News
The latest news from the Art Management Group.
Stolen Paintings Recovered
Paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and Raoul Duffy stolen in 2005 whilst in transit in London have been recovered successfully through the intervention of Richard Ellis of The Art Management Group.
In March 2006 two men who indicated that they had access to stolen art and antiques through business associates telephoned him. A meeting was arranged and whilst no photographs of the stolen property were available, searches on the Trace database of stolen art and antiques indicated that the paintings referred to by the two men were indeed those stolen in London in 2005.
Axa Art, insurers of the paintings had instructed loss adjuster Mark Dalrymple of Tyler & Co. at the time of the theft. The circulation of the stolen pictures included an advertisement in trade publications offering a £50,000 reward “subject to specific conditions” for the recovery of the stolen art.
Using the specialist investigative skills he developed whilst head of New Scotland Yards Art and Antiques Squad, Richard Ellis was able to engineer the safe recovery of the paintings on behalf of Axa Art whilst at the same time providing the police with new leads for their investigation into the theft of the pictures.
All three paintings have been safely returned to their owner.
Regents Park Sculpture Exhibition Opened
The recently formed Regents Art Foundation mounted its first sculpture exhibition in Queen Mary’s Gardens, Inner Circle, Regents Park, London with the help of the Art Management Group.
The foundation is backed by Russian businessman Eugeny Erofeev and gallery owner Inna Khegay and has been formed with the aim of providing contemporary sculptures from around the world with an annual showcase. For the inaugural exhibition entitled “Gate of Multiplicity” works by Russian sculptor Unus Safardiar and Britain’s Sean Henry are on show.
The Art Management Group was called in to assist with the organisation and initially Peter Osborne and Richard Ellis undertook a risk assessment for the exhibition before arranging for insurance and the complex issue of transporting several tons of valuable sculpture through the streets of London.
Working closely with the Royal Parks, AMG co-ordinated the installation of the works of art in Queen Mary’s Gardens, which required the use of specialist lifting equipment and ensured that adequate safety measures were applied to each of the sculptures.
The exhibition was opened by Baroness Blackstone on the evening of the 27
AMG in the Telegraph, 26th September 2006
The Art Management Group, and one its foremost experts, Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh, were recently featured in a Telegraph article dealing with the conviction of Robert Thwaites for forging a collection of fairy paintings, such as Going to the Masked Ball, right. The article said that
“Eastaugh wields enormous power in the art market but is rarely in the limelight. It was his name that lay at the heart of the most recent forgery case, concerning fake Victorian fairy paintings, which ended last week. The case was peppered with testimony from dealers and picture restorers, but it was Eastaugh’s findings that led to the prosecution of the faker Robert Thwaites, whose works deceived some of the country’s top experts.
“Now Dr. Eastaugh and a small group of fellow scientists are joining forces with former Scotland Yard Art and Antiques Squad chief Dick Ellis to form The Art Management Group, which will provide a wide range of services to the art world. Eastaugh believes everyone should exercise due diligence when handling works of art. ‘After all, you wouldn’t buy a house without a survey, would you?’”
You can read the full story, ‘On the trail of the fairy fakes’, on the Telegraph website. A larger version of the photo is available here.
Announcement, July 2006
The Art Management Group is pleased to announce its strategic partnership with Fine Art Wealth Management Ltd.
In recognition of art collectors and investors as an important new client segment for private banks, AMG is delighted to announce the launch of a strategic partnership with Fine Art Wealth Management whose founder and Managing Director is Randall James Willette.
Fine Art Wealth Management is a London based art investment consultancy, which specialises in advising private banks on integrating art into their overall wealth management strategy for private clients.
Prior to establishing the Company in 2003, Randall Willette was Executive Director and Head of Art Banking for UBS Wealth Management in London, responsible for building its global art banking franchise in Europe and America. While there, he developed and implemented a global marketing strategy for UBS Art Banking integrating art assets into the Bank’s overall wealth management strategy for private clients. Before joining UBS, Randall was Managing Director in Corporate Finance with Citigroup. His credentials include over eighteen years combined experience in investment banking, corporate finance and private wealth management, with a proven track record in leading complex art transactions globally.
Fine Art Wealth Management combines the rigours of private banking with the specialised knowledge of art experts to enable wealth managers to offer their clients a full service art platform, including: collection management; art financing; due-diligence on art investment funds and customised art market research.
A more comprehensive overview of their services may be found at fineartwealthmgt.com.