William Adolfe Bouguereau, "Notre Dame des Anges."
Posted on 01/12/2012 1:27:13 PM PST by NYer
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William Adolfe Bouguereau, "Notre Dame des Anges."
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A long-standing lawsuit over the sale of a 19th-century painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau has been lost by New York State-based Catholic nuns who sued a Santa Fe, N.M., art dealer and a local art appraiser.
In 2008, the nuns claimed that dealer Mark Zaplin and appraiser Mark LaSalle had colluded to defraud them of $1.7 million from the sale of their painting "Notre Dame des Anges," an 1889 work by Bouguereau depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child.
The Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior and St Joseph's Chapel, in Round Top, N.Y., had sold the work in 2006 for $450,000 to Zaplin after LaSalle's appraisal. Zaplin later sold the work to Dallas art dealer Brian Roughton for about $2.5 million.
Contending negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, express or implied warranty, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, deceptive business practices and violation of the penal law regarding stealing property, the nuns sued Zaplin and LaSalle for $1.75 million, plus $50 million in punitive damages.
On Monday, a jury ruled in favor of Zaplin and LaSalle.
A separate case involving Zaplin was also recently settled, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The 2009 lawsuit filed against the Zaplin-Lampert Gallery by the estate of T.C. Cannon, over woodcut prints based on one of the artist’s oil paintings, was concluded with the rights of reproduction left in the hands of the artist's sister, Joyce Cannon Yi, who had instigated the suit.
The Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior is a congregation of traditional Catholic Sisters.
How can somebody do this to these Sisters?! The Nuns may have lost this judgment, but the defendants in this case might just lose the “big” judgment later. That judgment cannot be appealed and it is eternal:)
I’m not familiar with the case, or the painting, but art prices are EXTREMELY volatile. There may not have been any intent to defraud. It’s a crap shoot.
Like anything else, any collectable item is only worth as much as someone else is willing to pay. The jury heard all the arguements, and found for the defendant.
I’ve seen ‘art’ that I wouldn’t slow down to pick up, if I found it out along side the road - that has sold for millions. Heck, if you want to find real ‘outrage’ - visit the Smithsonian in Washington DC and go see the new building built for “Modern Art”. What a waste of taxpayer funded air conditioning. There is 1000x more talent in the exterior of the building, than the sum total of what is inside of it.
It’s next door to the ‘Hall of the Masters’ and talk about a contrast in ‘art’. Given the opportunity, I would gladly volunteer my personal time to haul some of that ‘art’ to the street to be hauled away; to make room for some pieces that are worthy of exhibition, IMHO.
They've come a long way from rapping your knuckles with a ruler!
This includes many auction houses ( not long ago including Sothebys and Christies )
I knew a man who would appraise estates which were going to be sold. He would purposely low ball the estimates on everything and then recommend two or three reputable antique dealers to purchase everything. The appraiser would advise the owner to “ make sure the dealers offer falls in the mid ground “ of his appraisal.
Two of the dealers would leave BS bids on everything but the third after much drama of “ I'm paying too much! “ would agree to pay the mid range price. Or he would simply leave a bid in the mid range knowing what it was to begin with.
The two ultra-lowballing antique dealers would take a fee of 500.00 or 1,000.00 depending on the overall value. The dealer who would buy the estate would then split everything with the original appraiser after the appraiser paid the dealer half the price.
- and this was just the tip of the iceberg.
This includes many auction houses ( not long ago including Sothebys and Christies )
I knew a man who would appraise estates which were going to be sold. He would purposely low ball the estimates on everything and then recommend two or three reputable antique dealers to purchase everything. The appraiser would advise the owner to “ make sure the dealers offer falls in the mid ground “ of his appraisal.
Two of the dealers would leave BS bids on everything but the third after much drama of “ I'm paying too much! “ would agree to pay the mid range price. Or he would simply leave a bid in the mid range knowing what it was to begin with.
The two ultra-lowballing antique dealers would take a fee of 500.00 or 1,000.00 depending on the overall value. The dealer who would buy the estate would then split everything with the original appraiser after the appraiser paid the dealer half the price.
- and this was just the tip of the iceberg.
He didn’t do anything wrong. That’s the fun of selling unique objects. Appraisers are appraising based on the part of the market they know, if somebody knows somebody that’s willing to pay a lot more that doesn’t mean the appraiser is wrong, and that doesn’t mean that paying the appraisal amount and turning around and selling it for 4 times as much is wrong. Selling art is all about being able to find the deepest pockets, if the nuns had known the final buyer they could have sold it for that price, but they didn’t.
Asking for $50 million in “punitive damages” sounds a little shady to me
Do these nuns take the three vows—POVERTY, chastity and obedience—??
they probably do, but their vows are personal and have nothing to do with the value of a piece of art which the order owns. The Pope may be personally bound by various vows, but let's not wait for him to sell off the Vatican Museum's art collection.
The Bible says you are supposed to settle your lawsuits so you don’t get handed over to the judge
Having the same person appraise and buy an object seems, on its face, ludicrous.
Three sharp raps on the knuckle with a ruler for these nuns not doing their HOMEWORK!
;)
The Bouguereau works at Sotheby's portray milky white women, either caressing naked babes or displaying their own comely body parts, with estimates ranging from $40,000 to $800,000. Christie's, which also holds its 19th-century European art sale next week, is selling a Bouguereau of the melancholic muse Philomela: The 1861 canvas is estimated at $250,000 to $350,000. Christie's sale is expected to bring in $16.3 million to $24.4 million.My initial reaction was that the Nun's got screwed. But this Sun article makes me think that they might have received a fair price.From the NY Sun, October 20, 2005
ML/NJ
Santa Fe art?
Santa Fe has incredible art. It also has incredible scams. Here's a get-rich-quick scheme from Santa Fe:
1) Make some pine furniture - the cheaper the better. Side tables, dressers, beds, chairs, tables, whatever.
2) Load it in your truck, drive it out into the desert, and thow it down a sloping cliff that beats the hell out of it without quite destroying it.
3) Leave it out there for a month.
4) Pick it all back up, tighten the loose parts, and slap THOUSAND DOLLAR price stickers on it.
5) Put it up for sale in Santa Fe, and count your money as it rolls in.
No joke, it's THAT insane there.
(But there really is good art, too, if you're smart about it.)
The way I read it, the nun's case was predicated upon the suspicion of collusion between the appraiser and the two buyers. While they apparently did not demonstrate their case to the satisfaction of the jury, if in fact, they had, and were able to show that the appraiser intentionally lowballed them, and then perhaps shared in the proceeds from (or perhaps even pre-arranged) the marked up sale, then, I wouldn't think $50M punitive would be entirely unreasonable.
Keep in mind that the appraiser was engaged by, and had an ethical obligation to, the nuns. If he willfully and intentionally violated that trust for his own gain, that's a pretty serious breech. The nuns however, were apparently unable to present compelling evidence to that effect.
OMG!! Makes me want to send them a check!! i LOVE seeing nuns in their habits!!
One would think that the sisters would just want to crack them across the knuckles with a ruler. :=)
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