News
The latest news from the Art Management Group.
Dick Ellis speaks at Stephenson Harwood/Fine Art Wealth Management Seminar 20th March 2013
Discussing the integration of art into the wealth management strategy of wealth managers and their clients, financial planning for art assets, what constitutes sound art governance and due-dilligence, dispute resolution including authenticity, insurance, intellectual property, title, fraud and valuation and the rise of art financing.
Dick Ellis secures recent Picasso theft in Serbia.
A link to a TV programme can be found: www.adanja-polak.com. Click on emisije na intenetu and look for the programme:TRAGAJUCI ZA PIKASOM
An article can also be found here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/12/f-vp-bambury.html
Valentine Walsh and Dr Nicholas Eastaugh - New Publication
Conservation of Easel Paintings Ed. Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfiled, Routledge, 2012. Valentine Walsh and Pigmentum Project co-author Dr Nick Eastaugh have written Chapter 18 on Optical Microcopy in this essential guide to Easel Painting conservation.
Valentine Walsh awarded Newbridge Memorial Hall Tender July 2012
Beaney paintings get a spring clean 30 March 2012
Reproduced from an original posting from Canterbury Council Picture conservators have been busy getting art works ready for their move to the newly renovated Beaney Art Museum and Library in Canterbury. Paintings were moved out in early 2009, after the building closed for restoration and extension. Most have been in storage, with a small selection on display at Canterbury Heritage Museum. Now that construction and renovation of the Beaney are nearing completion the paintings are getting a thorough clean and check. A team of specialist painting conservators led by Valentine Walsh, with Amelia Jackson and Anthea Pelham Burn, has been removing decades of dust accumulated while pictures were on display in the old building. At the same time they have been checking and recording condition of pictures and frames. This will enable curators to prioritise further work where paint is cracked and fragile, varnish has discoloured or frame mouldings have crumbled.
Art Crime Primer Course Established in USA
Richard Ellis, together with former FBI Agent Viriginia Curry have established their first introductory art crimes course based at Stonehill College near Boston in August 2012. The course was a sell out and introduced students to the art market and art crime scene. The course is designed as an introduction to the full course offered by ARCA - The Association for Research into Crimes against Art of which Richard Ellis is a Trustee, lecturing to the students on their three month course in Italy.
AMG Experts lecture to Art Governance Course Series run by Fine Art Wealth Management
Valentine Walsh, Bob Child, Nicholas Eastaugh and Richard Ellis lectured in their respective specialist areas to the five module course series held between May and October 2012. The course series is attended by family offices and the representatives of collecting families, art investors, wealth management professionals, specialist law firms, trustees and executors and art market professionals.
Topics covered included: Conservation and Collection Management Due Dilligence Scientific Authentication of Paintings Security and Disaster Planning.
Stolen Picasso paintings recovered in Serbia
Richard Ellis recovered two paintings by Picasso in Serbia in October 2011. The paintings stolen in Switzerland in 2008, had been on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany and Richard Ellis was instructed by their insurers, AXA Art, to investigate the theft. His initial investigations indicated that the paintings had been removed by Serbs and following a three year investigation in that country, he was able to recover the pictures providing the Swiss authorities with information that resulted in Letters of Judicial Request being sent to the Serb police ensuring the prompt return of the paintings to Germany.
Television Appearances 2011
AMG Experts Dr Nicholas Eastuagh and Richard Ellis were featured in two programmes in the acclaimed BBC 'Fake or Fortune' series hosted by Fiona Bruce and art expert Philip Mould. The programmes were 'Homer'. A programme shown on 26th June 2011 featured Richard Ellis discussing the legal issues surrounding a painting by Winslow Homer found on a rubbish tip in Ireland. On the 3rd August 2011 Nicholas Eastaugh and Art Access an Research were shown undertaking techincal imaging and paint analysis on a disputed Monet painting.
Dr Nicholas Eastaugh and Art Access and Research
In 2011 the work of AA&R were one of the first specialists to identify as fake, the work of the master forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The resultant scandal known as the 'Jaeger's collection forgery' saw the conviction of Beltracchi and others in Germany for an art forgery that had saturated the art market with an estimated value of 30m pounds worth of forged paintings over the last decade.
Department of Culture (DCMS) Appoints AMG Directors as Ministerial Advisors
Richard Ellis and Kevin Chamberlain have been appointed as consultants to the Minister of Culture in respect of objects loaned from abroad for temporary exhibition in museums and galleries in England and Wales. The role involves reviewing the applications received from museums seeking ‘approved’ status under the 2007 anti-seizure legislation and focuses on the requirement for museums to have ethical and rigourous loans and due diligence policies.
AMG Conservation Experts Granted Research Time Using Britain’s New Particle Accelerator
Valentine Walsh and Nicholas Eastaugh have been granted two sessions of 72 hours to use the new Diamond Light Source synchrotron at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to investigate the long unresolved problem of a pigment which is known sometimes to turn black on works of art. Cinnabar or its synthetic analogue vermilion is a very important red pigment used in art throughout history and although numerous researchers have theories as to what is occurring the cause of the change is not yet fully understood.