[BCMA] Ensuring a gift remains a gift

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

http://www.canada.com/Monumental+painting+that+sparked+legal+saga+auction/4074949/story.html



http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=42511<http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2%E2%88%AB_new=42511>



My first museum job was working with this collection at the Beaverbrook Art
Gallery. While many of you are no doubt familiar with the Gallery’s
ownership dispute, it serves as an important reminder to clearly document in
curatorial files the donation of a work versus a loan to your institution’s
collection. And, equally important:  to steward your relationship with major
gift donors, even over generations. These works will be dearly missed by
those of us who had the privilege to grow up with them.



Patricia Blakney Huntsman, MBA, BA, Dip

Arts & Cultural Management Consulting

+1.250-753-9776


*'Monumental' painting that sparked legal saga up for auction*


*Second major auction from collection held for 50 years by the Fredericton
gallery*



*BY RANDY BOSWELL, POSTMEDIA NEWS*JANUARY 7, 2011





After an unseemly, seven-year legal saga that saw New Brunswick's
Beaverbrook Art Gallery battle a British foundation over the ownership of
more than 130 historic artworks, the finest jewel among the 48 paintings and
sculptures secured by the foundation in an October court settlement is to be
auctioned this month in New York.

A stunning, "monumental" seascape by 18th-century French artist
Claude-Joseph Vernet is expected to sell for as much as $2 million at a
Sotheby's sale on Jan. 27.

It will be the second major auction of works from the collection held for 50
years by the Fredericton gallery after its creation by the Ontario-born, New
Brunswick-raised media baron and industrialist Max Aitken, the late Lord
Beaverbrook.

The ongoing sale of paintings secured by the United Kingdom's Beaverbrook
Foundation has been described by gallery officials as a "validation" of its
view that much of the collection would have been liquidated had it not won
control of 85 of the contested artworks, including two paintings -- J.M.W.
Turner's Fountain of Indolence and Lucian Freud's Hotel Bedroom -- worth
tens of millions of dollars.

The dispute centred on whether the gallery had been given -- or merely
loaned -- some of the most valuable artworks from Lord Beaverbrook's
world-class collection.

But the fate of a different set of 80 paintings -- including a "masterwork"
by legendary 19th-century Canadian artist Cornelius Krieghoff -- is now in
doubt after a new round of legal action was launched recently by the
separate, Canadian-based Beaverbrook Foundation, which is challenging the
gallery's ownership of another major portion of Lord Beaverbrook's rich
artistic legacy.

Among the newly disputed works is a major abstract piece by Quebec artist
Jean-Paul Riopelle and two paintings by the legendary British statesman Sir
Winston Churchill, Beaverbrook's friend and Second World War cabinet
colleague in the U.K. government.

Gallery curator and deputy director Terry Graff told Postmedia News on
Thursday that while the October court ruling was a major victory, the new
legal action threatens to further erode the integrity of the collection.

"We don't like to see holes punched in the collection for obvious reasons,"
he said. "It's a public, cultural and educational resource, one of the
finest in North America and the most valuable art collection in the Atlantic
region. And to diminish it in any way represents a disservice to the public,
but also, it dishonours the legacy and intentions of the gallery's founder."

Graff acknowledged a looming sense of loss with the forthcoming sale of
Vernet's striking 1776 canvas, titled A Grand View of the Sea Shore Enriched
with Buildings, Shipping and Figures.

"That's one that is certainly going to be missed in our collection," he
said, musing that "it would be great if there was a guardian angel out there
who wanted to bid for the Vernet on behalf of the gallery. Who knows what
could occur?"

Graff said that because of the ties between the two Beaverbrook foundations
in Canada and Britain, the latest court fight did not come as a surprise.
But he said he's hopeful the matter can be resolved without further damaging
what was once a fruitful collaboration between the gallery and the
foundations in preserving and promoting Beaverbrook's artistic and
philanthropic legacy.

"The people of New Brunswick have grown up with these works of art," he
said. "People make pilgrimages to the gallery to look for their favourite
pieces."

He and other gallery officials are planning a 2012 tour of North America
that would showcase dozens of pieces from the Beaverbrook holdings,
including the disputed Krieghoff canvas from 1860, titled Merrymaking.

The idea, Graff said, is "to let people know of the great treasures we have"
despite the high-profile court clash over the collection.

The transatlantic legal battle forced Beaverbrook's descendants last year to
put the family's palatial home in Britain on the real estate market.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News
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