The London court stated Sotheby's was not negligent and did perform enough research and due diligence and found in favor of Sotheby's. The judge also stated “On balance, my conclusion is that the painting probably would have made slightly more at auction or by private treaty if it had been sold with a catalogue entry detailing the positive and negative attributions of respectable scholars, but not a great deal more,”
The Financial Times reports
Source: Financial TimesThe former owner of a painting that was auctioned for £42,000 but was later claimed to be a £10m masterpiece by Caravaggio has lost his legal battle with Sotheby’s.
Lancelot William Thwaytes, one of whose forebears bought “The Cardsharps”, pictured, for £140 in 1962, had sued the auction house for negligence and breach of contract.
He told London’s High Court he had been “absolutely horrified” to see the painting being proclaimed as an original a year after it had been sold as a copy.
Mr Thwaytes said Sotheby’s had failed to conduct adequate research into the painting, which depicts a wealthy youth being taken in by professional cheats.
However, a judge at London’s High Court has now concluded that Sotheby’s was not negligent in its assessment of the painting.
The auction house had catalogued the painting for the 2006 auction as being the work of a follower of the Italian baroque artist.
It was sold to a friend of Sir Denis Mahon, an art scholar and collector. Sir Denis declared later that it was by Caravaggio himself — a genuine second version of “The Cardsharps” — and could be worth £10m.
Only about 60 paintings survive by Caravaggio, regarded as one of the most revolutionary figures in European art. “The Cardsharps”, painted in 1594, was one of his earliest successful works and several high-quality copies were made by other artists. The undisputed autographed original is now exhibited in the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas.
Mr Thwaytes inherited paintings, including the subject of the legal dispute, from his father’s late cousin, Surgeon Captain William Glossop Thwaytes, a former Royal Navy doctor living in Cumbria. The doctor had scored a notable success after a different painting called “The Musicians”, purchased from a Kendal art dealer in 1947, was later identified by art historians as an original Caravaggio. It was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for a substantial sum in 1952.
By 2006, Lancelot Thwaytes was considering selling paintings to help to pay for school fees and had indicated to Sotheby’s he thought “The Cardsharps” might be the work of Caravaggio and should be researched, the court ruling noted.
Sotheby’s specialists examined the painting using a variety of techniques, including X-ray analysis, and concluded it was a copy. The painting was then catalogued for sale at Sotheby’s Old Master pictures week in December 2006 at London’s Olympia.
However, Tom Baring, who was in charge of the sale for Sotheby’s, noticed the displayed painting was attracting a “significant amount of attention” and called in Sotheby’s specialists to re-examine it in a side room. Art experts at the auction house denied in court that this meant they had not been sure about its attribution.
After the painting was sold to the friend of Sir Denis, the art scholar announced at his 97th birthday party that the painting was an autograph replica painted by Caravaggio himself — a claim that received huge publicity.
Mr Thwaytes told the court, which heard evidence from some of the world’s leading art historians, that he had felt “utter horror and disbelief”. He said: “I felt extremely let down and very angry that Sotheby’s had apparently not done their job properly.”
Giving her decision, Mrs Justice Rose ruled that Sotheby’s was not negligent, and had reasonably come to the view that the quality of the painting was not high enough to indicate it was a Caravaggio.
“On balance, my conclusion is that the painting probably would have made slightly more at auction or by private treaty if it had been sold with a catalogue entry detailing the positive and negative attributions of respectable scholars, but not a great deal more,” she said.
After Sir Denis died, the painting went on loan to the Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, London, and is reportedly insured for £10m. The case is one of a number of art-related disputes to come before the High Court in recent years as the value of fine art has soared and more scientific tests make it easier to authenticate work.
In 2012, Aurora Fine Arts, founded by the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, won a High Court dispute against Christie’s over a painting it had bought called “Odalisque”, said to be by the Russian artist Boris Kustodiev. The court ruled the purchase could be cancelled as the painting might not be Kustodiev’s work.
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