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April 13, 2011

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Part IV of V: The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital

by James A. Bond,
ARCA Class of 2011

EXPROPRIATED ART

Corporations with a dominant shareholder have the freedom to use company funds to finance art acquisitions for their personal enjoyment. If the corporations encounter financial difficulties, the artworks are sold to satisfy creditors or they may be expropriated by the dominant shareholder, which happened in the Parmalat bankruptcy in Italy. Mr. Calisto Tanzi, CEO of Permalat, took a small company and grew it into a large corporation. Mr. Tanzi was the dominant shareholders and had a love of art and used his corporations to purchase art. The Parmalat bankruptcy is an extreme example of how family controlled businesses—Mr. Tanzi’s family held controlling interest in Permalat—through expropriating assets can attempt to transfer capital.

When the Parmalat company collapsed under almost $20 billion in debt in 2003 Mr. Tanzi, the company founder, was ask if he had hidden any assets to which he replied:
I don’t have even one lira; I’m not talking about a euro, not even an Italian lira.
This statement was probably true in the sense that Mr. Tanzi had no capital in the form of M2 since both he and his corporation had declared bankruptcy but he was not without capital. Six years later the truth of the matter was revealed when over $130 million in art belonging to Mr. Tanzi was seized from the homes of relatives and friends. Some of the artwork had been offered for sale.

OTHER

To successfully transfer money in a form other than M2 the medium chosen must have an exchange value and, ideally, a personal value. How easily this conversion takes place, and the value ascribed to the transaction, will be determined by these two characteristics. People collect everything. eBay, the internet auction site, sells or has sold just about any physical object, in exchange for M2. Craigslist in addition to selling items and services for M2 also list objects for objects, objects for services (and vice versa), as well as services and objects for M2. With the internet an international market for anything with an exchange value can be sold, auctioned, or bartered and the higher the personal and exchange value it has the higher will be the redemption value in whatever form chosen. The bringing together of buyers and sellers anonymously has expanded the market for physical items and services and the ability to transfer capital. Recently a rare comic book sold for $1.075 million from an anonymous seller to an anonymous buyer. The seller had purchased the comic book for $100 forty years ago yielding him a 269% average annual return on his investment.

VI. Legal Aspects

The regulations and laws governing the movement of capital vary by country and the type of capital. Capital in the form of M2 is highly regulated because the drug trade and terrorism often utilized this type of capital because of its high exchange value. The laws regulating the movement, sale, or purchase of different forms of high value art, collectibles, or antiquities vary significantly by the type of art and by country. Laws governing high value art in the form of antiquities evolved during the twentieth century as nations and the world came to value the cultural heritage their antiquities represented. Nations that saw their antiquities expropriated, because or war or colonization, enacted laws in response to importing/exporting particularly of antiquities. Restrictions on the movement of high value art and collectible has been dependent upon the nation’s stock of art capital, economic well being, system of governance, and judicial sophistication. In 1970, UNESCO passed the Convention on the means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which was signed by over 110 nations and ratified by seventy. This document became the locus for other nations to pass new laws as the U.S. did in 1979 with the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. In 2003 the U.K. passed Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act of 2003 pertaining to tainted cultural objects. In 1995, 30 countries signed the Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Selling countries-like the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy-recognized the loss of art capital and cultural heritage and attempted to regain some measure of control through import/export restrictions and customs regulations. Italy has done a particularly good job in this regard. Purchasing countries, who were new accumulators due to a robust economy or a paucity of indigenous art, like the U.S., Japan, Russia, and China, or small nations like Switzerland, were happy to see their art capital increase.

It is not within the scope of his paper to define by country the cornucopia of laws and regulations relating to the importing or exporting of antiquities and high value art and collectables for they are too numerous and varied and are often politicized. The result has been the creation of an ever changing and fluid market whose confidentiality code and opaqueness is unique and has served to protect both the customers and dealers. Few industries that have revenues in the billions of dollars operate with as little oversight and accountability. The world art market is virtually unregulated and is thus an ideal venue for anonymous capital movement.

April 12, 2011

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - No comments

Part III of V: The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital

by James Bond, ARCA Class 2011

STAMPS

An alternate and little talked about venue for capital transfer is the use of rare stamps, a pastime the U.S. Government says has 20 million collectors. Stamps are an ideal venue for the transfer of capital because they are highly portable and convertible with collectors all over the world who are highly private. In an effort to obtain information about the use of stamps to transfer capital a Brooklyn dealer was called and after telling him the thesis topic was ask if he knew of any stories relating to the topic and if he could offer advice as to how to research the topic on the internet. His response to all questions and his only answer to both questions was two utterance of the word No. Taxation of profits from stamp collecting has proven difficult according to Mr. Robert Scott, director of the stamp department at Sotheby’s in New York who said:
That’s why there is a great deal of anonymity in stamp collecting.
Mr. Herman Herst Jr. an author and collector of stamps for over seventy years gave the following assessment:
[Stamps are] …a lot easier to sell than jewelry…. You can get them out of the country and take them to Germany, Switzerland, no questions ask. The same thing getting them here. It is about [the] one international commodity that ignores national laws…Gold you need a license to import it in any quantity. Bring diamonds in and you’ll pay big duty. Real estate, you can’t move.
This purported ability to move freely and invisibly around the world takes on added significance when the value of some of the rare stamps, like the values of some of the old master, is considered along with their portability. While their relative value does not rival that of the art market, their portability and relative invisibility is a distinct asset. An anonymous collector purchased the world’s most valuable stamp, Treskilling Yellow, for $2.6 million in 1996. In 2009 the Heritage New York Stamps Auction had total sales of over $1.8 million with the Rare and Choice stamps commanding prices from $30,000 to $10,000. Heritage Auctions has annual sales of more than $600 million. A ready market for the acquisition or sale of stamps is available in Europe through private dealers and auction houses. The largest stamp auction in the world is held at the Rapp auction house in Switzerland. This is significant in relation to transferring capital because the Swiss do not consider tax evasion a crime.

Another method used during WWII was to place rare, cancelled stamps on envelopes that were then exchanged for goods and services when the person carrying them reached their final destination.

PUBLIC PHILANTHROPY

During the first half of the twentieth century, wealthy art collectors established museums to display their collections but this began to change when governments started allowing tax deductions against income for the donation of artwork to designated non-profit, charitable, or religious organizations. This was beneficial even for small collectors who were too small to set up their own non-profit foundation. The amount allowed for deducting donated art varies according to politics and the revenue needs of each country, but generally falls in the 20 to 50 percent range. The ‘golden egg’ principle articulated by Marx can be manifest if a donated work of art has appreciated, for the deduction is computed using the fair market value of the object irrespective of its cost. Thus, art capital becomes translated into M2 which is deducted against income which lowers tax liability thus increasing net worth. In effect tax deductions for donated art become a type of private philanthropy as explained by R.T. Naylor:
U.S. museums [now] rely almost exclusively on what now passes as private philanthropy…In other words ‘private philanthropy’ in modern North America is just a back-handed form of state subsidy in which the government cedes to a rich private citizen the right to not pay a certain amount of taxes, the privilege of deciding which charitable, religious or educational causes gain the benefit, and the power to dictate just how the endowed institutions will use the bequest.

April 11, 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011 - No comments

Part II of V: The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital

James A. Bond
by James A. Bond,
ARCA Class 2011

THE GROWTH OF CAPITAL

The quantity of each type of capital varies over time due to factors specific to each type of capital. M2 varies with the growth of each country’s economy, the phase of the business cycle, productivity, government spending, level of taxation and debt, entrepreneurial success, and the amount of money laundered within each country. A unique feature of M2 is that governments can cause M2 to increase, as the U.S. and many other nations have recently done to stimulate their economies through funding various programs or, cause M2 to contract, when they fear inflation by raising interest rates, thus pulling money back out of the economy. The amount of M2 can also be increased by the introduction of illegal capital laundered through various schemes.

Art capital however, is always increasing as new art enters the market and it moves with greater freedom and less restrictions than that placed on M2. How capital, in the form of M2 or art, is transferred, the reasons driving the transfer, and the type of capital class chosen to launder or transfer capital is an area of inquiry that will be examined in this paper.

CAPITAL MIGRATION

The movement of capital within any nation can be dichotomized as either legal or illegal. Traditionally the illegal movement is referred to as money laundering which has a specific legal meaning defined under U.S. Code. The President’s Commission on Organized Crime described money laundering as:
The process by which one conceals the existence, illegal source, or illegal application of income and then disguises that income to make it appear legitimate.

INTERPOL’s working definition is similar:

Any act or attempted act to conceal or disguise the identity of illegally obtained proceeds so that they appear to have originated from legitimate sources.

The use of high value art and collectibles to launder capital has its own set of rules that are less stringent and vary greatly. This should be attractive, especially for criminals trying to launder drug money which has a risk based associated cost of 7 to 10 percent or higher. The value of M2 is its face or exchange value and has no personal value while art has an exchange value and may have a personal value thus giving it a potential for an easier reintegration when the exchange from art capital to M2 occurs.

It is impossible to tell exactly when high value art and collectibles first began to be used to launder capital in the US. One early and interesting cases was in 1982 when the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) arrested a man for a drug related charge and confiscated his assets (considered to be the proceeds of the drug sales). Included in the assets were 273 Tiffany glass works and art nouveau objects. The man had been using the lamps and nouveau artwork to pay for his drug purchases. The DEA sold the lamps and artwork through Sotheby’s in New York netting over $1 million.

When thinking about the utility of high value art and collectibles to transfer capital it is helpful to distinguish between fungible and non-fungible items, which helps explain the difference between art capital and M2. A fungible item is not unique but may represent wealth, a concept recognized under Roman law. M2, money, is a ‘thing’, not unique, but does represent a type of wealth. Art however is unique but it too represents wealth, but a wealth with a different value. Both fungible and non-fungible items can have different types of value: use value and exchange value.

M2 has a high use and exchange value because of the many ways it can readily fulfill human needs and desires while art can have both an exchange value—the value for which it can be exchanged—and a personal value but little use value. This personal value can create wealth greater than the recognized exchange value. This subjective connection with personal property, which can translate into a higher exchange value than the use value of M2, is an overlooked aspect of utilizing art and high-end collectibles to transfer capital, especially if the art is one of a kind. When the Japanese began their tsunami of acquisitions in the late 1980s they often overpaid because they attached a type of personal value at a national level as a signal that Japan had returned from the ashes of WWII.

Europe with its centuries of artistic productivity, economic turmoil, and conflict, has been the source of many stories of how people in transition have utilized high value art to transfer capital. Jews began fleeing Antwerp and Amsterdam in the early 1930s and setting up exchanges in Tel Aviv (1930) and New York (1931). Diamonds were smuggled out by hiding them in the hems of clothing and as fillings in teeth.

April 10, 2011

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Part I of V: The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital

James A. Bond
by James A. Bond, ARCA Class 2011
"Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at least, lays golden eggs." 
“Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth."
For both Karl Marx and Alfred Marshall their understanding and conceptualization of capital evolved during the industrial revolution in the mid 19th century as nations and individuals began the struggle to come to terms with the uses and nature of this new instrument called capital. During this period, capital came to be recognized as another pillar of capitalism and was becoming more integrated into the economic equation that heretofore had focused primarily on land and labor. As can be seen, especially in the quote from Marx, capital was considered unique. It was able to replicate itself when it began to bear interest and create wealth by combining with other assets to produce a new product, the final value being greater than the sum of its parts. Over time economist began to see that there existed many types of capital other than the monetary capital or M2, the traditional measure of the actual supply of money in each country. Today’s economists recognize that there are different categories of capital that can provide opportunities for individuals and businesses to transfer, protect, and nurture this unique economic instrument that Marx described with its “occult ability to lay golden eggs.”

Capital is productive either asleep or awake. It provides the incentive for capitalism, the reward for ingenuity, and a measure of where we are as an individual or nation. It also provides a measure of where we have been. Some types of capital are malleable, being easily morphed from one form to another virtually anywhere on the planet. This ability to maintain value in various forms has made it valuable to individuals and companies when capital needs to be transferred, or laundered as a criminal endeavor. In this age of globalization and slowly increasing prosperity, it could become a more widely recognized tool as businesses, individuals, and criminals seek alternative means to launder or transfer capital in order to protect their net worth and standard of living.

Every nation has capital of different quantities and different types, as does every individual. The word capital when used in a financial context is invariably conceptualized in monetary terms represented by the symbol M2. However, other types of capital exist and can be corporeal or incorporeal. One of the most important types of incorporeal capital existing within each nation is its intellectual and human capital, which exist alongside a form of corporeal capital represented by natural resources like minerals, energy, and water that derive from the land.

Art capital, existing in the public domain at museums, universities, and government repositories, represents a significant part of national and international wealth and is frequently overlooked as a type of capital because it is thought of in terms of public art. However, art capital exists in varying quantities in all nations as combination of public and private art and collectibles, the percentage mix affected by laws and the relative wealth and age of the nation. The United States, being a very young nation, had little indigenous art, which meant the great portion of art wealth had to be purchased by either institutions or individuals.

Art capital in the public domain represents only a small fraction of the total art capital within each nation. The amount of art capital held privately by the public will never be known, not only because it is privately held, but also because a true value for each piece can only be determined if it is ever sold and the price made public, which is rare for private sales. This is not an unusual occurrence in the art world where 70 percent of art sold at auction is sold anonymously. The price then dependent upon the art fashion cycle, supply and demand, and the world economy.

The fact that there is no complete record of the type and value of the private art within each nation is an important element to consider when evaluating the uses and utility that art capital represents for each nation and the individual. This invisible yet ubiquitous quality coupled with the relative ease of monetization gives high value art and collectibles a unique cachet in the world of capital.

High value art and collectibles have been and will continue to be used to mask capital appreciation and assist in the discrete transfer of capital while at the same time providing a safe haven. This is especially true in the current age of globalization and the increasing transnationalization of crime. Specific events like 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008-2010 have caused governments to change the way M2 is regulated opening the door to other venues of capital movement. This happens for a variety of reasons including escaping taxation, the laundering of money, to decrease tax liability, and protect accumulated wealth for both individuals and businesses. This trend will surely be exacerbated in coming years for the following four reasons. 
1) Governments will continue to refine currency transaction laws governing the movement of M2 to further restrict funding for terrorism and control the profits generated by transnational crime. 
2) New sources of revenue will be needed by governments to replace the revenue lost in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial crises and to fund entitlement programs that will be fully populated in this decade as the baby boomers retire. This will be an ever-growing problem for many nations for a variety of reasons including; underfunded entitlement programs, immigration policies, national demographics, and excessive national debt service requirements. 
3) The risk of inflation, which always realigns capital allocations. 
4) The process of adjusting to an evolving world order, which will require integrating an ever more prosperous and populous India and China and their growing middle class as they begin to accumulate assets and enjoy their new wealth.

Sunday, April 10, 2011 - ,, No comments

ARCA 2011 Student James Alex Bond on "The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital"

James A. Bond will be attending ARCA's Postgraduate Program in International Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies this summer in Amelia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Textiles from Georgia Institute of Technology; a Master's of Business Administration in Marketing & Finance from Georgia State University; and a Master's in Science in Global Affairs, Security from New York University. A former Special Agent with the United States Air Force, Mr. Bond has also owned three construction companies. He sold his companies and retired in 2006 to return to school for the Global Affairs program at NYU.

Of course, the ARCA blog couldn't wait to interview him and read his paper, "The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital," of which has been adapted for a six-part series for this blog.
James A. Bond
ARCA blog: What about the ARCA program attracted you?
Mr. Bond: Diversity of subjects covered, quality of professors, mission of ARCA, and of course the fact it was being taught in Italy. 
ARCA blog: What would you like to do after you have completed your studies? 
Mr. Bond: Start an insurance-security business focusing on private art/collectibles collections. 
ARCA blog: What area of research do you anticipate following as part of the program? 
Mr. Bond: Insurance for private collections and traveling museum exhibits. 
ARCA blog: I enjoyed reading your thesis. Please tell our readers what drew you to this subject and what surprised you about your research and the material? 

Mr. Bond: In the summer of 2009 I was taking a Transnational Crime class as part of my Global Affairs curriculum at NYU and we all had to make presentations on some aspect of Transnational Crime. One of the students did her presentation on art crime and mentioned the New York Times article about ARCA's Postgraduate Program in Art Crime. With my background in security I knew that would be my next educational experience.

When I wrote my thesis for my MS in Global Affairs I wrote on "The Use of High Value Art and Collectibles to Launder and/or Transfer Capital". Being in New York and living in the financial district during the chaotic fall of 2008 and then watching Greece and Ireland suffer sovern debt problems got me thinking about how to best preserve capital and move it if the need arose.

I interviewed many people from FBI agents (3) to collectors, gallery owners, and people in finance. I was surprised at how unwilling gallery owners, collectors were to talk about the concept (read in my thesis about the NO, NO answer the stamp collector gave me) while on the other hand people in security and finance grasp it readily.
The ARCA Blog will begin today to run a series of posts on Mr. Bond's thesis.

April 8, 2011

Friday, April 08, 2011 - No comments

Upcoming Seminar: World War II Provenance Research Seminar "A New Era of Collaboration and Digitized Resources"

National Archive
"A New Era of Collaboration and Digitized Resources", a World War II Provenance Research Seminar, will be held from May 6 to May 7 at the United States National Archives in Washington, D. C.

This seminar presents new resources and strategies for provenance research, emphasizing current international collaborative projects and introducing newly accessible electronic tools. The seminar is sponsored by the United States National Archives, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the American Association of Museums and the Smithsonian Institution, with additional support provided by The Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

The morning session on May 6, "INTERNATIONAL PORTAL FOR NAZI-ERA CULTURAL PROPERTY RECORDS", will include a welcome from James Hastings, United States National Archives, and Kaywin Feldman, Association of Art Museum Directors. Introductory remarks will be made by Jim Leach, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Lynn H. Nicholas, Independent Scholar and author of "Rape of Europa." The morning presenters consist of Rebecca Warlow, United States National Archives; Hans-Dieter Kreikamp, Federal Archives, Berlin; Caroline Kimbell, National Archives, London; Anne Webber, Commission for Looted Art in Europe, London; and Kyrylo Vyslobokov, Archival Information Systems, Kyiv. The subsequent discussion will be moderated by Nancy H. Yeide, National Gallery of Art, and Victoria Reed, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The afternoon session, "INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES AND COOPERATIVE PROJECTS FOR NAZI-ERA CULTURAL PROPERTY RECORDS," will include presentations by Michael Franz and Andrea Baresel-Brand, Coordination Office for Lost Cultural Assets, Magdeburg; Marc Masurovsky, Independent Historian, Washington, DC; Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Cambridge; Christian Fuhrmeister, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Central Institute for Art History), Munich; Uwe Hartmann, Bureau for Provenance Investigation and Research, Berlin; and Wolfgang Schöddert, Ferdinand Möller Archive, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. The discussion will be moderated by Jane Milosch, Smithsonian Institution, and Christian Fuhrmeister, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.

On Saturday, May 7, the morning session, "ARCHIVAL RESOURCES FOR PROVENANCE RESEARCH, PART I" will be introduced by Louisa Wood Ruby, The Frick Art Reference Library, New York, with presentations by Jona Mooren, Nederlandse Museumvereniging (Netherlands Museums Association), Amsterdam, and Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (Netherlands Institute for Art History), The Hague; Marisa Bourgoin, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; and Michelle Elligott, Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. The discussion following will be moderated by Laurie Stein, Smithsonian Institution, and Sarah Kianovsky, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge.

The afternoon session, "ARCHIVAL RESOURCES FOR PROVENANCE RESEARCH, PART II," will include presentations by Christian Huemer, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; Megan Lewis, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC; and Anneliese Schallmeiner, Commission for Provenance Research, Vienna. The discussion following will be moderated by Nancy H. Yeide, National Gallery of Art, and Laurie Stein, Smithsonian Institution. "New Projects and Resources" will be presented by Helen Schretlen, Nederlandse Museumvereniging; Dorota Chudzicka and David Hogge, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; and Nancy H. Yeide, Kress Collection Provenance Research Project, National Gallery of Art. Concluding remarks will be by
Lynn H. Nicholas.

The seminar is for curators, registrars, provenance researchers, and all those inerested in the processes of archival research. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation offers a travel stipend on a first-come, first-served basis to museums with Kress Collections. For more information about the seminar, visit: http://ww2provenanceseminar.wordpress.com/.

Friday, April 08, 2011 - ,, No comments

Revisiting the musée d'art moderne de la ville de paris: site of the theft in May 2010 of more than $100 million in paintings

Neighbor's graffiti
Interior view of windows


Last month in Paris, I revisited the musée d'art moderne de la ville de paris for the second time since the robbery of five paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Léger, and Modigliani on May 20. Last July the museum was humid and bolts on the interior metal shutters seem to have been replaced in at least one window. I speculated on the theft on the ARCA blog here. This March, the amount of graffiti surprised me. The apartment building next to the museum sported new graffiti unusual for this location.  Skateboarders outside the collection played amongst graffiti-marked statutes.  More prominent museums in Paris visited the same week did not exhibit signs of graffiti. Behind the museum, along the Seine and in view of the Eiffel Tower, graffiti covered the doors of basement entrances underneath the balcony the thief may have used to gain entrance before smashing the windows, cutting the paintings out of their frames and disappearing without notifying any security guards. Nothing has been published about the progress of the investigation and the paintings are still missing. -- Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

Graffiti marks statues outside the museum
Rear windows and balcony along the Seine
Graffiti marks basement doors of museum

April 7, 2011

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The International Institute of Social History launches unique online survey of the record of wartime cultural plunder and retrieval

Reconstructing the Cultural Record of Nazi Plunder: A Survey of the Archives of the Dispersed Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR)
by Patricia Kennedy Grimsted

One of the main organizations involved in Nazi looting of cultural property in occupied Europe during World War II was the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), a special operational taskforce headed by leading Nazi party ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. Patricia Kennedy Grimsted describes in this comprehensive overview the archiveal remains of the ERR, as found in 29 repositories in nine countries - from Washington and Brussels to Moscow and Kiev. The detail with which the ERR documented the art, archives, books, and other Judaica it plundered has proved essential for the recovery of cultural valuables after the war and their return to victims or heirs.

This Survey is the first guide that offers a comprehensive overview of documents generated by the ERR as well as records by postwar agencies seeking to return the ERR loot. The publication contains numerous links to the growing number of online information available on the ERR.

The publication was realized by the International Institute of Social History, in cooperation with the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, with generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference).
Link to the online publication: http://www.iisg.nl/publications/errsurvey/

April 5, 2011

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ARCA 2009 Student: Michelle Edelman on art crime history and provenance research as an investigative tool

Michelle Edelman
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

Michelle Edelman attended ARCA’s summer program in art crime studies in Amelia, Italy, in 2009. A native of San Francisco, Michelle currently lives in New York City. She speaks French, Spanish and Italian – useful languages in her studies at Northwestern University in European Studies, at University of Oxford studying English and French literature, and at the Courtauld Institute of Art studying the history of art for her master’s degree. She is currently investigating opportunities to work in the insurance industry specializing in art protection.
ARCA blog: Michelle, what is your favorite period of art and how did you get interested in studying art crime?
Ms. Edelman: My favorite period of art is the 19th century and more specifically Victorian painting, which is what I did my masters in. I've always had a passion for art history and a love of mysteries. Studying art crime seemed like a perfect combination of my two interests. I particularly enjoyed learning about Adam Worth, nicknamed the Napoleon of Crime, who was a 19th century art thief famed for stealing Thomas Gainsborough's "Georgina, the Duchess of Devonshire." Adam Worth was an international thief who had both Scotland Yard and the American Pinkertons hot on his trail. It was a classic cat and mouse game between Adam Worth and William Pinkerton. In the end, William Pinkerton recovered the painting. And to put an even neater bow on the story, Adam Worth's son ended up working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Ben Macintyre's book "The Napoleon of Crime" was one of the many great art crime books I was exposed to while on the ARCA course.
ARCA blog: What did you find most valuable in your ARCA experience?
Ms. Edelman: Getting to meet with and learn from so many experts in the field was invaluable. Art crime study and investigation is a small and tight knit field but is such an important one to promote because the impact of art crime is wide ranging. From Nazi looted art, to forgeries, to excavation robberies, cultural heritage is being endangered, the black market is being fed, and crime in general is prospering. 
It was such a treat to hear firsthand accounts of art crime and its consequences from the founder of Scotland Yard's Art Crime Squad team, Dick Ellis. He was someone I knew I wanted to keep in touch with from the program. And when I settled in to New York, I was thrilled to learn that I could help Dick Ellis on a case he was currently working on. To me, art history is like a detective novel. But here was an opportunity for me to get involved in a real life case. What was at stake was the authenticity of a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat. My research took me to the National Archives in DC. There was a label on the back of the work that suggested that it had been purchased by a now closed gallery in New York. I poured through their records to discover no such trace of that particular Basquiat piece having passed through the gallery. However, I contacted the gallery owner who authenticated the proof of sale document from the gallery in NYC to a gallery in Germany, but denied ever having the Basquiat work in his gallery. Something was amiss. In the end, the work in question turned out to be a fake. The art market is a slippery snake and this case highlighted the importance of provenance research. A little research goes a long way.
ARCA blog: You speak Italian and were able to travel through parts of Italy. What stood out to you during your travels?
Ms. Edelman: Well I speak French and Spanish fluently. I was therefore able to pick up a bit of Italian. This did make getting around easier. For anyone interested in art history, the Uffizi in Florence is a must. It was interesting going there after our segment on museum security with Anthony Amore. I started to look around for cameras, light sensors, looking at how the pieces were secured to the wall, and observing the museum guards at work. I've been looking at museums in a different way ever since.
ARCA blog: What has led to your interest in art insurance and what kind of career do you want to pursue?
Ms. Edelman: Working on the Basquiat case lit my fire for provenance research. It is something that is essential and too often easily overlooked. Whatever I end up doing in the field, I know that provenance research is something that I will incorporate fully. I love the idea of research and hands on art crime solving. I seriously thought about joining the FBI, but the idea of wielding a gun just didn't feel like the right fit for me, liberal San Franciscan that I am. And I would never be successful undercover because I'm just about the worst liar there is. Art insurance is still a hands on way of getting involved with solving art crime but from a safer, more behind the scenes stand point.

April 4, 2011

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Provenance & Art Collections: The Huntington's Scandalous Gainsborough Portrait

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin

Provenance research, establishing the history of an artwork, involves studying various art collections and how the art in each collection was funded and selected. Residents of Pasadena have walking access to two prominent art collections, The Norton Simon Museum and The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. A recent item on The Huntington Library's blog provoked interest with the title, "A Lurid Lady and Two Petulant Painters," posted by Thea Page who provided provenance information on the painting by Thomas Gainsborough to the ARCA blog:
Penelope (Pitt), Viscountess Ligonier
1770
Canvas, 94 1/2 x 61 3/4 in. (238.76 x 156.85 cm)
11.29
Provenance:
Painted for the sitter's father, George Pitt, later 1st Baron Rivers, of Stratfield Saye, Hampshire, and Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire; by descent to Horace, 6th and last Baron Rivers; General Pitt-Rivers of Rushmore, Salisbury, 1880; A.C. Rivers; W. Pitt Rivers; Charles John Wertheimer of Norfolk Street, Park Lane, c. 1908; sold by his trustees to Duveen, 1911; acquired by Henry E. Huntington, 1911
Henry Edwards Huntington inherited a fortune built on the one of the transcontinental American railways and married his uncle's widow, Arabella Huntington.  The Huntingtons provided an endowment and more than 500 acres for the premier collection guided by art dealer Joseph Duveen.

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