Broker Lawsuit

Fellow appraiser and ISA instructor Kirsten Smolensky, ISA CAPP, JD sent me this interesting article from the NY Post on a lawsuit from art consultancy group that worked on a project with the hopes of brokering Greek and Roman sculptures to the Getty.  The Getty cut the brokers out, and now there is a $77 million lawsuit against the Getty. It seems the dealers did a lot of work on spec with the hopes of a latter commission on a sale.

The Courthouse News also reported on the situation, click HERE to read the article, and click HERE to view the actual lawsuit filing.

The NY Post reports

Titans of the art world are battling over a multibillion-dollar private collection of Greek and Roman sculptures.

The Torlonia family has been at the highest echelon of Italian society for centuries, amassing its wealth during the 18th and 19th centuries, when it administered the finances of the Vatican.

Along the way, the aristocratic banking clan amassed a collection of classical statues second in size only to the Vatican’s, and mostly hidden from public view.

The family began to fall out of favor, and the spotlight, after World War II. It had rented one of its villas to fascist leader Benito Mussolini for a decade.

The Torlonias were reluctant to cave to the Italian government’s efforts to make the art public, until recently, according to a lawsuit.

Swiss-based Phoenix Ancient Art and its New York agent, Electrum, says it spent five years painstakingly cataloging 620 Torlonia artifacts worth up to $550 million, just a portion of the larger collection.

Phoenix invested years building relationships with the aristocratic family and the Italian government to pave the way for a once-in-a-lifetime sale of the works. It quietly lined up the famed J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles as a potential buyer.

But museum director Timothy Potts pulled a double-cross, Phoenix claims in a $77 million lawsuit against the Getty, dealing directly with Torlonia and cutting Phoenix out of the deal.

“Getty has a history of legal troubles for allegedly dubious acquisitions,” Phoenix charges in its Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed last week.

The museum was once accused by the Italian government of buying stolen artifacts smuggled out of its country. The Getty eventually returned the art.

Phoenix claims it helped smooth over the frayed relationship between the Getty and the Italian government.

Last spring, Phoenix was shocked to see public reports of a deal to publicly display parts of the Torlonia collection, including at the Getty. Italian officials celebrated the deal as a “potential partnership between the public and private,” but Phoenix fumed.

Phoenix lost out on a huge commission, and the deal violated the agreement between Getty and Phoenix, court papers alleged.

“The plan Phoenix and [its agent] Electrum originated, designed, and documented with the help of Italian and American law firms is the basis of the plan the Getty and Torlonia family ultimately adopted,” Phoenix told The Post in a statement.

Getty has not seen the suit, said a spokeswoman who declined to comment.

Source: The NY Post