The Case Review of Ai Weiwei

By Jeff Fulmer | Published January 6, 2012

Did Chinese authorities have a change of heart?

On April 3rd, 2011 the Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport. Before he was able to board a flight to Hong Kong he was surrounded and arrested by a large contingent of police. Ai, always a bit subversive, drew their attention with a call for a Chinese Spring. Given the results of Arab Spring, his protest rhetoric didn’t sit well with Chinese authorities.

After his arrest, a much larger police squadron searched his Beijing studio for evidence to support his incarceration. They removed laptops and hard drives but not much more than that. Authorities had to be disappointed when they couldn’t find evidence to support the crime they were sure Ai Weiwei had committed. So they took a page out of Eliot Ness’s playbook: they charged him with tax evasion.

Ai Weiwei spent a brutal two and one-half months in police custody before he was released. During that time, a guard was never more than 30 inches away. As Ai showered, shit and shaved, a guard sat right beside him. It was, Ai said, a form of mental torture.

Today Chinese officials announced they would review Ai Weiwei’s multi-million dollar fine for tax evasion. In order to secure his June 22nd release, Ai agreed to pay 2.4 million dollars in back taxes and fines for evasion. Punishment for tax evasion is rare in China. The penalty was widely regarded as punishment for subversion.

The penalty prompted thousands of his supporters to make small donations to help pay the fine. People folded bills in airplanes and flung them over his gate. Some wrapped them around fruit and did the same. To stay on the right side of authorities, Ai said he would treat those donations as loans that he planned to repay.

Chinese authorities say the review will take about two months. Ai said he hoped it would be done earnestly and transparently. “How they handle this relates to issues of China’s rule of law and the safety of its people,” Ai said. “It has very broad implications. If they can’t resolve this issue very fairly and carefully, it will be bring harm to this society’s justice system.”

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His Own Master

By Jeff Fulmer | Published January 4, 2012

The arts are generally not a good pursuit for impatient individuals. With few exceptions, it generally takes years of toil and persistence to gain recognition. Van Gogh famously worked in virtual anonymity until his paintings broke sales records after his death. It’s hard to convince girls your dish washing gig is only temporary. “Once I’m discovered, I’ll pay my share of rent!”

Andrzej Sobiepan is a young Polish artist with either no patience or a very persistent girlfriend. He couldn’t stand the thought of toiling in obscurity.  ”I decided that I will not wait 30 or 40 years for my works to appear” in a museum. Rather than bother curators with the laborious task of hanging his art, Sobiepan hung it for them. He walked into the Wroclaw National Museum and hung one of his paintings.

Sobiepan carefully chose a spot in the contemporary room for his small painting of a drooping leaf. He placed it after the guard wandered into another room. The painting remained undetected for three days. Once it was discovered, the museum director labeled it a “witty artistic happening.” The museum moved it near the gift shop. Since its discovery, the work had generated a good deal of buzz. It will be auctioned for charity.

Sobiepan accomplished his mission – his name is now recognized by the Polish art establishment. And what a name it is. According to Monika Scislowska, an AP reporter, “Sobiepan” translates to “his own master.” Unfortunately, “His Own Master” is a follower, not an innovator. The British artist Banksy pulled this stunt back in 2005 when he hung several of his own works in various New York galleries.

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Cardinal Sin

By Jeff Fulmer | Published December 20, 2011

If you’ve seen the excellent documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop then you’re familiar with a UK street artist known as Banksy. He is noted for enhancing streets, walls and bridges with stencilled dark humor. Since the early 1990s, Banksy has been at odds with the UK government. One man’s art is his government’s graffiti.

With a piece on display at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, has Banksy finally gone establishment? The work is included in an exhibition of 17th Century old masters. The artist used this opportunity to make a religious statement.

The work is called “Cardinal Sin.” It’s a reproduction of an 18th C. stone bust. Banksy sawed its face off and replaced its features with a series of small, multi-colored bathroom tiles. The effect is similar to the pixelized view many UK papers use to depict accused child molesters. With the use of a 18th C. bust, Banksy suggests the scandal pre-dates those from the reign of John Paul II by a couple centuries.

The statue is on loan indefinitely. Its debut was accompanied by a statement from the artist:

“I love everything about the Walker Gallery – the Old Masters, the contemporary art, the rude girl in the cafe. And when I found out Mr Walker built it with beer money it became my favourite gallery. The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of the year, it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity – the lies, the corruption, the abuse.”

The public may have a short memory but the Catholic Church rape victims are not as lucky. Fortunately, Banksy was never one to tolerate complacency. While he may be featured with old masters, it’s clear he’ll never comfort the establishment.

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Patron of the Arts

By Jeff Fulmer | Published December 5, 2011

Remember Mark Lugo? He was a Hoboken sommelier who walked into a San Francisco art gallery and walked out with a Picasso. He pulled it from the wall without gallery assistance. Apparently they frown on that. After his capture, police searched Lugo’s Hoboken apartment and discovered an art collection worth more than $350,000.00.

While Lugo acquired most of his collection from hotel and gallery walls in New York, it was the San Francisco theft that captured the nation’s attention. Ask a Kardashian what affect fame has on price. The purloined Picasso has soared in value. One bidder offered $100,000.00 more than the gallery posted.

The Picasso was back on display last Monday at the Weinstein gallery but its owner has no intention to sell it. The stolen piece is worth more on the gallery wall than it is as a sales item. Since the Lugo Affair, foot traffic has risen dramatically.

“Every single solitary day, at least 10 people come into the gallery asking where the Picasso is,” the gallery president said. “It’s become such an important part, not just of our story, but I think the story of artwork in San Francisco.”

Despite a string of theft and incarceration, Mark Lugo has unwittingly become a patron of the arts, a designation he’d likely embrace.

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The Ronald Lauder Collection

By Jeff Fulmer | Published November 29, 2011

Ronald Lauder and his daughtersAs the Top One Percent prepare for the oppulent excess of Art Basel Miami Beach, the New York Times published a detailed summary of art collector Ronald Lauder’s uncanny ability to shield his wealth from taxation.

Lauder is the heir to the Estee Lauder fortune and owner of the Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. In celebration of the museum’s 10th anniversary, Mr. Lauder’s personal collection is now on display. It spans the medieval period to the modern era. Of personal interest were several preparatory drawings by Van Gogh along with German expressionist works by Otto Dix, Max Beckman and Egon Schiele. (Mr. Lauder bought his first Schiele years ago with money from his bar mitzvah.)

Unfortuantely, the exhibition lacks context beyond “look what I can afford.” Some works felt like they were collected on the basis of availability, not as the coveted card of an inside straight. The collection was not nearly as satisfying as a Met retrospective but it’s worth $20.00 and a few hours of time. It provides an opportunity to surmise the manner in which you’d invest billions that you inherited from mumsy.

The Federal tax code provided Lauder incentive to buy all he could. He’s entitled to deduct full market value for all works he donates to museum including museums he owns. At the time he amassed much of this collection, the deal was even sweeter. Lauder was able to deduct a portion of a work’s value without actually donating it to a museum.

In fairness to Ronald Lauder, his collection is more readily accessible than others that were amassed with the aid of tax loopholes. Neue Galerie exhibits are always worth visiting and I suggest you take an opportunity to view the owner’s personal collection. Afterall, you helped finance it.

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A Lost Michelangelo Heads Home

By Jeff Fulmer | Published October 26, 2011

It was the Age of the Robber Barons, a time when Industrialists could amass huge fortunes in a manner that one muckraker termed “immoral, unethical, and unjust.” As coffers filled, these New World aristocrats sought Old World treasures to help affirm their place beside the great houses of Europe.

She was a German baroness whose house was in decline. Among her relics was a painting loosely attributed to Michelangelo. She shipped it to America in the hope that it might fetch a nice sum on the market there. There were no takers. The painting passed to an acquaintence and eventually to the hands of a middle-class Rochester family. In a manner that was certainly tongue-in-cheek, they referred to it as “The Mike.”

Some time in the 1970s, the Mike fell as it was dusted so the Kober family placed it behind a sofa where it remained until it was inherited by Martin Kober.

After retirement, the former fighter pilot took renewed interest in the work. With the help of an Italian art historian, they were unable to discount the possibility that it was painted by Michelangelo. In fact the pair are certain it was painted by the Rennaisannce master. Officially, the jury is still out.

In a recent twist to this story the painting, La Pieta With Two Angels, is headed to Rome where it will be included in an exhibition of Renaissance art. This is a good step towards acceptance by the art world. For now it will appear in the exhibition as “in the style of Michelangelo.” The distinction is important. Should the painting be accepted — if goes from Michelangeloesque to Michelangelo — it would be worth between 100 and 300 million dollars.

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Lost Otto Dix Works Discovered In Bavaria

By Jeff Fulmer | Published September 2, 2011

Peter Barth and Herbert Remmert have done it again. For the second time in a little more than a year, we learn they’ve discovered previously unknown works by a German expressionist.

Last year the owners of Remmert Gallery in Dusseldorf discovered a prepatory watercolor for “Germany, a Winter’s Fairytale” by George Grosz. It was a remarkable find since the original has been missing since 1933. It was presumeably destroyed by the Nazis who felt threatened by its content.

This year, Barth and Remmert uncovered four works by Otto Dix. They were discovered on the Bavarian estate of Hans and Martha Koch. The trove includes three water colors and a prepatory drawing of the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim.

Hans Koch was a kidney and bladder specialist from Dusseldorf. He was a noted art collector whose portrait Dix painted in 1921. His wife Martha also posed for the artist then left Hans for him. She would become Mrs. Otto Dix. The Doctor was undisturbed by this event since he was already romantically involved with his wife’s sister. The Dixes and the Kochs would remain friends.

Gallery Remmert plans to show the newly discovered pieces along with other works in an exhibition in Düsseldorf to mark Dix’s 120th birthday later this year.

Read more: [Otto Dix: Online Catalog]

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Art Theft Is On The Rise … Maybe

By Jeff Fulmer | Published August 26, 2011

Art TheftThe Art Newspaper reports that art thefts are on the rise across North America. Over the past decade, the paper says, international art theft has risen in value from $3 to $6 billion dollars. More on that number in a bit.

My position holds that art theft is actually rare. Opportunities are far more abundant than occurrences of theft. In the US, every twenty-four seconds a car is stolen despite locks, alarms, garages and other security measures. This is because thieves can convert cars into cash. They are stripped for parts which are resold on secondary markets.

Art security is notoriously lax. Valuable items hang on publicly accessible walls. Mark Lugo, an exception rather than the rule, simply pulled works from hotel and gallery walls. But Lugo didn’t try to profit from his ill-gotten gains. He was building a private collection. Since he didn’t steal for profit, Lugo didn’t face a deterrent that stops other thieves. It’s hard to profit from stolen art.

Toyota, GM and Volkswagen each sell over seven million cars a year. That makes it difficult to locate an individual vehicle. And if you consider that vehicle has value even when its chopped into pieces, then you understand why car theft is prevalent - it’s practitioners feel they can make money.

In the art world, great value is contained in fewer items. Print runs might number from a few dozen to a couple hundred. Paintings are literally one-of-a-kind items. It is difficult to move stolen merchandise without attracting attention from police and theft victims. As the Art Newspaper notes, the LAPD’s two man art theft department was able recover more stolen merchandise than any of the twenty-one other departments.

Now about that six billion dollar theft number. The FBI includes fakes and forgeries in the crime of art theft. Given that context I can believe that “theft” is on the rise. Art forgery is as old as the art market. Online auctions are crawling with fakes and this market has greatly expanded over the last decade. The Art Newspaper should have more correctly said, “Art crimes rise across North America.”

 

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On Grosz and Dates

By Jeff Fulmer | Published August 24, 2011

Poet Max Herrmann-Neisse

George Grosz was an German Expressionist working in Berlin when the Nazis came to power. If his style was an affront to Nazi aesthetics, his politics were more offensive. Soon after the Spartacus uprising in 1919, Grosz joined the Communist Party of Germany. In 1933 as it became clear the winds were shifting to the Nazis’ backs, Grosz fled Germany for the United States.

Grosz left several important works behind with his Berlin dealer. Now his heirs hope to recover those pieces from their current owners, the Museum of Modern Art. As the New York Times reports today, the entire case may hinge on filing dates. The MoMA has already won several cases because the heirs filed too late to be considered under New York law.

As noted in the article, the United States has signed several international agreements in which the signatories agreed to decide these types of cases based on merit rather than technical issues such as late signings. These agreements have no legal binding and they’ve ignored them in previous cases.

I would prefer to see these works in the hands of their rightful owners. In this case, that’s probably the heirs of George Grosz. But given the current Supreme Court’s reluctance to encroach on state matters, it seems very unlikely it will hear the case. The previous decisions will stand and the Grosz works will remain in the MoMA.

UPDATE: On October 3, 2011 the Supreme Court denied the heir’s petition for certiorari.

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Is Trickle-Down Economics Good For Art?

By Jeff Fulmer | Published August 17, 2011

Trickle-down economicsIf the CEO drops a fifty in the parking lot as he pulls the keys to his S-class from his pocket and if you can manage to snag it while nobody’s looking, that’s trickle-down economics.  This economic model is hotly debated among political partisans but the question before this blog is this: Is trickle-down economics good for art? Ben Davis doesn’t think so.

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