buyers took matters into their own hands by setting up a new eBay account and posting a £0.01, entitled Fake Sunderland Lustre plaque information only, that appears beside the suspect items in the search lists.

EBay allowed the information listing to run, which gives pointers about identifying recent over-painting on items of lustreware. It has received many voices of support, through the ‘ask a question’ feature on the listing – and also appears to be having the desired effect. A Sunderland pink lustre wall plaque with a maritime verse c.1840 with notes stating that the “condition is outstanding” failed to make its opening bid of £25, prompting 1079edmund to withdraw two of his over-painted items. Moreover, two previously satisfied buyers have left follow-up comments about over-painting to their originally positive feedback.

To read the full ATG article, click HERE.

Update: Salander

Sorry for the quick and short posts, my primary computer needed to be replaced (decided to do so before I had a catastrophic crash), and I have spent the better part of two days moving programs and hardware drivers to the new machine.  So far, not to bad of a task, except it is time consuming.

Philip Boroff writing for Bloomberg reports that furniture and other decorative arts owned by Lawrence Salander will be auctioned off.  Salander recently plead guilty to defrauding patrons of his gallery to the sum of $120 million.  The furniture and other decorative arts are expected to generate between $100,000 and $200,000 and will be auctioned by Stair Galleries.  There are about 175 lots. It seems Salander was particularly fond of rugs, in 2008 Tepper Galleries sold almost 300 antique carpets from the gallery raising $250,000. There are numerous rugs in the upcoming sale as well.

Boroff reports

Top lots include a Gothic Revival mahogany bookcase (presale estimate of $5,000 to $10,000), Chinese carved-wood figures of a deity ($5,000 to $10,000) and an Austrian Renaissance-style walnut extension dining table ($2,000 to $4,000).

“He had nice taste in nice things,” Stair said.

Stair declined to say whether he set minimum prices for the items. He handled a 2008 sale of European and American furniture from Salander-O’Reilly that totaled $1.6 million, $600,000 above the presale estimate.

The former Salander home, a 9,000-square-foot, six-story townhouse on East 82nd Street, is being offered for $14.25 million. His lawyers sought $25 million when they put it on the market two years ago. The 1898 building, between Madison and Park Avenues, was once home to playwright Lillian Hellman.

Stair said that in July he expects to sell the contents of Salander’s Millbrook, New York, home, which sits on 66 bucolic acres. European sculpture and paintings recovered from Salander’s gallery may be auctioned later this year.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Is the Drawing by Leonardo?

Richard Dorment of the Telegraph has an interesting article on the questioned Leonardo drawing, La Bella Principessa. Dorment mentions information contained in  Professor Martin Kemp book which supports the idea the drawing is by Leonardo. The drawing is on vellum, which has been carbon dated between 1440-1650, there is a palm and partial finger print which supposedly compare favorably to prints found on  Leonardo’s unfinished painting in the Vatican of St Jerome.

If it is a Leonardo, some suggest the value could be $150 million.  But there are doubters as well, with no other Leonardo drawings done on vellum and many experts think the drawing is an outright fake manufactured in the 20th century.

It is an interesting read, and considers authentication thourgh both connoisuership, elements of Leonardo, forensics and techonolgy.  A good read for appraisers, no question.

Dorment states

opponents point out that of the 4,000 or so surviving drawings by Leonardo, not a single one is on vellum. But vellum is a material a copyist might well use – because sizeable sheets of monastic vellum of the correct age are easy to come by, whereas blank sheets of paper made during Leonardo’s lifetime are not. Nor does the observation that a left-handed artist drew the portrait convince the sceptics. According to Pietro C Marani, Italy’s most distinguished Leonardo scholar, who oversaw the restoration of The Last Supper : “The fact that one is looking at a drawing by a left-handed artist does not carry any weight: there exist copies of drawings by Leonardo made by imitators which present this particular characteristic – by, Francesco Melzi, for example, as Kenneth Clark and others have already written.” Likewise, a copyist could easily arrive at the sitter’s costume by studying any Milanese 15th-century portrait. Even the drawing’s obvious antiquity has drawn fire from one museum director, who asked not to be named. He believes the drawing is not even 19th century, and thinks it is “a screaming 20th-century fake”, made up out of a “compilation of obviously Leonardesque elements that is not even close to Leonardo himself”. For this well-known connoisseur of Italian painting and sculpture, the damage and repairs are suspicious, for, although apparent to the naked eye, they are not so extensive that they make the picture unappealing or unsaleable – as it would be, for example, if the repairs disfigured the face.
Although 90 of the book’s 190 pages are given over to the complex (and to the layman, barely intelligible) analysis of X-rays, scans, infra-red emission images and so forth, Kemp says that the fingerprints provide “no conclusive evidence either way” . So why bother? An obviously genuine drawing rarely requires such extended scientific analysis – much more important for assessing its status is connoisseurship, which entails detailed comparisons with universally accepted drawings by the same artist. But to make his argument, Kemp reproduces only six of a possible 600 ravishing drawings (not counting notebook jottings) by Leonardo. And the drawings chosen for comparison are uniformly weak. This reader was left feeling that Kemp is dealing from a stacked deck.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Degas Bronze Controversy

Judd Tully, writing for ArtInfo has a good article on the group of 74 bronzes made from the recently discovered plaster casts made from the original wax sculptures by  Deagas himself.n  Tully writes an excellent column including some good background on Degas, noting that the artist himself never made bronzes during his lifetime, only working with the wax sculptures.  The debate of course is how authentic these old yet new bronzes should be considered by the art establishment.

An interesting article to read, and an interesting situation to contemplate and ponder.

Tully writes

But like the Egyptian treasure, the Degas finds could be said to carry a sort of curse. Instead of being hailed "as the greatest art discovery in the past 25 years," as Maibaum believes they should be, the plasters, the bronzes made from them, and he himself have been attacked or shunned by the larger art world. "That’s a lot of bronze," one anonymous critic has grumbled. "Who needs them?"

Degas bronzes, of course, have been controversial since they first appeared, five years after the artist’s death. Degas never produced any bronzes during his lifetime, sculpting instead in beeswax and plastiline clay. Of those sculptures, he allowed only one, La petite danseuse de quatorze ans, to be shown, in the sixth Impressionist Exhibition of 1881. The little dancer, made of yellow wax and clothed in a ballet costume, was mostly savaged by critics.

After the artist’s death, in 1917, about 150 of his wax and clay sculptures were found in his studio, in very poor condition. Through his dealers, Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambroise Vollard, Degas’s heirs contracted with Adrien-A. Hébrard, owner of the prestigious Hébrard foundry in Paris, to make posthumous casts of the 74 that were in the best shape. Alberto Palazzolo, Hébrard’s master founder, was entrusted with making molds from these fragile originals, which he then used to produce modèles in bronze from which casts could be produced. The plan was to create 22 casts of each figure: 20 for sale and one each for the heirs and the foundry

To read the full article, click HERE.

Continued Uncertainty About Estate Tax Law

Daniel Grant writing for the Huffington Post has a good article about the impact of the current uncertainty about the unresolved status of the Estate Tax laws.  As many appraisers know, currently there is no estate tax for 2010 and the laws revert back to some high levels in 2011 if nothing is done. Grant states that many donors are not sure how to plan their gifts to institutions, If the rate stays low then some believe there will be less reasons or incentive to give, although many believe donors give because of a desire to do so and not for tax reasons.  But the loss of a tax incentive leaves one less avenue non profits can use to convince patrons to give.

Future decisions on estate taxes, either reductions or increases will impact charitable institutions, those wishing to donate, and of course appraisers.

Grant states

With no current inheritance tax and the possibility that the exemption may drop to $1 million or rise to $5 million or be done away with completely, it makes the type of planning that wealthy art collectors do much more complicated. "People need to feel comfortable in a culture of giving," said Louis Grachos, director of the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, "and they don't feel comfortable right now. I have heard from prospective donors who've said, 'I don't know what I should do.' It's one more hurdle for museum directors."

He noted that the lack of clarity about the inheritance tax "takes away a positive incentive for giving," and that his pitch to donors at present is that they should include the museum in their bequests "even if there is no financial benefit." One of those donors, 75 year-old retired former Albright Knox board chairman Charles Balbach ("I'm in good health, thank God"), acknowledged that "there is no advantage to giving anything this year, because it costs you 100 cents on the dollar." However, he made out his will five years ago, providing a bequest to the museum and has no plans to change those provisions regardless of what Congress does or does not do. "I can't speak for other people, though."

To read the full post, click HERE.

Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.

The Washington Post Sunday Arts and Style section had a very interesting article by Blake Gopnik on some of the style arbiters for the visual arts in Washington DC.  It is a group of scholars, some permanent and some are temporary at the National Gallery from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. Some of what the CASVA does is a series of Sunday lectures each spring which are then published as a book.  According to Gopnik, some of the worlds most influential volumes on are began as part of the Mellon lecture series. The article is interesting as you dont normally see much devoted to these types of scholars who are also very influential in the world of find and decorative arts.

Elizabeth Cropper, a British scholar who has lived in the States for decades, is entering her 10th year as CASVA's dean. She is a petite 65-year-old and a power dresser -- crisp brown pantsuit, brown silk scarf, chunky beads. Her genteel manner is known to hide ambition and a will of iron.
"We do look for the most outstanding scholars to do the most demanding, intense work they can," Cropper says matter-of-factly. She is sitting in her corner office on the fourth floor of the gallery's East Building, with views onto the blooming trees of the Mall and the Capitol a couple of blocks off.
Cropper rattles off an impressive list of people and projects hosted by her center. She names a posse of brand-name art historians, here for six months or a year or two of distraction-free research and writing. They in turn mentor a band of younger scholars finishing their doctorates, or just moving beyond them. (CASVA doesn't do its own teaching, but it accepts and funds PhD students registered elsewhere.) And then there's the supply of visiting scholars, old and young, who show up for CASVA seminars and lectures.
Some of what gets worked on at CASVA may seem a touch obscure. Cropper touts the center's ongoing digitization of the records of the Accademia di San Luca, founded in Rome in 1593 as one of Europe's first art academies. Senior scholar Suzanne Preston Blier, a Harvard professor on research leave at CASVA, has been working on a project titled "Imaging Amazons: Dahomey Women Warriors In and Out of Africa." One of the doctoral students is bashing away at a thesis titled "Mediating the Third Culture at Tlatelolco, Mexico City." This is CASVA as a center for pure research and esoterica, on the model of an astrophysics lab.

To read the full article, click HERE.

Climate Control

I just posted a few days ago about the Corcoran in Washington DC closing an exhibition early due to a malfunction int he HVAC systems.  The Art Newspaper just published an article on museums and climate control and allowable fluctuations.  The standard is currently 70 degrees and 50% humidity, with at times terms for minor fluctuations in order to contract for loans of artworks from other institutions and individuals.  Of course the owners of the property with to ensure their artworks is shown in proper and protective environment. In 1994 the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory issued revised guidelines allowing for as much as 15 per cent fluctuation in relative humidity  and fluctuations by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The prevailing scholarship is that moderate changes and fluctuation in temperature and humidity over and above the 70 degree and 50% will not harm artwork.  But museums are slow to change.  There will soon be further discussions on the proper amount of fluctuation that will be allowed. There is also a related article about the Indianapolis Museum of Art unilaterally changing temperature and humidity levels to a few degrees over or below the current standards.

The articles implications for change and understanding climate controls is important for appraisers, dealers and conservators as well as the changing scholarship can impact how we discuss and make recommendations to clients on purchasing, storing, showing and lending artworks.

The Art Newspaper reports

These earlier assumptions were challenged 16 years ago. In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Analytical Laboratory issued revised guidelines allowing for as much as 15 per cent fluctuation in relative humidity (35 per cent to 65 per cent) and fluctuations by as much as ten degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit to 88 degrees Fahrenheit), regardless of the materials from which objects were made. As research progressed others also came to the conclusion “most museum objects can tolerate, without mechanical damage, larger fluctuations than previously thought” (David Erhardt and Marion Mecklenburg, “Relative Humidity Reconsidered” in Preventive Conservation: Practice, Theory and Research, 1994).

No one would argue that environmental fluctuations should be allowed to occur unchecked within a museum. But the question is this: given the scientific evidence that works of art made from multiple categories of media have not been shown to sustain damage from the incremental fluctuation of relative humidity to a greater extent than currently prescribed, is it time to arrive at an international consensus on loosening environmental strictures?

Some of today’s protagonists moving this discussion towards new protocols include Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, along with members of the scientific community, including the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). In May 2010, the IIC and the American Institute for Conservation will be co-sponsoring a roundtable session in its series “Dialogues for a New Century” to review the latest findings, and address the impasse still preventing the world’s art museums from adopting a less stringent standard (the discussion follows a September 2008 summit in London, “Climate Change and Museum Collections”).

To read the full article click HERE.

RICS First Quarter 2010 Arts and Antiques Survey

The news is positive from the new Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors quarterly arts and antiques market survey. First quarter 2010 results reveal nine out of 10 sectors showed growth in prices. The only sector with a decline was contemporary art, but that was only down by 1 point. Some of the stronger gaining sectors were silver and jewelry, with furniture showing a modest gain. The survey states the upward pressure on prices is due to a supply shortage. Perhaps the markets have not only started to gain some traction, but are not only starting to stabilize but actually show some signs of growth. If so, that would be a very nice storyline for 2010.

RICS states

The net balance of surveyors reporting a rise rather than a fall in prices continued its upward trend in the first quarter of 2010, with the All Lot price net balance increasing from +17 to +22 (the highest reading since the survey began in Q1 2008). According to surveyors, this can be attributed to a shortage of stock on the market.

Nine out of the ten sub-sectors in the survey showed a positive net balance; only the contemporary art sector recorded a negative reading of –1.

The silver and the jewellery sub sectors were the strongest performing subsectors, with net balances respectively of +57 and +41.This, in part, is due to the continued high price of gold and silver.

In terms of price ranges, the lower end of the market continued to outperform the higher end. Indeed, in the £1-£1,000 and £1,000-£5,000 categories, the All Lot net balances were +24 and +27 respectively. This compares with the £5,000-£50,000 and the £50,000+ categories, which both recorded All Lot net balances of +18.

Looking forward, surveyors expect that demand will comfortably outstrip supply over the next twelve months. The expected demand net balance was +48 compared to the expected supply net balance of +29.

To download the RICS survey, click HERE.

Corcoran Closes Exhibit Early Due to Malfunctioning HVAC

The Washington Post is reporting the Corcoran will close its Turner to Cezanne exhibit early due to malfunctioning HVAC systems. The exhibition had been scheduled to close on April 25th. The three galleries of the Corcoran with a half billion dollars worth of art was closed on Wed after issues were discovered in new climate control equipment. No damage has been caused, and the closure is just a precautionary measure. According to reports temperatures were not being controlled correctly with fluctuations between heating and cooling.

Living in the DC, the past few days have been rather warm in DC for April, so perhaps the systems have not been totaled changed over to handle the higher temperatures of the past few days.

The Washington Post reports

Changes in temperature and humidity beyond an acceptable range can have profound effects on works of art. Canvas can expand and contract at a different rate than the paint on the canvas, which can lead to cracking and other damage.

Abruptly closing a well-received show before the end of its scheduled run is almost unheard of. Curators and conservators began de-installing the art Wednesday, Guiter said.

In recent years, the Corcoran has experienced some bumps along the road toward reestablishing itself as an arts destination for residents and out-of-town visitors. It has struggled with fundraising, not unlike many of the region's arts groups during the recession, and the "Turner to Cézanne" show was viewed as a true coup. It was scheduled during a relatively slow time for visitors, ending just after the spring break rush. "It was doing well," Guiter said. "We were definitely disappointed to close it."

The work by the Corcoran's general contractor, the Christman Co., and subcontractor Siemens AG before the exhibition's opening in January was part of an overall roof and skylight restoration, which the company listed as a $16 million project. Attempts to reach representatives of the GSA were unsuccessful, and members of the Corcoran board did not respond to requests for a reaction.

To read the full Washington Post article, click HERE.

Results: Sotheby's Hong Kong

The results are in, and as expected, the numerous sales in Hong Kong at Sotheby's have shown excellent sales results.  The consolidated sales totals of over 2400 lots offered was over $256 million or HK $2 billion. This was against pre-sale estimates of close to $157 million. The six days of sales and the $256 million represented the highest total for sales in Hong Kong for Sotheby's.

Perhaps showing both the increased interest in oriental fine and decorative art, jewelery and other luxury goods, as well as an improving economy last years sales by Sotheby's sold only HK $691 million or around $90 million.

Sotheby's stated:

Speaking of the Spring 2010 Hong Kong Sale Series, Patti Wong, Sotheby's Chairman in Asia, said: “The phenomenal results achieved in Sotheby's Hong Kong Sale Series just concluded have established the highest total – just short of HK$2 billion – ever for a sale series for the company in Hong Kong. We also achieved record totals in the following collecting categories: Chinese Paintings, Jewels and Jadeite, Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art and Watches. The rarity and quality of the offerings which our unrivalled team of experts assembled across a range of categories attracted established collectors and numerous new buyers from across Asia and especially China. Their participation provoked fierce bidding which resulted in our setting many records for individual artists and objects, especially Imperial wares. This emphasizes the growing importance of Hong Kong as one of the most vibrant auction centers in the world as well Sotheby's dominance in Asia.”

Kevin Ching, CEO of Sotheby's Asia, said: "What made this sale series groundbreaking in many ways was the growing involvement and participation by Mainland Chinese, who are attracted not only by the extremely high quality of artworks on offer in a variety of categories, but also by the appeal of Sotheby's historic and global brand. These results confirm the success of our strategy of focusing on service to our clients and on expertise which sources the best from around the world in a range of categories. With our worldwide teams of experts, with our integrity and the transparency we can offer as the only publicly owned international auction house operating in Asia, Sotheby's can provide invaluable access to the world of fine art for the world's wealthy who want to compete as collectors."

ASA Webinar on Frames

ASA Sponsored Webinar, Friday April 30th 3:00 EST

KNOW WHAT YOU SEE

Presented by Bill Adair of Gold Leaf Studios in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Adair stated that the learning points are:

• Survey of materials and techniques in frame making

• Brief overview of the history of frames as related to painting

• Identification of the various styles-Italian, Spanish, French, and English

• Other related issues to consider with frames

• Brief suggested bibliography

Webinar will be 50 minutes long with 10 minutes for Q&A at the end.
Registration: $75.00 for ASA members; $85.00 for non-members online registration at www.appraisers.org/ASAHomepage go to the education box, then select course catalog, scroll down to the PP course offerings to find WEBKWYS for the webinar and click Upcoming Offerings for registration; or call 1-800-ASA-VALU

Mr. Adair is a recognized expert in the world of frames. Bill is not only a master gilder, but conservator and frame historian who writes and lectures on the art of the frame. As per his website Mr. Adair is the founding director of the International Institute of Frame Study and is also a founding member of the Society of Gilders. This webinar is not to be missed by appraisers and knowledgeable collectors. We hope that you will join us for an hour with Bill Adair.

For more information about Mr. Adair's background and accomplishments please refer to his website: www.goldleafstudios.com

Women Sentenced to 7 Years in Art Fraud

The Associated Press is reporting that Kristine Eubanks who ran art auctions with her husband on Dish Network and Direct TV and recently plead guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion was sentenced to 7 years.

The fraudulent art auctions totaled nearly $20 million and included the usual suspects, prints by Dali, Picasso, and Chagall. Eeubanks was buying prints from suppliers, signing many of them and then selling as originals through the TV auctions. They also sold jewelry through the TV auctions, and of course offered certificates of authenticity on the art and appraisals on the jewelry.


The AP article is rather short, so I will post in its entirety..

LOS ANGELES — A woman who sold $20 million in phony artwork she claimed was by Picasso, Dali and Chagall to thousands of people through a semiweekly televised auction has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Kristine Eubanks, 52, of La Canada Flintridge pleaded guilty in 2007 to conspiracy and tax evasion and was sentenced Monday.

She and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, conducted an art auction show twice a week on DirecTV and The Dish Network from 2002 to 2006.

The couple ran Fine Art Treasures Gallery, which sold fake and forged lithographs, prints and paintings purportedly found at estate liquidations around the world to more than 10,000 victims, U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said.

They bought the paintings from suppliers and sometimes signed the forgeries and prints with the artists' names, prosecutors said.

Eubanks forged "certificates of authenticity" for some pieces and provided fake appraisals for jewelry pieces, Mrozek said.

Also, the couple drove up sale prices by having fake bids announced on-air, he said.

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess said their scheme was "audacious in its scope" and blatantly illegal.

Sullivan will be sentenced in May after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison.

LinkedIn

I have posted here on the Appraiser Workshops Blog, the Appraisers Post and on the ISA Forum about the importance of social media sites such as LinkedIn.  Fortune Magazine just did a full cover story on the growing importance of LinkedIn, the growing networking capability and how companies are using it to find employees and potential employees are finding employment.  The growth in visitors is rather remarkable with now up to 17 million visitors in February and 60 million members. In the past it has been the norm to protect your contacts, that attitude is quickly changing with social networking where growth and sharing is paramount.

I wont go into all of the uses as I have mentioned them previously, but I will re-emphasize that a full marketing strategy to promote an appraisal practice should include traditional means as well as a web site, press releases site usage, blogs, and social media with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (also publishing in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies - shameless plug). According to Hitwise, Facebook is the most searched brand on the internet, more than Amazon, more than Google.  That is a lot of people looking for information about a social media site.  We as appraisers have to stay current with technology, and social media is the new technology developing off of web 2.0. I find networking with other appraisers one strong source for new clients through referrals.

Fortune Magazine states

If you're serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn. In today's job market an invitation to "join my professional network" has become more obligatory -- and more useful -- than swapping business cards and churning out résumés.
Make the most of your LinkedIn profile

More than 60 million members have logged on to create profiles, upload their employment histories, and build connections with people they know. Visitors to the site have jumped 31% from last year to 17.6 million in February. They include your customers. Your colleagues. Your competitors. Your boss. And being on LinkedIn puts you in the company of people with impressive credentials: The average member is a college-educated 43-year-old making $107,000. More than a quarter are senior executives. Every Fortune 500 company is represented. That's why recruiters rely on the site to find even the highest-caliber executives: Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) found CFO Jeff Epstein via LinkedIn in 2008.

The reason LinkedIn works so well for professional matchmaking is that most of its members already have jobs. A cadre of happily employed people use it to research clients before sales calls, ask their connections for advice, and read up on where former colleagues are landing gigs.

To read the full Fortune article on LinkedIn, click HERE.

As fellow appraisers wish to build their contacts and networks in LinkedIn feel free to connect with me.  Sign in and search for my name. Also I manage a LinkedIn group with Brian Hiatt of Collector Pro software, it is a growing group with good news and discussions, click HERE to join. There are many appraisal related, USPAP related, and art related groups to join.  ISA has its own LinkedIn group as well. If you dont have an account, start one, build your profile, start to find contacts and join groups.

Get in on the web 2.0 action.

UCC Update and Hong Kong Sales

Before I mention the Hong Kong sales, I wanted to make a note on my post of yesterday on the UCC filings.  A good comment came to me stating that appraisers should be aware the UCC-1 form is usually submitted with the Secretary of State in your State of residence and/or the State of domicile of the Consignee, and possibly both. In any event, check with your state on how to file, because if done incorrectly or with the wrong jurisdiction, the true owner may not be covered and be protected in the event of an unauthorized sale.

The main auctions in Hong Kong are ongoing this week.  Just a few short weeks between the success of the Asia Week sales in NY, the Hong King sales are looking extremely strong.

Since there are so many different sales, I will wait until the consolidated updates are out and then post the final results.  But by all indications, the Chinese mainland buyers are still spending.

Stay tuned.

Update: Park West vs Fine Art Registry

Park West's suit against the Fine Art Registry (and counter suit by the Fine Art Registry) is now in progress.  The Fine Art Registry just published a press release stating the Plaintiff has finished its portion of the case and now the defense will commence.  To read the Fine Art Registry press release click HERE (keep in mind it is a press release by the Fine Art Registry). Hopefully the case will be deliberated by the jury within a few more days.

Crain's Detroit Business has additional information on the suit by Park West against the Fine Art Registry and also mentions a group of consumer suits against Park West seeking damages of $22 million which will soon follow the defamation suit against the Fine Art Registry. According to the report many of these consumer cases against Park West have been merged into a single suit which will be heard next year in a federal court in Seattle.

I find the interesting point in the Crain article and a positive for Park West being that defamation and libel suits carry a very heavy burden of proof.  Many court cases for libel and defamation are thrown out prior to going to court for immediately not meeting the expected or perceived minimum for burden of poof. This case has gotten to the courts and a jury trial as well as surviving a motion for dismissal. Some experts believe that Park West might have a strong case against the Fine Art Registry because it has been able to survive and continue with the case.  Also, some experts beleive by winning this case it will put Park West in a better position to defend against the other complaints.  But if Park West does not win the case, some experts believe it could also hurt them with the consumer cases.

It will be interesting to see how the jury views the evidence and witnesses.

Crain's Detriot Businesss reports

“Because libel and defamation generally carry a tough burden of proof, the fact that it is in trial now and that it survived a motion to dismiss before trial is significant,” said Robert Sedler, professor of constitutional law at Wayne State University.

Zatkoff denied a pretrial motion by the defense Feb. 26.

“So it's win-win for Park West at this point,” Sedler said, “because if it can prevail in this case, it suggests the facts that allowed it to win also present a strong defense against fraud. And if it loses, that may be due to the First Amendment and case law in this field. It might not shed as much light on other cases ... though I'm sure the attorneys will look into that.”

Fred Gibson, president of Clinton Township-based The F.L. Gibson Group P.C., who practices defamation and libel law, agreed that a win for Park West would give the company momentum and suggest a strong defense in the other cases. He added that losing on defamation can have a reverse effect and make a business reconsider how aggressively it defends other lawsuits.

“I'd be concerned (if the defamation case failed),” Gibson said. “If the cases all arise from the same basic allegations about a business's practices, they'd go hand in hand. All sides are going to pay very close attention to this outcome.”

To read the Crain's article, click HERE.