Artsproof

stolen art

Two of the stolen art pieces: two, both by local artists. The first is called "That Did It" by Meghan Hildebrand, the second a watercolour bouquet by Doris Kramer.

A French lawyer allegedly stole her client’s $22-million Yves Klein painting.

France’s judicial police have opened an investigation into a woman’s allegation that her former attorney stole her Yves Klein painting valued at up to €20 million ($22 million). According to a report in Europe 1, the painting’s 80-year-old owner said she was persuaded by her lawyer at the time to entrust her with the painting, which the attorney claimed was at risk of theft or damage.

Since then, the lawyer has allegedly ignored all requests for the painting’s restitution and deposited it in a storage facility where she is listed as its owner.
As proof, the lawyer allegedly produced a letter in which the painting’s owner gifted it to her, which the plaintiff claims is fake.
Neither party in the dispute has been named, nor has the painting at its center been identified.

The painting was given to the plaintiff by Klein himself in 1956 when she was just 17 years old.

According to Europe 1’s report, several experts have valued it at up to $22 million.
The current auction record for a work by Klein was established at Christie’s in London in 2012 when his Le Rose du bleu (in the picture) sold for $36.7 million.

Artsproof is keeping a close look at this case. Stay tuned

*Originally posted on Artsy.

Japanese museum demands compensation before it will return stolen £1m painting to family of British Baronet

A Japanese museum is refusing to return a £1 million Joshua Reynolds painting stolen from a Suss*x home in 1984 unless it receives “just and reasonable compensation”.

The oil-on-canvas portrait was painted in about 1780 but stolen from the home of Sir Henry and Lady Price with a number of other works of art and family heirlooms.

Four years after the theft, the painting is thought to have been auctioned at Sotheby’s in London to an art dealer, who sold it to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum in 1990.

The family of the late Sir Henry - a businessman from Yorkshire who founded Fifty Shilling Tailors stores in 1905 and later became a well-known philanthropist - engaged Art Recovery International to locate the painting and it was subsequently found in Tokyo.

But officials of the museum have refused to meet with the original owners of the painting and demanded payment of “a reasonable sum” before even engaging in discussions over the stolen work, a demand that is a contravention of ICOM guidelines.

When dealing with cases like these you need to make these kinds of decisions all the time.

What do you think the Japanese museum should do?

Posted originally on the Telegraph