Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

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10-A Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
Fragments
ACC Grant
To encourage new research in the
field of ceramics, the American
Ceramic Circle awards annual grants
to individuals to provide assistance for
costs associated with scholarly research
that reflects the general interest of the
members. Grant amounts vary depend-
ing on the project, but do not exceed
$5000 and are not intended for projects
involving commercial profit. Success-
ful applicants are required to submit the
results of their completed research to
the ACC in the form of a paper, which
may be published in the ACC Journal.
Grantees may also be invited to speak at
a future ACC symposium.
Grant applications for 2017 are
due on April 1. More information and
grant applications are available online
Philadelphia Man Charged with Inter-
state Transportation of Stolen Print
G erald Garrett, 58, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
was charged on February 28 with the interstate
transportation of stolen property in connection with the
theft of a signed LeRoy Neiman print of Muhammad Ali
from the MuhammadAli Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible
sentence of ten years’ imprisonment.
Auctionata Files for Insolvency
O nline auction house Auctionata ) filed for
insolvency on March 1. “Our business operations will discon-
tinue,” an e-mail from the firm read.
The firm, based in Germany, had tried to find financing. On Febru-
ary 1 Auctionata had sent an e-mail stating that the firm had filed for
preliminary insolvency on January 16 to “enable an internal restruc-
turing of its assets. We have defined a plan to continue the business
and to emerge from this phase as a stronger company.”
O n February 27 Judge Charles E.
Ramos ruled in favor of Michael P.
Schulhof in his suit against art curator
and consultant Lisa Jacobs of New York
City. Schulhof alleged that Jacobs had
skimmed $1 million off the sale of Future
Sciences Versus the Man by Jean-Michel
Basquiat (1960-1988) in a 2011 deal.
According to court documents, Schul-
hof is the executor of the estate of his
mother, Hannelore Schulhof. From 1998
until Schulhof’s mother’s death on Feb-
ruary 23, 2012, Jacobs had worked as a
curator and advisor for her.
On October 25, 2011, Michael Schulhof
and Jacobs signed an agreement; Jacobs
was to find a buyer for Future Sciences
Versus the Man for a minimum price of
$6 million in exchange for a $50,000 fee.
Schulhof stated that he entered into the
agreement in his capacity as executor of
the estate.
The agreement provided that Jacobs
was “not to accept any fee from the pur-
chaser, in cash or in kind.” Jacobs was
also supposed to contact Schulhof before
approaching any prospective purchaser
and not supposed to present or seek pur-
chase offers below $6 million without
written confirmation of a lower price.
Jacobs claimed that before that agree-
ment, she and Mrs. Schulhof had entered
into a separate agreement that entitled her
to a “buyer’s premium.” The judge dis-
agreed, noting, “Jacobs has not set forth
any admissible concrete evidence sup-
porting the existence of this agreement.”
On November 1, 2011, Jacobs met with
art dealer Amy Wolf and told her the ask-
ing price of the artwork was $6.5 million.
The next day they had a sale agreement
of $6.5 million. On November 4 Wolf
asked Jacobs to send her an invoice. On
November 5 Jacobs told Schulhof she
had a potential buyer for the work.
“On November 7, 2011, Jacobs
informed Mr. Schulhof by e-mail that
she ‘was able to get the [buyer] up to
$5.5 million. We have a firm deal,’” the
judge’s ruling reads.
Schulhof agreed to the $5.5 million
offer. “Jacobs,” the judge wrote, “sug-
gested the transaction be structured as a
two-step process, stating that the buyer
wanted to remain anonymous. Honoring
such request, Mr. Schulhof sold the Work
to Jacobs for $5,450,000, and Jacobs was
to immediately resell it to Wolf for a pur-
ported $5.5 million.”
On November 11, 2011, Jacobs exe-
cuted a contract with Wolf to sell the
work for $6,500,000. After getting the
$6.5 million, Jacobs wired $5,450,000
to Schulhof. “It is undisputed that Mr.
Schulhof was never informed that Jacobs
received a profit of $1 million in con-
nection with the sale of the Work or that
the buyer had accepted the $6.5 million
offer,” Judge Ramos wrote.
Almost one year later Schulhof discov-
ered that the price was actually $6.5 mil-
lion and that Jacobs had retained not only
the $50,000 but an additional $1 million.
He filed suit on August 26, 2013.
“The record is clear that Jacobs misrep-
resented that the buyer was only willing
to pay $5.5 million for the Work with
knowledge that the buyer was actually
willing and ready to pay $6.5 million,”
Judge Ramos ruled. “Mr. Schulhof has
sufficiently established that Jacobs made
such representations to induce him to
accepting the $5.5 million purchase price,
and Mr. Schulhof reasonably relied on
such representation in deciding to sell the
Work. This Court also finds that there is
no triable issue of fact as to the damages,
as it is clear that Mr. Schulhof was dam-
aged in the amount of approximately $1
million due to Jacobs’ fraud.”
The judge ordered the clerk to enter
a judgment in favor of Schulhof in the
sum of $1,050,000—$1 million plus the
$50,000 fee—together with interest from
November 16, 2011, costs, and disburse-
ments. The interest is substantial—9%
for five years and 106 days adds an addi-
tional $499,943.83.
Judge Rules in Basquiat Case
Chait Indicted in Smuggled
Rhinoceros Horns Case
Jacob Chait, 34, who served as the
head of acquisitions and auctioneer of
I.M. Chait, a gallery and auction house
in Beverly Hills, California, appeared on
February 21 in Manhattan federal court
in New York to face charges of con-
spiring to smuggle rhinoceros horns, in
violation of the Lacey Act. A one-count
indictment charging Chait was returned
by a federal grand jury on February 15.
According to the indictment, from
approximately 2008 to 2012, Chait and
his co-conspirators purchased rhinoceros
horns and taxidermy mounts in the U.S.
and sought to sell them to foreign buy-
ers in private deals. There were at least
eight separate deals or attempted deals
involving 15 rhinoceros horns worth an
estimated $2.4 million. This included one
alleged incident in which Chait himself
smuggled two endangered black rhino
horns to China in his luggage. Rhinoc-
eros horns are worth more per pound
than gold because of the high demand in
Asia and increasing scarcity of supply.
Chait is charged in one count of con-
spiring to smuggle rhinoceros horns and
to violate the Lacey Act. The charge car-
ries a maximum penalty of five years in
prison.
“The defendant and his co-conspir-
ators are alleged to have engaged in a
scheme to illegally traffic in the horns of
highly protected rhinoceros,” said Act-
ing Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey
H. Wood. “Illegal wildlife trafficking
is a serious crime under federal law and
should be vigorously prosecuted.”
On June 22, 2016, the defendant’s
older brother Joey Chait, the senior auc-
tion administrator of I.M. Chait, was
sentenced by the Honorable J. Paul Oet-
ken to one year and one day for conspir-
ing to smuggle wildlife products made
from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory,
and coral with a market value of at least
$1 million, and to violate the Lacey Act.
In 2012 Jacob Chait, billed as “Jake
Chait,” appeared on Final Offer, a show
aired on the Discovery Network. The
show is not currently on the network’s
schedule.
Christie’s to Open New Location in Los Angeles
I n April Christie’s will open a new
5400-square-foot two-story flagship
location in Beverly Hills, California.
The auction house says there is growing
demand among Los Angeles-area col-
lectors for greater access to buying and
selling opportunities, fine art advisory
and appraisal services, private selling
exhibitions, auction highlight tours, and
art-related estate and wealth manage-
ment services.
A team of specialists working across
Christie’s major collecting categories
will call this new flagship home, supplementing the company’s
longstanding San Francisco presence. Christie’s has maintained
offices in Los Angeles since 1978 and in San Francisco since
1982.
Rockefeller Center in New York City will continue to operate
as Christie’s auction salesroom for the Americas.
To design its LA arts space, located on North Camden Drive
near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard, Christie’s engaged wHY,
the design team known for collaborating with local cultural
clients such as the Marciano Art Foundation, CalArts, and Los
Angeles County Museum of Art as well as top artists and col-
lectors. Inside the new space, wHY designed a flexible layout
for Christie’s to host exhibitions, social events, educational pro-
gramming, and livestreams of auctions taking place in Chris-
tie’s salesrooms worldwide. The upstairs has been designed to
include private meeting areas and offices
where clients and specialists can discuss
appraisals, advisory projects, or buying
and selling opportunities. A1400-square-
foot addition on the second level creates
an open space with greenery that can
double as an outdoor event space.
TheLAprojectmirrorsChristie’s recent
expansions in mainland China, where the
company has been steadily increasing
access to online and salesroom collecting
opportunities, arts engagement, and edu-
cational partnerships. In the fall of 2016,
Christie’s opened a new multifunctional art space in Beijing on
Jinbao Street; in 2014 Christie’s relocated its Shanghai presence
to the Ampire building. Together, mainland China and the West
Coast region of the United States account for the largest influx
of new buyers at Christie’s in recent years.
Christie’s isn’t the only auction house to target Los Angeles
more aggressively. In 2015 Bonhams announced it would move
its West Coast furniture and decorative arts sales from San Fran-
cisco to Los Angeles. “We’ve reviewed the sales results on the
West Coast, and we seem to be consistently achieving higher
prices and higher sell-through rates in Los Angeles than in San
Francisco....We’ve decided that our West Coast fine furniture
auctions will be held solely in Los Angeles, in continuance with
our New York fine furniture auctions,” said Andrew Jones at
the time.
Man Arrested in Antiques Mall Burglary
O n Thursday, February 16, at approximately 8:48 p.m., offi-
cers with the Harrisonburg (Virginia) Police Department
responded to the Rolling Hills Antique Mall at 779 East Market
Street for what has been investigated as a commercial burglary.
Officers on scene were able to view security footage showing
the suspect entering the front door by breaking the glass and
taking a display case of antique coins.
On February 17 a tip was received from an anonymous citizen
who provided information on the suspect in this case. After fur-
ther investigation, officers executed a search warrant in the 1000
block of Moore Street in Harrisonburg. Subsequently, warrants
were obtained for Charles Joseph Hood, 57, of Harrisonburg.
On February 18 Charles Hood was taken into custody at his
residence by officers with the Har-
risonburg Police Department. Hood
was transported to the Rockingham
County Regional Jail and held with-
out bond. Hood was charged with
one count of breaking and entering
with intent to commit larceny (fel-
ony), and one count of grand larceny
(felony) in relation to this offense.
The tip from the anonymous citi-
zen not only led officers to the arrest
of the person but also led to the recov-
ery of the items stolen from the Rolling Hills Antique Mall.
Charles Joseph Hood.