£400,000 ART LAWSUIT

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1936, Page 9

£400,000 ART LAWSUIT

LORD DUVEEN ACCUSED.

NEW YORK, June 10

A sensational charge of plotting to prevent legitimate bidding at a sale of Old Masters in New York nearly seven years ago. is made against Lord Duvcen and Duveen Brothers Inc., in a sail for £lOO,OOO filed by Mr. Carl Hamilton, described as a New York art dealer. A member of the Duveen firm todav described this accusation as being “absurd on the face of it,” and added: “We cannot, of course, prevent Mr. Hamilton or his lawyer from bringing a suit of this character or from giving it publicity, but we arc confident that when the case is tried in court. Mr. Hamilton's claims will be. shown in their true colours.” Among Urn paintings involved are a “Crucifixion,” by Piero della Francesca. and a “Madonna and Child,” by I'ra Filippo Lippi, both of which Mr. Hamilton purchased from Duveen Bros., and both of which were included in a group of pictures which he put up for auction at. the Anderson Galleries in 1929. Duveen Bros, on that occasion bought back the Piero for £75,000, and subsequently they sold it to Mr. John H. Rockefeller, jun. Mr. Hamilton asserts that these pictures, together with six others in his possession, were worth £600,000 and that purchasers could only be found among persons of great wealth and among museums, most of whom, as clients of the Duveen firm, were guided by Lord Duveen’s advice. He goes on to say that before the sale at the Anderson Galleries, Lord Duveen represented to him that arrangements had been made for certain Duveen clients to attend the sale and that they had been advised that such works as the

Piero and the Fra Filippo were very valuable.

These representations, Mr. Hamilton holds, were part of a conspiracy 'o prevent Mr. Hamilton himself from arranging for the attendance of Duveen clients, and he further maintains that the Duveen clients had neither been advised to attend the sale nor told that the two paintings in question were valuable. In his statement, to-day, the member

of the Duveen firm said that Mr. Hamilton purchased four pictures from the firm in 1917, including the two auctioned in 1929, and that on the sale of these four pictures he realised a profit of more than £lOO.OOO. Each picture, this spokesman said, brought Mr. Hamilton a profit ranging from 150 to nearly 500 per cent.