Fellow appraiser Xiliary Twil from the Art Asset Management Group sent me an interesting post on a French courts decision to hold a Max Ernst specialist liable for loss and damages from a fraudulent Ernst painting he supposedly authenticate or requested to have included in an Ernst catalog raisonne.
The authenticator, Werner Spies claims he did not authenticate the work, only request that it be included in an Max Ernst catalog raisonne, and that he is not an expert in the "French" sense, but only an art historian.
As one of the below post state, "The decision in France sets a new precedent against art experts and introduces liabilities for future academic study in the country."
From Art Media Agency
and, from the Center of Art LawA French court has demanded that Werner Spies, former director of the Pompidou Centre and an expert on the work of Max Ernst, join dealer Jacques de la Béraudière to pay €652,883 to collector Louis Reijtenbagh.
Spies authenticated a work entitled Tremblement de Terre (1925), stating that it was a genuine Ernst. The piece subsequently turned out to be a fake produced by German counterfeiter Wolfgang Beltracchi, currently serving a six-year prison sentence. Dealer Jacques de La Béraudière bought the work in 2004, following Spies’ authentification, and it was subsequently sold to Reijtenbagh via a Panama company.
It was sent to Sotheby’s New York to be sold in 2009, where it made $1.1m. When doubts surfaced regarding its authenticity, however, the work was withdrawn and Reijtenbagh’s company was made to pay $969,000 (the sale price minus fees). Reijtenbagh took Spies and de la Béraudière to court in an to recover the sum he lost. De La Béraudière is appealing against the sentence, whilst Spies and his lawyer are yet to comment.
Beltracchi is a renowned counterfeiter, suspected of having produced around 83 forgeries – though he has been prosecuted for only 14, and the location of many of his fakes remains unknown today. He is the subject of the German book Falsche Bilder -Echtes Geld, by Galiani, and L’affaire Beltracchi by Jacqueline Chambon.
Werner Spies, former director of the Pompidou Center and renowned Max Ernst expert, was found liable for an incorrect authentication of Ernst’s Earthquake (1948) on May 24. The Tribunal de Grande Instance of Nanterre in France ruled that Spies and dealer Jacques La Beraudiere owed Louis Reijtenbagh €652,883 in damages. They specifically condemned Spies, making him responsible for the payment and that La Beraudiere pay “up to half the sum.”
The painting was sold by La Beraudiere on September 22, 2004 in Geneva.
Spies stated: “I never issued a certificate [of authenticity]. I’m not an expert, in the French legal sense. I am an art historian. I simply wrote the work be included in the catalog raisonne, which is a reference to my own publication.” The court ruled that Spies’ decision to include the work in the catalog raisonne had the same “value as a certificate of authenticity unconditionally.”
The decision in France sets a new precedent against art experts and introduces liabilities for future academic study in the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment