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Are Sotheby’s and Christie’s or all major auctions houses still the reference to establish the value of your art works?
It is not my intention to have them sue me for my thoughts in this letter. Nonetheless there are so many events these last months that I want to bring in daylight some evidence that these major auction houses are interfering in the daily merchants business of antiquities dealers, fine art galleries from all over the world.
Take the time to read what happened to me recently, it is juicy. One of my clients has a fantastic Modigliani painting from 1918, representing a lady, one of most beautiful paintings by Modigliani if you ask me. This painting comes with a provenance history since the day it was created. First it was bought by Leopold Zwoborowski , Modigliani’s merchant, after a while the famous Katia Granoff bought it in the 1940’s, and stayed in this family until the 1990’s. In the mean time our painting was exhibited in more than 30 museums or major galleries for Modigliani’s retrospectives : so Galerie Granoff, Galerie Charpentier etc etc., we have of course most of these exhibition catalogs where the painting was represented and even was on the front page of these catalogs. The painting went on world tours, in Italy, Spain, USA, Japan. In Tokyo in the late 90’s our painting was even the poster you could see in the streets of Tokyo, of course we have this poster also. The painting comes evidently with several certificates: Lantheman, Andre Schoeller from 1954, Mrs L. Zwoborowski, and the famous Mr. Christian Parisot expertise, which is the administrator of legal archives of Modigliani. Of course our painting is repertoried in several catalogue raisonne so the Lantheman etc. Not illustrated in the Ceroni catalogue raisonne but we have the hand written letter of Mrs. Ceroni stating that the painting is repertoried in her late husband’s archives as an authentic Modigliani painting. ( of course she can prove this we assume).
I find an investor in Florida who is willing to pay $ 4,500,000.00 for the painting. ( in my opinion if this painting came in auction it will have a value of 7 to 8 million $. For personal reasons the owner doesn’t want or can’t put this painting for auction, not necessary to explain that the taxes administration of his country have something to do with this.
My investor, is in love with the painting, but still wants to have Sotheby’s and Christie’s opinion about the value of this painting. The response came rapidly: they will not accept this painting for their auctions because it is not in the Ceroni archives as a first response, and as a second response when they find out that the painting is repertoried in the archives, because it is not illustrated in the Ceroni catalogue!. Other ways they are saying that the painting is maybe a fake? They didn’t say this but what must the investor think? The painting is under suspicion!
Because the gentlemen and women from Sotheby’s and Christie’s in charge of the Modern and Impressionist art have cold feet or they don’t have enough experience or are they just trying to have the investor buy their own products, where of course at this rate they will make a profit of $ 1,600,000.00 if my investor buys from them a similar value painting? This will stay without response. What is evident: is the fact that this painting exhibited in so many museums, repertoried everywhere, seen by millions of people , a painting that was chosen by eminent curators as a jewel of Modigliani’s art to be part of their so difficult to assemble paintings exhibitions, It is evident that Sotheby’s and Christie’s are killing an artwork of major importance , and gave it a “ suspicious “ label for their own reason, that I will qualify as financial interests reasons. My investor didn’t buy the painting and it went back to Europe..I didn’t make any commission for a very difficult work that took me several months and cost me a serious amount of $ in insurance to ship the painting to the USA. In conclusion if you have some very important art, with all the certificates you want, with the best provenance possible, you may be highly disillusioned if you want to sell that major art work you thought has so much value only because of Sotheby’s and Christie’s may decide it so! For me this is manifestly a conflict of interests in the art business. An auction house is where you sell your art at the highest bidder, the managers should not interfere in the authentication process by taking a position as negative as they did in this case. I mentioned each time Sotheby’s and Christie’s at the same time, even if my investor was working with one of them, but through personal verification I find out that they are working under a same umbrella, so they did in the past so commented here in articles I find on the web:
The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal
2000: Sotheby's and Al Taubman The world's elite were ripped off by years of price-fixing on the part of those supposed bitter competitors, auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's. Sotheby's chairman, Taubman, was found guilty of conspiracy last year. He is yet to be sentenced
US charges NYC Gallery owner in multimillion $ global scheme to sell real masterworks and forged copies, this is a US Gov. website.
Top auction houses sell looted art, claims Howells Kim howells, the culture minister, is accusing Britain's leading auction houses of trading in looted antiquities and demanding that they do more to ensure the provenance of objects they sell. Mr Howells, who caused uproar last week when he accused American film stars of being too "terrified" to fly to Europe, has now infuriated British auctioneers and art dealers with a suggestion that they could be supporting the trade in stolen goods
The Great $50 Million Art Swindle Another evidence of conflict of interests: Auction house loans money to art dealer!! Link From Library Journal The sometimes shady world of the international art market has become a popular subject for writers and television reporters. Stolen treasures, smuggled antiquities, and the seemingly endless cultural atrocities of World War II have been covered in a spate of recent works. Watson, a journalist and author of the art-crime work The Caravaggio Conspiracy (LJ 2/1/84), here turns the harsh light of publicity on the elite auction rooms of Sotheby's. Using information from a former Sotheby's employee and the familiar, if sometimes distasteful tactics of investigative reporting, Watson builds a case that the auction house has systemically abetted the transportation of antiquities and Old Masters in contravention of various national and international laws …………….
Be on Your Avant-Garde! A complete collection sold is fake?
Former leaders of Christie's and Sotheby's were indicted for auction price-fixing
A Fraud! Auction 'Rivals' Are Anything But By Devin Leonard Christie's and Sotheby's have always acted like mortal enemies whose well-bred staffs jockey for the next vault of impressionist oil paintings. Their top executives fuel that perception by trading polite insults as exquisitely wrought as a Cezanne still life. It turns out, however, that for the past eight years, the "grand old rivalry" between Christie's and Sotheby's has been a bit of a forgery. Only now is it igniting for real.
MORE WOES FOR SOTHEBY'S; LO80 IDENTIFIED; LVMH BUYS TAJAN AUCTION HOUSE; STATE AND FED CRACKDOWN ON INTERNET AUCTION FRAUD
ALFRED TAUBMAN SENTENCED
Van Gogh Sunflowers fake sold by Christie’s ?
Many other auctioneers, including Christie's and Sotheby's have sold such fakes on the market and though they cannot be suspected of having lent a hand to the fraud the competencies of their experts might at least be seriously challenged
My conclusion is very simple, Sotheby’s and Christie’s are manifestly in conflict of interests when they sell art work for their clients or when then analyze an artwork. Of course it is their freedom to accept or not to accept a Modigliani in their auctions. But my question will be : the paintings repertoried in the Ceroni are almost all sold, what will they do in the future? No more selling Modigliani paintings? I doubt it. They will very rapidly find a solution to this and accept the many other authentic paintings by Modigliani hanging at this time in Museums or in vaults or on the walls of collectors and not repertoried in Mr. Ceroni’s catalogue raisonne. The art world needs an “independent source of estimation “ like the auction house was supposed to be years ago. Thank you to all the writers of these so interesting web pages mentioned in my links. Gerard Van Weyenbergh
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