Appraiser Workshops: Another Chagall Fake

4/17/2012

Another Chagall Fake

The Courthouse News Service is reporting on a lawsuit involving an insurance company and the insured. It appears the insured submitted a claim on lost or damaged artwork from a storage facility where the insurance company negotiated a settlement of $60,500.

The insurance company is claiming the collector new, from appraisal and inspection results pieces in his collection, and which an insurance claim was filed were not properly identified. Of course one of the pieces was supposedly a Chagall lithograph. Or not.

The Courthouse News Service Reports

In the new complaint, Great Northern Insurance claims that Matthew Wax submitted a claim in 2009 for several items that he said were damaged or missing from a storage facility.
One of them, the insurer says, was a Chagall lithograph, "In the Land of the Gods," valued at $25,000. The other was Auguste Renoir's "Le Jugement de Paris."
After extended negotiations, Great Northern says, it agreed to pay $60,500 for a general release of all claims.
That same month, Great Northern claims, it learned about an email correspondence between Wax and A. Henry, a representative from Freeman's Auctioneers & Appraisers, neither of which is not a party to the lawsuit.
"Wax confirmed that Ms. Henry had, upon inspection of the purported Chagall lithograph, advised Wax that the Chagall 'is not a lithograph,' and that she questioned its authenticity;
"Based upon her conclusion that the Chagall was not authentic, Ms. Henry told Wax that Freeman's would not accept it for auction;
"Freeman's advised Wax that had it accepted Chagall for auction, 'it would bring $12-13,000'; and
"While Freeman's did not examine the Renoir lithograph, Freeman's advised that if it were authentic, Wax could have expected to receive approximately $2,500 at auction," the complaint states.
Wax sent Henry an apologetic reply stating "that he thought he had purchased the Chagall 'from a top gallery with a tremendous reputation' (Galerie Michael in Beverly Hills, California)," according to the complaint. (Parentheses in complaint.)

Source: The Courthouse News Service