Compiling a catalogue raisonné can land you in court.

A Bacon catalogue raisonné  (John Rothenstein and Ronald Alley, 1960.

Chilling article over at the Art Newspaper on how much the law is encroaching on art history research and scholarship. In this age of high profile attributions. skyrocketing prices and vested interests, I suppose this is to be expected. It’s depressing reading, though. Take the case of the Francis Bacon expert, Martin Harrison.

“On the advice of lawyers, Martin Harrison, who has published widely on 19th- and 20th-century art and is the editor of the Bacon catalogue raisonné, will only go as far as saying that these drawings, which some suspect are fakes, are “unlike any authenticated works”. An open seminar on these drawings is due to be held at the Courtauld Institute on 25 January.”

Then there’s the curator, and Modigliani scholar, Marc Restellini, who abandoned compiling a catalogue raisonné because he was fearful of legal consequences.

“Compiling catalogues raisonné is another source of potential risk. The Parisian curator Marc Restellini abandoned preparation of the catalogue of Modigliani’s drawings after a court challenge by a collector whose two drawings were excluded.”

Basquiat’s Fuego Flores (1983) being sold at Sotheby's

OK, so you’re a leading expert in your field, you doubt an attribution, but you don’t want to be sued by the owner of the work. So you keep your mouth shut. Safe? Think again.

“Even keeping silent can be dangerous. Recent cases have seen owners of works attacking specialists and boards for not giving an opinion. The owner of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Fuego Flores, 1983, sued the artist’s authentication board, demanding that it either reach a decision or pay damages of up to $5m. After the lawsuit was dismissed, the Basquiat Authentication Committee ruled the work genuine.”

Art history doesn’t do court well, as with the Ruskin v Whistler trail of 1878, or as in the hilarious case of Duveen, Berenson and the Hahns of 1929, mentioned a few post ago.

Auction houses have formidable legal expertise, but the scholar giving his or her opinion at a conference, or in symposia ? Will Bacon scholars be scared to air their expertise at next year’s Courtauld seminar?

“Many fear that individuals may soon fear speaking openly in public platforms, such as in symposia, and institutions are also concerned. Sanig says that larger museums in the US appear to be stopping their curators from giving opinions on authentication matters. However, this can be resolved by seeking a disclaimer from any potential suit or an indemnity for legal costs from an interested party, in order to further academic debate.”

Rumpole of the Bailey prepares to defend another art historian in court.

OK. Most of this is modern art, but don’t kid yourselves. With disputes over the Leonardo “Bella Principessa”, and the stakes becoming higher and higher for the Old Master market, maybe we’ll see more of this madness, especially in relation to fakes and copies.

Maybe in future, we should say things like: “This painting isn’t by Leonardo, allegedly”. Or, ” I think this drawing is by another artist, whose name must be withheld for legal reasons.”

Nothing further to add M’lud.

Comments

[Bob]

And the problem with a Basquiat is that any child with enough paint and toy brushes can knock off several dozen during recess.

[HNiyazi]

This is a somewhat sensationalist story from TAN. I would like to see the legal statutes, per nation, which apply to prohibiting the compilation of an artists works.

What is at stake is money. The La Bella Principessa case is a clear example of the bind experts (at Christies in this instance) can find themselves in if their attribution gets overturned by a superior analysis.

However, the language that now seems to accompany documentation provided with auction items seems to include a disclaimer firmly putting the onus back on the potential buyer.

Just last week, when researching the "Workshop Raphael" piece on sale at Sotheby's - there was just such a disclaimer attached to the "condition report" of the painting. I discussed it my report of that piece last week, including a pdf of that report. Your readers are invited to peruse it here:

http://www.3pipe.net/2011/12/examining-workshop-attributions-raphael.html

To cut a long story short though, the art market has gotten wiser and is increasingly putting the onus back on the buyers to supply the expertise.

This places scholars in a precarious position of course, though in my mind if someone like Kemp or Joannides publishes a statement that a work is by Leonardo, Titian, etc they better be willing to justify their results because of the financial impact their findings may have. This highlighs the need for a sound, reproducible methodology more than ever, where the same results can be arrived upon at each assessment, not the subjective mish-mash connoisseurship currently happens to be.

Thanks for the fascinating report!
H

[David Packwood]

Actually I quite like some of Basquiat Bob.

h, yes the auction houses are almost fireproof, legal wise- it's scholars whose opinions carry weight that are exposed. Yes, I did read your post on the Raphael workshop piece. I didn't know about that, just the Julius II variant.

[H Niyazi]

Cheers David!

I just hope I can get to the end of the year without another piece related to Raphael popping up! When that Julius II news popped up last week, I was inundated with requests to do a write-up of it! Being related to my project, I was happy to oblige. It will be interesting to see how the NGL/Uffizi responds. Whatever we may say of the polish of the end product, the pentimento more closely matching the Stanze fresco of Julius as Gregory IX is a fascinating discovery. It makes we wonder if any of the other listed copies have this feature?

H

[dzone]

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