ART LIBEL SUIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20218, 1 April 1929, Page 11

ART LIBEL SUIT.

WOMAN CLAIMS £IOO,OOO.

"LA BELLE FERRONIERE."

AN ALLEGED COPY.

[FROM OUlt OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

NEW YORK, March G

The United States and Canada have been watching witli amused interest the daily progress for four weeks of an art. libel suit over La Hello Ferroniere, a creation of the brush of Leonardo da Vinci, ouo of the most treasured possessions of The Louvre, in Paris. Is La Bello in the Louvre or in Mr, Justice Black's Courtroom ? That is the question. Sir Joseph Duveen, famous art critic, says sho is in the Louvre. Mrs. Halm, wife of an automobile dealer in Kansas City, says sho owns the original Eight years ago, Mrs. Halm offered the picture to tho Kansas City Art Institute for £50,000. Sir Joseph Duveen, hearing of tho offer, said tho painting was a copy, and the salo was killed. Mrs. Hahn and her husband went to Paris and for some years collected evidence that would aid in disturbing Sir Joseph's opinion, which is accepted in art circles all over tho world.

Mrs. Ilahn returned to America and sued Sir Joseph for £100 ; 000. Sir Joseph appeared to defend the suit. Thirteen art specialists and a battery of legal talent attended him. No one suggested that La Bello herself'should cross the Atlantic to appear in person. She attended by proxy in tho form of a copy. The public prejudged the suit to the extent at least of buying up large supplies of copies of the Louvro painting which shrewd New York dealers retailed at 17 dollars apiece. Good things and bad, mainly bad, were said about Mrs. Halm's La Belle. Sir Joseph said her hair was "mud, just plain mud." One of his experts said she was "saggy and podgy, lacked vitality, had hair like a wig, a cheek like a child's doll, and an expression that was bovine." A solitary Russian went into ecstasies over hor, but was unable to translate his ecstasy into English. The lady was Xrayed for tho i2 retail storekeepers on the jury, who came to know her features better than those of their own wives.

Mrs. Hahn's lawyer, one Miller, fought her case with a tenacity that drew approval from Sir Joseph, when he was not mildly cynical, as in an incident surrounding his acquaintance with authorities on various phases of art.

"And Vita Privata," continued Mr. Miller. "Do you know him, too?"

"I know him rather well." replied the baronet. "Vila Privata is the Latin for 'private life.' " The jury failed to agree.

The case set all museums and art galleries in the United States looking over their highly-priced paintings to see if they were copies. It is understood that one gallery, which purchased an old master for £400.000, has grave doubts whether it is an original. Here is possibly another job for Sir Joseph Duveen.