The Debacle of Art
Public Museum vs Private Collection
Prosecution teams in a court of law often use the old saying
'The Science Doesn't Lie'.
Experts are often cross examined by other experts thus to determine facts based on the evidence presented in a court trial. A prosecution may provide bundles of evidence as a statistical quantification of highly accurate science.
The Science is often a necessity to assist a jury in its decision making process and deliberations to determine their conclusions towards passing judgement beyond reasonable doubt.
PUBLIC MUSEUM
Art viewing, for the most part, takes place in museums, galleries, auction houses—these are considered the "institutions" of the art world".
A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
PRIVATE COLLECTION ART
Not all Artworks are exhibited in the great museums of the world.
Some of them belong to Private Art Collectors, an expensive and exclusive "hobby" that becomes a passion with a notable increase over the last decades and years.
Whilst "Privately Owned Art" is often understood as the opposite to "Museum Owned", it must be noted that many Museums (and -to a lesser extent- some Institutions) are actually private institutions that could sell any of their artworks if the Board of Directors / Trustees vote for that.
In fact, deaccessioning (a.k.a. sale of artworks by these museums) happen every year however there are strict conditions for deaccessioning of works.
Privately owned paintings can achieve prices over $100 million whose historical and artistic importance makes them worthy of any major museum yet some private owners value their art collection privacy and are reluctant to exhibit their private art in public.
Often they are lured to exhibiting their artworks however it is generally a ploy of middlemen art sales antics and post museum exhibition valuation marketing.
As the market valuations and artistic market value are not always correlated these days...
The valuation estimates of private artworks is based on many factors, including provenance, historicals, condition and significance.
ArtWorld connoisseurs will then dangle the notion of art market appetite.
DILEMMA
Some private art collection owners via 'generations of family' are often asset rich yet are liquid poor. Some owners whom befall probate or matrimonial aspects are often lured by lawyers / distress sales towards the appeal of an art market public auction.
BUT.....
There is a lot at stake and serious risk factors if a confidentiality compromise, failure to launch or auction live bid doesn't meet reserve. IF THIS HAPPENS...
The Artwork status becomes what is referred to in the industry as 'BURNED'.
RISKY BUSINESS
Man who sold painting for £42,000 sues auction house after it was later claimed as '£10m Caravaggio'
Art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi's multimillion dollar scam - CBS News
ART FISHING
Over the years, the image of the auctioneer and art dealer antics has been often murky resulting in notorious lawsuits.
The 2007–2008 financial crisis, or the global financial crisis (GFC), was the most severe worldwide economic crisis since the bursting of the United States housing bubble.
Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to American real estate, as well as a vast web of derivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value.
Financial institutions worldwide suffered severe damage.
Since the financial crisis of 2007-08, many now jobless ex investment bankers and trading executives resorted to ways to capitalise on The Big Money plunder.
ENTER THE ART MARKET
Artworks from Private Collections started to unlawfully be circulated online
via Social Media platforms or the Dark Web by unscrupulous art brokers.
CHASING THE RAINBOW
Luxury LifeStyle Management companies, WhatsApp Brokers plus Social Media Influencers started claiming DIRECT ACCESSIBILITY to Artworks.
Mostly being unauthorised, they connected with various parties and followers whom started to offer around paintings for tens of millions of dollars.
Often an art broker party may even approach a gallery or museum to request assistance to find a buyer for a private sale.
The Social Media communications became rife as a merry go round of available art whereas the so called Art Brokers were generally unauthorised in having no direct access to the painting or permission the owner/s.
It became a bandwagon of money hungry greed enthusiasts whom would stop at nothing to shop around art and high value Assets in the hype.
Cryptocurrencies, Oil, Diamonds and various commodities became part of the usual offerings.
An art historian may even receive calls and email information however experienced historians will tend to disregard unsolicited and unwarranted outsider information.
The Status Quo of the Art Industry is that Big Art Owners generally tend to exhibit their acquisitions in public institutions - thus it is not surprising many Big Art Collectors are also Museum Benefactors whom gracefully fund the galleries and participate in Arts and Heritage charitable events.
UNKNOWN ART
Whilst an Unknown Artwork from a long held generational family collection itself may indeed be an unknown genuine (Yet to be Catalogued) artwork -
Most unseen or unauthenticated art works having never been exhibited in public museums would generally be deemed as a possible imitation or forgery.
Furthermore - in the Age of Instantaneous News Dissemination -
The artwork therefore risks being castigated and propagated around having been in a family private collection for generations.
STRAIGHT FROM THE ART
We feel a disregarded artwork whether being disregarded, uncatalogued and suffering art world abandonment is best positioned to be viewed and handled by impartial guidance and impartial expertise.
INSURANCE
In the event of an art theft, damage in transit, cleaning or restoration process - some private owners of high value artwork collections have recently incurred increasing costs in their annual insurance premiums as a result of Insurers risk strategies and recalculations.
Many artworks are hidden from the public however the public listed corporations insurers require further information of the private held artworks located in highly secure major Worldwide Freeport zones and high security vaults ie
Geneva, Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore and Europe including
Malca Amit, Brinks, Hi Tech Supervaults in Zurich, Zermatt, Zug -
COSTS
Due to the higher incurred costs - some private owners of high value art are now required to submit newer condition reports therefore an art market need has been identified to accept independent expertise and impartial reports. An owner can thus determine whether to sell the asset or to await positive art market buoyancy.
As a result of the narrative and dissemination, some private owners are resorted to seeking impartial guidance and independent art advice.
Some private owners appointed independent experts whom suggested newer scientific and non art dealer related methodology course of action.
>2024 AD
Over the last two decades - Non commercially biased independent investigations unraveled alarming discrepancies between art expert authentications of
publicly listed art and recently examined artworks in private ownership's.
Lately, reputable appointed scientists with state of the art laboratories are being tasked by private owners of artworks to ascertain the specifics of the artworks or privately owned painting.
The scientists task is to ascertain the origins and genealogy of an artwork.
The scrutiny of the canvas itself is one thing however the artwork oil to canvas matter, timing and subsequent alterations or over paintings is being unraveled step by step.
Now the pendulum has swung the other way,
< LEFT OF PAGE (Art Newspaper Jan 2020)
