Pre-WWII art treasure trove for auction
Source: Agencies |
April 23, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PAINTINGS once belonging to Ambroise Vollard, one of the 20th century's most important art dealers, go under the hammer this summer some 70 years after they were deposited in a bank vault.
Ending a lengthy legal dispute, the works will be auctioned by Sotheby's, with the highlight, a landscape by Andre Derain valued at 9-14 million pounds (US$14-22 million), being sold in London on June 22 and the remaining 140 items in Paris.
The treasure trove was stored in a Parisian bank in 1939 shortly after Vollard's death and was part of a collection of drawings and paintings first offered for sale in 1981 by Societe Generale in order to recoup 40 years of unpaid storage fees.
But the sale was canceled when the heirs of Vollard and Erich Slomovic, the young gallery assistant who worked for Vollard and deposited the works at the bank, challenged it in court claiming the proceeds of the auction should go to them.
Slomovic, a Croatian Jew, had amassed his own collection of works by leading lights of French art and managed to get hundreds of them out of France to Yugoslavia during the war, according to art journals. But he was eventually detained by the Nazis and is presumed to have died at or on his way to a concentration camp.
Many of the works Slomovic took to Yugoslavia ended up in the National Museum of Belgrade.
The dispute over ownership of the Parisian treasure trove was exacerbated by the fact that both Slomovic and Vollard died around the same time - Vollard was killed in a car accident in 1939 and had no direct heirs.
Sotheby's gave few details of the nature of the legal tussle, but said in a statement: "Those challenges now finally resolved, the works will now be sold by agreement among the legal beneficiaries of the Vollard Estate."
The Derain picture was painted in 1905 in the south of France when the artist spent the summer working with Matisse. He was among a group of artists dubbed "les fauves" (wild beasts) for the bold colors they used.
"Its strong, fauve colours and powerful composition ... will be extremely appealing to today's international buyers," said Helena Newman from Sotheby's.
Among the other lots on offer in Paris will be a Cezanne portrait of the author Emile Zola (estimated at 500-800,000 euros), a Picasso etching and a monotype by Edgar Degas.
Vollard helped to build the reputations of artists including Van Gogh and Matisse by staging one-man shows dedicated to them.
Ending a lengthy legal dispute, the works will be auctioned by Sotheby's, with the highlight, a landscape by Andre Derain valued at 9-14 million pounds (US$14-22 million), being sold in London on June 22 and the remaining 140 items in Paris.
The treasure trove was stored in a Parisian bank in 1939 shortly after Vollard's death and was part of a collection of drawings and paintings first offered for sale in 1981 by Societe Generale in order to recoup 40 years of unpaid storage fees.
But the sale was canceled when the heirs of Vollard and Erich Slomovic, the young gallery assistant who worked for Vollard and deposited the works at the bank, challenged it in court claiming the proceeds of the auction should go to them.
Slomovic, a Croatian Jew, had amassed his own collection of works by leading lights of French art and managed to get hundreds of them out of France to Yugoslavia during the war, according to art journals. But he was eventually detained by the Nazis and is presumed to have died at or on his way to a concentration camp.
Many of the works Slomovic took to Yugoslavia ended up in the National Museum of Belgrade.
The dispute over ownership of the Parisian treasure trove was exacerbated by the fact that both Slomovic and Vollard died around the same time - Vollard was killed in a car accident in 1939 and had no direct heirs.
Sotheby's gave few details of the nature of the legal tussle, but said in a statement: "Those challenges now finally resolved, the works will now be sold by agreement among the legal beneficiaries of the Vollard Estate."
The Derain picture was painted in 1905 in the south of France when the artist spent the summer working with Matisse. He was among a group of artists dubbed "les fauves" (wild beasts) for the bold colors they used.
"Its strong, fauve colours and powerful composition ... will be extremely appealing to today's international buyers," said Helena Newman from Sotheby's.
Among the other lots on offer in Paris will be a Cezanne portrait of the author Emile Zola (estimated at 500-800,000 euros), a Picasso etching and a monotype by Edgar Degas.
Vollard helped to build the reputations of artists including Van Gogh and Matisse by staging one-man shows dedicated to them.
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