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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

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Very Sad Breaking News

art5279wideaI just received an email saying that Michael Rush, the founding director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, had died after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Rush was also, of course, the director of the Rose Museum at Brandeis University when the president and trustees there tried to sell off its collection in 2009. Because he opposed that idea, Rush’s contact was not renewed.

Today’s statement from MSU continued:

“On behalf of the MSU community, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Michael Rush,” President Lou Anna K. Simon said. “In the short time we were fortunate enough to call Michael a colleague, he had a profound impact on the university through his work with the Broad museum and in the art community. The future accomplishments of the museum staff will always reflect the foundation he built.”

Rush knew many people in the art world–that’s an understatement–from his many activities. There will be a memorial for him in New York later this spring, the announcement said.

I knew Michael, as I am sure many of you did, and liked him very much. RIP.

 

What’s Up With The Met’s Lauder Center?

Rabinow-Rebecca-webThat was the question on my mind when I proposed a story on it for the annual New York Times special section on museums, which was part of today’s paper. The result is headlined A Gift That Could Rewrite Art History in the paper (it’s different–and too “newsy” a headline on the web–bt that’s journalism today. Interestingly, the Times usually shows the writer the print head, but not the web head).

In any case, here’s the link to the article.

The Lauder Research Center for Modern Art has an enviable $22 million endowment of its own and is headed by curator Rebecca Rabinow (pictured). I won’t go into the details of the center’s components here–they are all in the article. The most interesting thing for RCA readers will be to watch for results. One project in particular, in which a scholar named Verane Tasseau is trying to compile the inventory of Daniel Kahnweiler’s gallery and trace where those artworks went, has great potential to fulfill that headline.

In the meantime, you may want to peruse the Center’s microsite, which contains a lot of information and databases that are growing by the week.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Met

 

It’s Official: A New Director For National Gallery

GFinaldiAs I predicted here on Jan. 4, the National Gallery in London has chosen Gabriele Finaldi to succeed Nicholas Penny. The NG made the announcement this morning, saying:

Dr Finaldi will take up his new position 17 August 2015. Current Director, Dr Nicholas Penny announced his retirement in summer 2014.

Dr Finaldi, a British citizen, is currently Deputy Director for Collections and Research at the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid where he has been since 2002. He was formerly a Curator at the National Gallery, London between 1992 and 2002 where he was responsible for the later Italian paintings in the collection (Caravaggio to Canaletto) and the Spanish collection (Bermejo to Goya).

Finaldi, who is 49, was born in London; he studied art history at Dulwich College and then at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Here’s a link to the press release.

My sources say he has done a superb job running the Prado–his job as deputy director is essentially the director, who is a political appointee, I believe. Finaladi oversaw the Prado’s expansion and a staff reorganization, raised its international profile, boosted research and conservation and presented many rewarding exhibitions.

I don’t know him personally, but I hope to meet him at some point.

Photo Credit: Photo © Sergio Enriquez-Nistal

 

Bouvier Shenanigans, Chapter Two: Steve Cohen

YBouvierWhen I cited that article in Le Temps, a newspaper in Geneva, to identify the buyer of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi (Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev), I hadn’t read far enough: Yves Bouvier (pictured), the broker-dealer who sold the Leonardo to Rybolovlev–allegedly committing fraud (which his lawyer denies)–also may have used the same tactic when he sold a Modigliani nude owned by Steve Cohen to the Russian.

Here’s how it worked, supposedly: Rybolovlev paid Bouvier $118 million for the Modigliani, but Cohen received $93.5 million for it. At a New Year’s Eve party last year, Rybolovlev learned of the gap from Sandy Heller, Cohen’s art adviser–but Heller had no idea he was talking to the anonymous buyer. Rybolovlev charges that Bouvier pocketed the difference, $24.5 million, plus a commission he paid.

According to Forbes (which cites Le Temps),

The anecdote about Steve Cohen’s Modigliani comes straight out of the criminal complaint received on January 12, 2015 by Monaco’s Palais de Justice, and was confirmed by source close to the matter. While Bouvier may not be a household name in the U.S., the accusations and ensuing arrest reverberated across the European art market, where Bouvier runs a set of luxury warehouses across Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore where the world’s billionaires store their art, along with jewels, fine wines, and other luxury goods legally in tax-free zones.

Bouvier has a past. Again, from Forbes:

…Bouvier was embroiled in a similar legal scandal in 2008, when he was connected to a group that tricked an aging collector into selling a piece by Russian-born French artist Chaim Soutine that was then flipped to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. A suite filed by the heirs of Canadian Lorette Jolles Shefner claims she was misled into selling Piece of Beef for $1 million in the Spring of 2004 by two art experts who, a few months later, sold it to the National Gallery for nearly twice the price. Bouvier was “acting in concert [with the experts] to disguise the true ownership” of works of art as part of the fraudulent scheme, court documentsrevealed.

Rybolovlev settled that divorce battle I mentioned in my last post for $4.5 billion, several reports say, so he “needs” the money Bouvier may have tricked him out of. I hope this suit continues: we could learn a lot.

 

Buyer of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi Identified–UPDATED

Along with, supposedly, the final price tag. He is Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev and he is said to have bought the painting for $127 million.

SalvatorMundiWhen I last left this subject, in November, 2013, I said that the painting has been sold to a private collector in Europe.  In March, 2014, the New York Times picked up the sale and put the price tag at around $75- to $80 million.

Now a lawsuit filed in Monaco says that Rybolovlev bought the work in May 2103, through Swiss dealer and free-port king Yves Bouvier. Rybolovlev is suing Bouvier, according to an article in Le Temps, for fraud. 

The story is, of course, in French, and my French, even with help from online translating pages, is rudimentary. However, it seems to say that Rybolovlev saw the NYT figure and decided that the price he actually paid was less and that Bouvier actually pocketed the $50 million or so difference in addition to the $1.27 million commission he paid.

The purchase apparently came at a time when Rybolovlev, in the midst of a nasty divorce, was spending as much cash as he could to keep it away from his ex-wife, Elena.

What a mess. But if we stay tuned to the lawsuit proceedings, we may pick up some things about the art world.

UPDATE, 3/13: The Financial Times has an article this morning saying that a Singapore court has frozen the assets of Bouvier:

The temporary court order forbids Yves Bouvier, the head of Switzerland-based Natural Le Coultre, from divesting his personal assets, including any shares in companies that he owns up to the value of $500m.

The court has also demanded that Mr Bouvier hand over a multimillion-dollar Mark Rothko painting, No. 6 (violet, vert et rouge), now at the centre of a bitter dispute between the businessman and one of his clients.

On Wednesday, Swiss police conducted two raids at Geneva free port, searching the offices of Natural Le Coultre and Gallerie Nelombos, owned by a business associate of Mr Bouvier, Jean-Marc Peretti, which deals in post-Impressionist and modern art.

…Mr Bouvier, who lives in Singapore, was arrested at the end of February on suspicion of price fixing and money laundering, allegations he vigorously denies. He was released three days after his arrest on €10m bail.

A statement from Mr Bouvier’s lawyers said at the time that he would demonstrate the “fantasy and non-existence” of the “alleged damages”. His lawyers told the Financial Times that Mr Bouvier carried out the transactions with Mr Rybolovlev’s trust on a commercial basis, as a dealer, rather than as an agent.