Art Knowledge News
A Major Royal Academy Art Show Canceled Over Seized Painting |
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| Written by Paul Casciato, Reuters |
| Thursday, 17 December 2009 06:19 |
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"After many months of planning ... we are of course very disappointed that the Prince of Liechtenstein has decided to cancel the exhibition," a spokesman for the gallery said. "This is owing to an unrelated criminal inquiry into the export of a group of pictures bought in London by the Prince over three years ago. "The Royal Academy has a number of projects in development and is considering alternatives for next autumn which we will present early in 2010." The dispute centres around Spanish Renaissance painting "The Infante Don Diego" by Sanchez Coello which was purchased by the prince from a British owner via a London dealer in 2006. In 2007 the British authorities deferred a license to export the work, unofficially valued at around two million pounds ($3.3 million), in order to allow time for an alternative buyer to raise the necessary funds to keep it in the country.  The authorities later launched an investigation into the license
applications for the group of paintings that included the Coello and their
valuations. According to HM Revenue & Customs, which is handling the case,
the painting has been returned to the prince's representatives but is still
barred from export. Johann Kraftner, director of the Collections of the Prince
of Liechtenstein, told Reuters that neither the prince nor the collection were
in any way involved in the investigation. Johann Kräftner, the director of the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, said: “The Prince would not feel comfortable sending his collection to London if they are holding a picture of his.” He says that the Royal Academy (RA) exhibition will have to be cancelled unless the export licence for the Coello is dealt with promptly. As we went to press, Kräftner’s deadline had just passed, and the British authorities were still trying to resolve the problem. The RA’s Liechtenstein Collection exhibition was scheduled to open on 25 September next year. It would comprise well over 100 objects, including paintings by Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck.The exhibition will only be able to go ahead if the Prince is willing to accept UK government indemnity to protect his loans instead of commercial insurance, which would be prohibitive for the RA, given the total value of the works loaned. But “the Prince could not accept government indemnity from a state which has seized one of his paintings,” Kräftner explained. According to Kraftner, the only way the show could be staged as planned was for the prince to accept a British government indemnity to protect his loans, since commercial insurance would be too expensive for the Royal Academy to afford. "We have been asked to accept the British state indemnity," he said. "But to accept state indemnity you have to trust the state, and if you are not informed by the state we had to say we cannot send our treasures. "We worked up to the last moment. We felt very badly treated" said the Royal Academy spokesman. He said the exhibition, to have included works by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens among others, would have been more spectacular than a 1985/6 show of the prince's collection held in New York. Another Royal Academy "blockbuster," "From Russia," opened in 2008 despite a row over the ownership of priceless treasures that had threatened to derail it. Government assurances that Russia would not lose disputed paintings by the likes of Van Gogh and Cezanne helped save that exhibition. (Editing by Paul Casciato) Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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