IFAR Journal
Volume 7, No. 1
2004
Courbet, or Not Courbet, That is the Question
— Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu
Article, by a pre-eminent Courbet scholar, discusses the long history of forgery of the work of the artist beginning in his lifetime and continuing today. Article concludes by emphasizing the importance of documentation
Book Review: Lost in Translation
— Konstantin Akinsha
Review of Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy’s book, The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure (Walker and Company, New York, 2004).
Museum Litigation Update: 2004
— Stephen E. Weil
Edited version of a talk by Weil given for the 32nd annual ALI-ABA (American Law Institute-American Bar Association) Course of Study on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. It summarizes recent litigation involving American museums and related institutions, including the Shchukin claim, the Malevich claim, the so-called Kenniwick Man, and others.
News and Updates: A Recipe for Art Fraud – Government Indicts Art Dealer Ely Sakhai
— Sharon Flescher
Describes an alleged art fraud scheme that has been in operation for 14 years. The case is currently in the discovery phase and will go to trial.
News and Updates: Liz Taylor Seeks Court’s Aid in Holocaust Claim
— Sharon Flescher and Matthew Batters
Discusses issues surrounding Elizabeth Taylor’s complaint in the Los Angeles district court seeking declaration that she is the rightful owner of a Van Gogh painting entitled View of the Asylum and Chapel at Saint Remy.
News and Updates: Christie’s to Appeal Decision in Thomson Urn Case
— Sharon Flescher and Matthew Batters
Christie’s will appeal a London High Court judgment involving an urn sold as an eighteenth-century Louis XV work, but believed by some to be nineteenth-century.
News and Updates: Supreme Court Ruling in Klimt Case
— Sharon Flescher and Matthew Batters
A recent decision by the Supreme Court determined that a California woman’s suit against the government of Austria could proceed in the U.S., discusses the implications for other World War II-related lawsuits.
News and Updates: Antiquities Dealer Hicham Aboutaam Receives Probation and Fine for Customs Violation
— Sharon Flescher and Matthew Batters
Hicham Aboutaam was sentenced and fined for falsifying a commercial customs declaration in order to import an antiquity from Iran.
News and Updates: Who Owns Vuillard Research?
— Sharon Flescher and Rebecca Friedman
Two art historians have filed lawsuits in France and in the U.S. seeking recognition of their scholarship on the artist Edouard Vuillard as a result of perceived copyright infringement.
Stolen Art Alert
Thefts include: Peter Brueghel, The Younger, A Farmer and Six Geese; Juan Gris, Le Mandolin Sur La Table, 1925; Fernand Leger, Nature morte bleu et rouge, 1938; Rembrandt Van Rijn, Self-Portrait in a Velvet Cap with Plume, 1638 and Descent from the Cross by Torchlight, 1654. Also included are jewelry items once owned by Elvis Presley and stolen from the Elvis-A-Rama museum in Las Vegas, March 14, 2004. Among the items are: “EAP” ID Bracelet, c.1971; Star Ru; Diamond Ring, c.1975; “Elvis” Gold and Diamond Medallion, c.1973; “EP” Diamond Pendant and Chain, c.1975.
Stolen: Native American Art
Separate theft listing of some of the 110 ethnographic and 373 archaeological materials stolen between 1995 and 1999 from the collections of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, Madison, by its curator. Objects include: Cheyenne Eagle Feather and Ermine Tail Headdress.
Missing Art
Pablo Picasso, Nature morte à la charlotte, (missing from a workshop belonging to the Pompidou Centre, Paris, May 2004).
