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October 6, 2008
Weird 20th Century Art Property Law
I don't get this one - why do the heirs of Kazimir Malevich have a right to his work? Was it seized by the Soviet State and then sold? I'm just not clear. The setting is a story from Bloomberg.com about a Malevich sale expected to take a record price.
The idea of restitution of Malevich's art began in 1993 when German art historian Clemens Toussaint scoured the former Soviet Union for Malevich's heirs, Toussaint said in a 1999 interview in St. Petersburg.He convinced the heirs to press a claim for Malevich works held by MoMA and the Stedelijk. In June 1999, MoMA paid the heirs an undisclosed cash settlement, and handed over a 1925 painting, also titled ``Suprematist Composition,'' according to a MoMA press release. MoMA kept the other 15 paintings.
The heirs sold the 1925 ``Suprematist Composition'' at a Phillips International auction in May 2000 for $17 million.
The identity of the Malevich heirs remains a guarded secret, and Toussaint declined to name any.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 6, 2008 8:53 AM