Christie's London has canceled a sale of a collection of 85 works by Joan Miro and owned by Portugal. It seems there are claims the paintings are part of Portugal's cultural heritage, yet the country did not obtain the paintings until 2008 when it nationalized a bank. Christie's stated there were enough legal uncertainties in the various disputes to cancel the sale. Again, clear title and ownership is coming in to play and affecting the ability to legally sell.
The NY Times reports
Source: The NY TimesMADRID — On Tuesday, the auction house Christie’s canceled a London sale of a collection of 85 works by the Catalan artist Joan Miró, owned by Portugal.
Christie’s decision came only hours before the auction was scheduled to start and after a Lisbon court earlier on Tuesday rejected an appeal against the sale of the Miró works. The collection became state property in 2008 as part of the nationalization of a troubled bank, and the proceeds of the auction were due to help Portugal clean up its public finances.
In a statement, Christie’s said that “while the recent injunction to stop the sale was not granted, the legal uncertainties created by this ongoing dispute mean that we are not able to safely offer the works for sale.” The statement added: “We have a responsibility to our buyers to be sure that legal title can transfer to them without issue.”
In recent weeks, the planned auction has prompted a public controversy in Portugal, led by opposition lawmakers and artists who have argued that the Miró collection was now part of Portugal’s cultural heritage and could therefore not be sold overseas.
Portugal hoped to earn at least $50 million from the sale. The collection fell into the nation’s hands when the Lisbon government was forced to seize control of Banco Portugues de Negócios, or BPN, a bank crippled by debt and management irregularities. BPN had itself acquired the Miró works from a private Japanese collection before the 2008 start of the financial crisis, which hit Portugal particularly hard and forced the Lisbon government to negotiate an international bailout in 2011. In return, the lenders forced Portugal into a bailout program that has involved heavy spending cuts and asset divestments.
Cabral Nunes, the director of the Perve Galeria in Lisbon, said it was “unbelievable” that the state had shipped the Miró works to London without ever exhibiting the collection in Portugal, after BPN’s nationalization. Mr. Nunes helped start an online petition to stop the auction.
“The Portuguese are paying a huge financial toll for the mistakes of the bank that got this artwork, so the Portuguese people should at the very least have the benefit of seeing and owning this unique collection,” Mr. Nunes said in a phone interview, just before Christie’s cancellation.
The paintings were being sold by a Portuguese state holding company, Parvalorem. The court case was triggered by a group of opposition lawmakers who appealed last week to Portugal’s public prosecutor to stop the sale. Lisbon’s administrative court, however, ruled on Tuesday that the sale had not been decided on directly by the center-right government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and that Parvalorem had not breached any administrative rule.
Still, Portugal’s main opposition Socialist party has called on Portugal’s secretary of state for culture to appear before Parliament to explain exactly how the auction came about.
Some prominent museum executives have joined the criticism. João Fernandes, the Portuguese deputy director of the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, told RTP, the Portuguese national broadcaster, that the Miró works “should stay in Portugal or form part of some museum.”
In its statement, Christie’s said that, “We hope that the parties in this dispute can resolve their differences in due course.”
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