A British court ordered the investors to Fund trading fake Franz Hals, to return the money to the auction house
ARTinvestment.RU   12 декабря 2019

The story that started back in 2016-м year, decided yesterday in favor of the auction house Sotheby's

in short, it was like this: in 2010, the founder of investment company Fairlight Art Ventures David Kowitz and London dealer mark Weiss bought the painting of Franz Hals, and appealed to the auction house Sotheby's to sell it privately (Private Sale — are frequent and popular practice in many of the leading auction houses). In 2011, the painting was sold for of $10.75 million to an American collector Richard Hedrin. The main profit is divided between the previous owners of the work and the auction house got their interest in the transaction.

And all anything, but in 2016 in the Wake of reports about forgeries of old masters, appeared on the market, the new owner of the portrait is decided on the additional examination. Research conducted by the specialists of the company Orion Analytical (the company was later acquired by the auction house Sotheby's) have shown that "without a doubt, fake".

After obtaining the opinion of experts from the auction house, as is customary, returned to the buyer the hammer price in full. But the previous owners paintings earned from the sale of "Portrait" the money to leave did not want, claiming that, in their opinion, it is genuine.

In his statement to The New York Times, mark Weiss wrote that he "always thought and argued that the painting was created by Frans Hals", separately noting that the process of buying and selling the work was carried out in good faith, without intent.

According to counsel's information Sotheby's Paul Lomas, Weiss a few weeks ago signed an agreement with the auction house, and paid him several million dollars, while representatives of the company Fairlight decided to defend their opinion in court.

Now the Fairlight Art Ventures have the auction house about $6 million (half the price of a hammer and court costs).

Counsel for Sotheby's commented on the court's decision: "I am Pleased that the court ruled in favor of Sotheby's for each item, in this sense, it was a very strong result."

More detailed views and comments of the parties to this case leads to his article the portal Artnews.

the Material was prepared by Maria Kuznetsova AI

Source: nytimes.com, artnews.com