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Art Business News, August, 2000 by Emmett Murphy

SEATTLE

* A federal district court has reversed itself and will allow the Seattle Art Museum to sue the New York gallery Knoedler over the sale of a painting to the museum's donors, now deceased, 50 years ago. The museum is seeking to recover from Knoedler the current full market value of the painting "Odalisque," by Henri Matisse, which Knoedler sold to museum patrons Prentice and Virginia Bloedel in 1954. The painting is now estimated to be worth $2 million. It was returned to the heirs of art dealer and collector Paul Rosenberg in 1999. The work was looted by the Nazis in Paris in 1941.

NEW ORLEANS

* A jury has convicted an antiques dealer accused of ordering statues, urns and other artifacts stolen from ornate tombs in the city's above-ground cemeteries. Peter Patout was convicted of conspiracy and two counts of possession of stolen property. A seller, Aaron Jarabica, and an antiques collector, Roy Boucvalt, were acquitted of all charges. Prosecutors said the theft scheme stretched as far as Los Angeles and New York, where some of the $800,000 in stolen items were recovered. The artifacts included angels, urns and benches taken from historical cemeteries. Patout's lawyer said he would appeal for his client who faces up to 25 years in prison.

NORFOLK, VA.

* A bevy of mermaids is the talk of this Virginia port city. Actually they are works of sculpture: painted mythical sea sirens who are part of a public art project called `Mermaids on Parade," designed to raise money for local arts groups. This fiber-glass-for-funds concept originated in Switzerland where cows were the models. Chicago adopted the idea last year with "Cows on Parade," an outdoor exhibit now showing in Manhattan. Norfolk adopted a mermaid with outstretched arms as its official symbol in 1997. "We're the only one doing mermaids for art's sake," said Norfolk city spokesman Bob Batcher.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

* The scandal that surrounds the Hermitage stirred by a recent investigation of the Audit Chamber, a federal watchdog agency controlled by the country's parliament, continues to plague the renowned museum. Charges have been made that when works were loaned abroad, they were replaced by forged copies. Said Director Michael Piotrovsky," Any talk of copies in the Hermitage is lies. This is so absurd that I will not even comment on it. I do not wish to become a participant in the election campaign of a member of the Audit Chamber."

WASHINGTON, D.C.

* After an online auction saw a painting listed for 25 cents go for more than $135,000, the FBI has opened a probe into whether people are committing fraud by bidding up the prices of each other's items on the eBay Web site. Self-bidding, also known as shill bidding, is forbidden by eBay rules and is illegal in much of the traditional auction world. But crime experts say the explosion of Internet auctioneering is giving fresh life to old scams. "We're looking at a number of different types of traditional fraud which are now taking place through a new medium," said Nick Rossi, an FBI spokesperson.

LAS VEGAS

* MGM Grand Inc., the buyer of Mirage Resorts Inc., is selling most of the art collection owned by the Bellagio Hotel Art Gallery, valued at more than $200 million. The art was acquired by Mirage's Chairman and C.E.O., Steve Wynn, who owns the other half of the $400 million art collection now on view at Bellagio. The art is being sold to reduce the debt incurred as part of MGM's $4.4 billion purchase of Mirage. In the first post-acquisition sale, the new owner sold 11 Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings for $124 million. Wynn bought three paintings.

ALBANY, N.Y.

* Gov. George Pataki signed legislation giving prosecutors the authority to seize artwork on loan to institutions in New York State if the works are involved in criminal investigations. Pataki said the new law is necessary to undo a state Court of Appeals ruling in September that blocked Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau from seizing two paintings from the Museum of Modern Art. He was determining whether they had been stolen from their Jewish owners by Nazis. Most of the state's major art institutions have been concerned that the criminal seizure bill would hamper efforts to attract and display world-class art because lenders would be wary of seizures in New York.

* Meanwhile, Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer filed suit in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan against an Orange County gallery, accusing it of selling fake artworks over the Internet on the eBay auction site. The suit contends that the Antique and Design Center of New Windsor, N.Y., sold numerous paintings in 1999 with forged signatures of well-known artists, including Oscar Bluemner, Charles Burchfield and George Luks. In particular, the suit alleges that the gallery, using the Internet name "sambucca914," sold 23 fake paintings at prices from $700 to more than $10,000.

LONDON

* Bargaining that the French government will eventually change its laws to allow non-French auctioneers to conduct sales in France, English and American houses are forming alliances with Paris-based companies. Bonhams and William Doyle Galleries in New York have entered into an arrangement with Boisgirad, the Paris house. Bonhams and Doyle have worked together for several years conducting joint sales, promoting each other's auctions and pooling resources to attract business. With Boisgirad in the group, they will offer art and antiques through the French company both in New York and London. Works of art from Paris will be offered at Bonhams and Doyle.