Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christie's Suit

Josh Baer reports that "Yoon Young Im and Doss Inc have sued Christie’s for $235,000 alleging they sold a work that was claimed to be stolen during WW 2."

The Courthouse News has some more details: "A South Korean art collector sued Christie's for $235,500, the amount she paid for a Marie Laurencin 'Portrait' in 1991. Yoon Young Im says that when she consigned the piece to Sotheby's for sale in 2006, Sotheby's told her the Nazis had stolen it from Paris art dealer Paul Rosenberg during World War II. Im says ... Christie's was negligent, as the Rosenberg family had listed the painting as stolen in 1963, and the French government had freely circulated the Rosenbergs' list of around 100 stolen paintings at about that time - long before Christie's sold the portrait to her."