February 5, 2014 - Auction Central News

Seven Ivey-Selkirk employees resign, form new auction house

Susan Kime, president of the newly formed Link Auction Galleries in St. Louis. Image courtesy of Susan Kime.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Today a group of former employees of Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers and its predecessors Ben J. Selkirk & Sons Auctioneers and Phillips-Selkirk, announced their resignation and revealed plans to launch a new auction company called Link Auction Galleries.

The seven employees, including longtime appraisers Susan Kime and Terry Beye, plan to headquarter their new business in a 15,000-sq-ft section of the former St. John’s United Methodist Church in the Central West End of St. Louis. Located at 5000 Washington Blvd., the proposed venue is currently under contract to a company affiliated with the new firm.

Link Auction Galleries takes its name from the historical building’s designer, renowned architect Theodore Link.

Link Auction Galleries will specialize in art, antiques and collectibles, selling them from a variety of auction and gallery settings. Kime will serve as president of the new company, and Beye will assume the role of senior vice president.

“We are preserving a business that has successfully operated in St. Louis for almost 200 years,” said Kime. “Operating our business in such a significant historical building — that we bring back to life — is just one way we intend to show our commitment to the St. Louis community and our customers.”

Majority owned and controlled by its employees, Link Auction Galleries plans to adopt the most rapid payment terms of all fine-arts auction galleries.

“We intend to pay our customers within 15 days of getting paid for any property we sell and have adopted processes and procedures to ensure that happens,” said Beye.

Alleged non-payment to consignors was the key factor that prompted the seven Ivey-Selkirk employees to resign. Ivey-Selkirk has faced numerous complaints over the past three years, incurring an undesirable “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau along the way. According to a Feb. 5, 2014 St. Louis Business Journal article written by E.B. Solomont, Ivey-Selkirk owner Malcolm F. Ivey, who bought the business in 2002, has been named in five lawsuits. The most recent of these actions is a lawsuit filed on December 19 on behalf of billionaire Bruce Karsh, in which it is alleged that Ivey-Selkirk owes Karsh’s Clayton St. Louis Property LLC $60,000 for the sale of two consigned paintings.

Malcolm Ivey was not immediately available for comment.

Link Auction Galleries has closed on its initial financing for the business itself and hopes to settle on the acquisition of its new venue “as soon as possible,” said Kime. A projected opening date is set for late March 2014. A complete auction schedule, hours of operation and website will be available soon.

About the Historic St. John’s United Methodist Church:

Constructed in 1902, St. John’s Methodist Church was the first church constructed on what is known as “Holy Corners,” at the corner of Washington Place and Kingshighway in the City of St. Louis. Designed by renowned architect Theodore Link (designer of St. Louis Union Station), the church is a Greek Revival design and includes a number of historic stained glass windows and other historical elements. The cornerstone was laid in 1901, and the church building was put into use in 1903. The building is listed on the National and State Registries of Historic Buildings.

Note: Although Auction Central News was not able to reach Malcolm Ivey prior to the publication of this article, it is our intention to offer him the right of comment. We will publish an update as soon as we have spoken with him.

# # #

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury auction Feb. 13 has dramatic thread

A signed Bombay Edition set of the complete works of Rudyard Kipling. Estimate: £200-300. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

LONDON – The library of acclaimed British stage and film director, writer and actor Patrick Garland will be sold as part of Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ bibliophile sale on Thursday, Feb. 13. The auction will also include works on natural history, children’s and illustrated, English and Continental literature and modern first editions.

Internet bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.

A prominent figure in the British arts scene Garland was best known as a theater director. As artistic director for the Chichester Festival Theatre from 1981 to 1985 and again 1990 to 1994, Garland directed more than 20 productions, and he is the only theater director to have had four plays running at the same time in London’s West End. He was also the driving force behind the Chichester Festival Theatre where he served as artistic director for many years and directed over 30 productions. In later life he turned his talents to film directing and won widespread praise for his 1971 television film, The Snow Goose, which earned a Golden Globe for “Best Movie made for TV” and was also nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy.

His collection of English literature and reference works include many copies signed with personal inscriptions to him by notable figures including Samuel Beckett, Sir John Betjeman, John Osbourne and Rex Harrison. The literature is mostly poetry and theater-related, but there are also private press and limited-edition works.

A signed Bombay Edition set of the complete works of Rudyard Kipling’s is a 31-volume limited-edition set. Printed by R. & R. Clark from the Florence Press Type, this Bombay edition is one of only 1,050 copies printed on handmade paper. It is estimated to sell for £1,000-£1,500. Also from his collection is a highly desirable limited-edition set of Thomas Hardy’s The Dynasts, one of only 525 copies to be signed by the author. This copy includes a signed etched portrait by Francis Dodd in pencil, printed in red and black, and estimated to sell for £200-£300.

Elsewhere in the sale the signatures of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCarney and John Lennon are sold as written on the page of an autograph album, in card mount. These Beatles autographs are sure to go down well with any Beatles enthusiasts and carry an estimate of £1,000-£1,500.

A small sporting section boasts an enticing variety of materials on the subjects of angling, boxing, cricket, cycling, golf, hawking, shooting and even the more sedate pastimes of card playing. Of particular interest is a copy of the 1888 limited edition set of Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler. Described as “a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse” the book was first published in 1653, but Walton continued to add chapters for more than 25 years. One of only 500 copies, the book is signed by the editor R.B. Marston, and estimated to sell for £200-£300.

Among the other rare items in the sale are The History of Little Jack by Thomas Day, with only one listing on ESTC (found at the Bodelian Library) and no copies in the British Library, and John Walcott’s The Figures, Description, and History, of Exotic Animals, a first edition with only three auction records. Walcott’s book includes 60 fine engravings of exotic animals, including species of turtles, snakes, frogs, salamanders and fish from the Americas, and interestingly although the preface indicates that a second part would be published, none was ever issued. The books are estimated to sell for £150-£200 and £600-£800 respectively.

The sale also includes a small, but perfectly formed, collection of gardening and agricultural books that were once the property of a lady, and include a wide range of materials from antiquarian rarities to modern reference works.

This auction will be held by Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions at the Godalming saleroom in Surrey on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 11 a.m. GMT, 3 a.m. Pacific.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

The signatures of George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCarney and John Lennon on the page from an autograph album. Estimate: £1,000-£1,500. Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Isaac Neton's 'Universal Arithmetick.' Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image. — Isaac Neton’s ‘Universal Arithmetick.’ Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions image.

Skateboarders force arts center to shelve demolition plans

The undercroft skate park below the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex. Image by T.frewin.This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

LONDON (AFP) – One of the world’s best-known skateboarding spots has been saved from demolition after a campaign by London skaters that was backed by Mayor Boris Johnson.

The Southbank arts center announced plans last March to fund a new £120 million ($195 million, 145 million euro) wing by knocking down a set of concrete banks, which skateboarders have been using for four decades, and replacing them with coffee shops and restaurants.

It offered to build a new skate park under a nearby bridge over the River Thames. But more than 67,000 people signed a petition against the plans and 35,000 lodged official planning objections with the local council.

Mayor Johnson stepped in to the row on Jan. 15, saying the park was the “epicenter of UK skateboarding and is part of the cultural fabric of London,” and attracted tourists from around the world.

“Southbank Centre’s board will withhold its planning application for the Festival Wing, following Mayor Boris Johnson’s statement that the skate park should be retained in its current position in any redevelopment,” the center said in a statement on its website.

“The mayor has the final say in the planning process and the scheme is therefore unlikely to gain planning permission without the retention of the skate park.”

The center, home to renowned arts venues such as the Hayward Art Gallery, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, said it would “now undertake a final search for an alternative funding model to keep the widely supported Festival Wing redevelopment scheme alive.”

The Long Live Southbank Campaign, set up by skateboarders to fight the center’s plans, gave a cautious response to the statement.

“This in no way means Southbank skate spot has been saved. We have been here before, many times. We will continue,” it said in a statement.

“We will also not allow the Southbank Centre to make skaters the fall guy for a hugely unpopular design plan. It is the design that is at fault, not us.”

The Southbank park was the birthplace of skateboarding in Britain in the 1970s, when its dingy covered concrete space provided refuge in a rainy climate for a sport imported from sunny California.

It has since won a name as a mecca for skaters around the globe, featuring in numerous videos and in the best-selling computer game Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, as well as providing a home for BMXers and graffiti artists.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Gallery Report: February 2014

NEW ORLEANS –

Russian icon of Jesus, $19,520, Crescent City

A circa-1910 Russian icon of Jesus by Khlebnikov, with enameled silver riza and the imperial double-headed eagle mark for Moscow, 5 1/4 inches by 4 1/4 inches, sold for $19,520 at an auction held Dec. 7-8 by Crescent City Auction Gallery. Also, three Mardi Gras Rex Ducal badges (1881, 1927 and 1886) fetched $12,078; a French provincial carved oak Louis XV-style “wedding” armoire, mid-19th century, made $4,270; and an American Gothic Revival carved oak half tester bed brought $6,100. Prices include an 18.5 percent buyer’s premium.

Father’s rights activist jailed for defacing queen portrait

Queen Elizabeth II, photographed in 2007. Image by NASA/Bill Ingalls, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

LONDON (AFP) – A British man who defaced a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to highlight the plight of fathers who are denied access to their children was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail.

Father-of-two Tim Haries smuggled a can of purple spray paint into Westminster Abbey on June 13 last year and wrote “help” on a large oil painting by Australian artist Ralph Heimans.

Haries, an activist with the Fathers4Justice campaign group, said his action was aimed at highlighting the “social justice issue of our time.”

He has not seen his two daughters, Katie and Scarlett, for more than four years following an order by the family courts, he said in a statement after the sentencing.

The 42-year-old denied a charge of causing criminal damage of more than £5,000 ($8,100, 6,000 euros) but was found guilty at London’s Southwark Crown Court last month.

The six-month sentence was far tougher than he had expected, and Haries responded by announcing that he was going on hunger strike until he is reunited with his daughters.

“My children and I have done nothing to warrant such treatment by the courts and our government,” he said in the statement put out by Fathers4Justice.

The judge, Alistair McCreath, said he was not immune to Haries’ “real anguish” over his separation from his children.

“But I do not accept that the means that you chose to adopt to make your protest were in any way justified. This was, in reality, a choice you made, not a sudden ill-considered act under immediate provocation,” he said.

Heimans’ painting was commissioned for the queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012 and valued at around £160,000. It cost £9,204 to repair after the vandalism, the court heard.

Founded in 2001, Fathers4Justice has a reputation for headline-grabbing stunts by fathers locked in bitter custody battles.

Activists have scaled public buildings dressed as superheroes – Spiderman at Tower Bridge and Batman at Buckingham Palace – and in 2004 they pelted then prime minister Tony Blair with flour in the House of Commons.

Two weeks after Haries’ protest, another Fathers4Justice activist was arrested at the National Gallery after gluing a photograph of his son to John Constable’s masterpiece The Hay Wain.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Fake Chagall painting a ‘very bad copy,’ panel rules

An authentic portrait of Chagall by Yehuda 'Yuri' Pen, his first art teacher in Vitebsk, Belarus. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

PARIS (AFP) – A painting that a British businessman thought was by famed artist Marc Chagall is a “very bad copy,” an expert Paris-based committee announced, though it ruled out any hasty destruction of the fake.

Martin Lang spent £100,000 (121,000 euros, $163,000) on what he believed was an original work by Russian-born artist Chagall in 1992, but learned it was a fake when his painting was tested for a BBC documentary and sent to the Chagall Committee for verification.

Lang was shocked when he found out that the committee intended to keep and destroy the painting – a nude – wishing instead that they mark the word “forgery” on the back of the canvas and return it to him.

Under French law, counterfeit work can be destroyed, and the committee told AFP late Tuesday that it could go to court if the 63-year-old property developer refused.

“It is a very bad copy of an original 1911 painting that is in a private collection. A stylistic analysis is enough to conclude it is fake,” it said.

“Unlike what is suggested in the documentary, the association does not take any arbitrary measures and does not proceed with any destruction without prior agreement from the owner, or failing that, without court authorization,” it said in a statement.

“When the destruction is authorized, it is implemented by a bailiff who chooses the most suitable method according to the nature of the support of the counterfeit work.”

Lang had insisted in an interview that the painting was his property – fake or not – and had pointed out that the canvas could be evidence against the forgers and should therefore be preserved.

Chagall, who died in France almost three decades ago, is considered a pioneer of modernism. His work can sell for millions.

The Chagall Committee is run by the artist’s grandchildren to protect his reputation in the art world.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Inaugural Juneau auction benefits new arts center

View of Gastineau Channel and downtown Juneau, Alaska. Image by Sam Glover. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A capacity crowd attended Sealaska Heritage Institute’s first art auction featuring works by northwest Native artists in Juneau, collectively raising more than $300,000 for an educational facility under construction.

The Tinaa Art Auction Saturday night drew a sold-out, black-tie crowd of more than 300, the Juneau Empire reported Monday. The auction title, Tinaa, is a Tlingit word referring to a traditional copper shield representing trade and wealth.

The art auction was a fundraiser for construction of the planned Walter Soboleff Center, named after late Tlingit leader Dr. Walter Soboleff, who died in 2011 at 102. The facility will house a variety of art programs, a retail shop and performance and exhibit spaces.

The weekend auction was held at Centennial Hall and featured 13 live-auction items, 40 silent-auction pieces and a Native fashion show.

The works committed by artists for the auction included weavings, jewelry, paintings and carvings.

Many of the artists attended the event and several took turns at the microphone.

The artists included David Boxley, a Tsimshian carver whose bentwood chest was among the largest items in the live auction. Also in attendance was Haida artist Robert Davidson, who donated a black-and-red painting called Greatest Echo.

The runway fashion show was held before the auction and featured northwest coast fashions that included a salmon skin dress made from 35 Kenai River salmon. Also on view was a coat made from sea otter fur.

In organizing the event, institute officials drew on research of the Santa Fe Indian Market, a yearly event held in New Mexico every August since 1922.

At the end of the Juneau event, heritage institute president Rosita Worl said the outpouring of support for the Sobeleff Center was an overwhelmingly positive example of working together for a common goal of creating a regional hub in Juneau for northwest coast art.

“We are going to make this the northwest coast art capital of the world,” Worl said.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is the nonprofit cultural and educational arm of Juneau-based Sealaska Corp., a regional Native corporation.

___

Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Ain’t that peculiar? Yard sale yields Marvin Gaye passport

Motown superstar Marvin Gaye (1939-1984) in a 1974 trade ad for the album 'Anthology.' The ad appeared in the April 27, 1974 issue of 'Billboard' magazine.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – You never know what might fall out of some old record albums that cost 50 cents each at a yard sale. Like Marvin Gaye’spassport — which could be worth $20,000 to collectors today.

Issued in October 1964, the expired US passport depicts a smiling Gaye — then 25, born in Washington on April 2, 1939, six feet tall, with brown hair and brown eyes — along with his authentic signature.

“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” one of his many hits, had just been released and the Motown sound was dominating the pop charts.

Two decades would pass before Gaye was shot and killed by his pastor father in a heated argument.

The passport reappeared this week on US public television’s “Antiques Roadshow,” where a male guest from Detroit told how it fell out of some old LPs he’d picked up at yard sale.

“When I got home, I was going through them and out of an album fell this passport,” said the guest, identified only as a former employee of the Motown Museum in Detroit. “And so, it literally fell into my hands.”

Los Angeles-based appraiser Laura Woolley, an expert in pop culture memorabilia, startled the middle-aged man when she advised him to get it insured for $20,000.

“I’m not kidding you,” Woolley said. “Nothing comes up for Marvin Gaye. It’s not a really common thing to see Marvin Gaye memorabilia.”

Gaye carved a unique place in US pop and soul music history, recording such gems as “Can I Get a Witness,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “What’s Going On,” “Let’s Get It On,” “Got to Give It Up” and “Sexual Healing”.

His ex-wife Anna Gordy Gaye, who married Gaye in 1963, and whose brother Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, died Friday in Los Angeles, her family said. She was 92; she and Gaye divorced in 1977.

# # #

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Sign up for daily highlights by email