Displaying items by tag: art collectors

It may not summon up a sense of international intrigue like Geneva or Luxembourg, but this small city, just off the Interstate and down the road from Wilmington, can now boast that it has joined those more glamorous locales as a tax haven for art collectors.

Fritz Dietl, who for years watched collectors ship artworks from sales in New York to tax-advantageous free ports overseas, has opened his own here in a former foam peanut packing factory beside the train tracks.

An East Hampton man accused of selling dozens of fake paintings and sketches purported to be by famous artists, and using some of the money to buy a submarine, pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to one count of wire fraud.

Prosecutors said the man, John Re, 54, claimed the pieces were by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and caused about $2.5 million in losses to victims. For nine years beginning in 2005, Mr. Re tricked art collectors by creating a false provenance, the document that shows the history of a piece of art, prosecutors said. He bought the submarine, which he called the Deep Quest, with the proceeds from a fake Pollock painting, they said.

In early May, Christie's invited a group of 18 new collectors from China to visit New York. The auction house escorted the guests on guided tours through the Museum of Modern Art, arranged VIP tickets to a local art fair and threw a lavish dinner in the Rockefeller Center ballroom of Christie's. Auctioneers also reserved two discreet skyboxes overlooking the house's saleroom so the group could watch its major spring sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art.

Christie's efforts paid off: During its May 13 contemporary art sale, members of the group placed bids on at least half the top 10 priciest pieces in what became an historic, $745 million auction.

The Lombardy region of northern Italy is known for its many “villas of delight” — the “ville di delizia” that aristocratic Milanese families built in the 17th and 18th centuries as summer escapes and settings for lavish entertainments. Varese, in the foothills of the Alps, was a magnet for these estates, several of which are clustered on the parklike hill of Biumo Superiore. At its crest sits the Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, the most storied, thanks to its longtime owner, Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, the Milanese businessman whose adventurous tastes and ardent appetites made him one of the most important art collectors of the last century.

“It’s not bad,” admitted his daughter, Maria Giuseppina Panza di Biumo, a smile escaping her lips as our eyes swept across eight acres of topiary and fountains.

As legal jockeying continues in Detroit’s bankruptcy, the city and the Detroit Institute of Arts have jointly hired a New York art investment firm whose personnel could be called as expert witnesses to push back against creditors trying to force a sale of art in court.

Artvest Partners, a well-known company that advises attorneys, dealers, insurers, other art world professionals and collectors, has been engaged to provide a price range for the entire 66,000-piece collection at the city-owned DIA and assess the viability and practicality of selling art or otherwise monetizing the collection, said Bill Nowling, spokesperson for Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr.

On Friday, February 21, 2014, nine art collectors filed a lawsuit against the Keith Haring Foundation after it publicly stated that roughly 80 works owned by the collectors were fakes. The collectors said that the defendant's statement harmed the value of their paintings, costing them at least $40 million. According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan district court, the foundation refused to fully evaluate the works before writing them off as fakes.

In March 2013, the foundation filed a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit that alleged that the works in the exhibition “Haring Miami” were fakes. The show’s promoters agreed to remove the works from the exhibit, leaving the collectors unable to sell them. The collectors said that the foundation is hoping to keep the number of authenticated Haring works low in order to increase the value of previously certified works in their possession.

Haring, an American artist and social activist, often raised political questions about HIV/AIDS and gay identity through his work. Through his activism, Haring helped the mainstream understand the AIDS crisis as a human rights issue rather than an affliction faced by a specific community.

The Orlando Museum of Art is currently presenting the exhibition ‘Rembrandt, Rubens, Gainsborough and the Golden Age of Painting’. The opening of the monumental show, which took place on January 25, 2014, marked the beginning of the museum’s 90th anniversary celebration.

The works on view are on loan from the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky and were created between 1600 and 1800, a period commonly known as the Golden Age of European painting. During this time, the number of artists and art collectors in Europe grew exponentially. The exhibition presents 71 works including portraits, religious paintings, landscapes and still lifes by artists such as Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, Jan Steen, Jacob Van Ruisdael and Thomas Gainsborough.

‘Rembrandt, Rubens, Gainsborough and the Golden Age of Painting’ will be on view at the Orlando Museum of Art through May 25, 2014.

In fall 2013 a Berlin/Hong Kong-based entrepreneur will launch Larry’s List, a database of over 3,000 international art collectors, to help galleries and art dealers find new buyers. Galleries will pay between $9 and $19 to view a profile, while artists can search their collectors for free.

Founder Magnus Resch assembled a team of 25 art market researchers who combed 27,000 sources worldwide. Resch claims that his endeavor is the most comprehensive global research project carried out on art collections. His goal is to have art dealers purchase profiles to target emerging markets. For example, if a New York-based dealer is trying to get in on the art boom in Hong Kong, they will have an accessible way to identity new customers in a largely unfamiliar market.

Larry’s List is headquartered in Hong Kong and has an office in Berlin along with regional contributors.

A house painter from Pennsylvania is accused of stealing six paintings, including an etching by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), from an estate in Long Island, NY. Joselito Vega, who was caught on camera during a sting operation, was hired in 2011 to fix flood damage to the house of renowned art collectors Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof. The couple’s 350-piece collection includes works by Jasper Johns (b. 1930), Mark Rothko (1903-1970), and Picasso.

Officials launched their investigation of Vega after Hannelore Schulhof’s death in 2012. A subsequent inventory of the Schulhof’s collection revealed that three paintings were missing. Among the missing works were Jean Dubuffet’s (1901-1985) Le Fauteuil II, which is said to be worth $50,000, Frank Stella’s (b. 1936) Tuftonboro, and Norman Lewis’ (1909-1979) Flower. Officials were able to track the Dubuffet painting to a gallery in Oakland, CA, which brokered the sale of the painting to a buyer for $8,500.    

Officials arrested Vega after a sting operation last week during which he attempted to steal three more works from the Schulhof’s home including the Picasso etching, Three Graces II, which is valued at $100,000. He also made off with Dubuffet’s Chien and Yaacov Agam’s (b. 1928) Presence de Rhythmes.

Vega was indicted on charges of money laundering, identity theft, and grand larceny. He is currently being held on $1 million bail and faces up to 11 years in prison. He faces an additional grand larceny charge in Nassau County, which could add another 15 years in prison to his sentence.