Dear Subscribers,
Perhaps the headline should have read - "Ester Koplowitz has her Goyas removed." To follow up on the August 9, 2001 art theft in Madrid, the home of "construction baroness" Ester Koplowitz was robbed of fourteen valuable paintings. Photographs of the stolen paintings have been distributed to Spanish police and INTERPOL. As of this writing those pictures are not yet on line. http://www.interpol.int/Public/WorkOfArt/Search/RecentThefts.asp
Giles Tremlett in Madrid Friday August 10, 2001 The Guardian
A multi-million pound art collection including works by Goya and Bruegel has been ransacked in a midnight raid on the home of Spain's richest woman, the aristocratic and glamorous construction company owner, Esther Koplowitz. The works, stolen on Wednesday, were jointly valued at up to $50m (£35m) but police said they were so well known that they were "unsaleable" on the open market. Police speculated that the thieves who raided Ms Koplowitz's luxurious Madrid apartment had been carrying out a commission for a wealthy international collector whose sole aim was to hang them, secretly, on his or her own walls. "Nobody does a job like this without first ensuring that they have a buyer," a police source said. Another possibility was that the robbers would try to take a ransom from Ms Koplowitz's insurance company before returning the pictures. The most expensive paintings, valued at more than $10m (£7m) apiece, were Francisco de Goya's The Swing and his The Donkey's Fall as well as Peter Bruegel's The Temptation of Saint Anthony. "These works are of exceptional importance," said art critic Francisco Calvo Serraller. The other nine paintings taken included work by the Spanish cubist Juan Gris, the French impressionist Camille Pissarro, Spain's Joaquin Sorolla and the Japanese artist Foujita. Six unidentified sculptures were also taken. "We will have to wait for Ms Koplowitz to come back from abroad so that she can tell us what they were and who they were by," said a police spokesman. A reward was immediately offered to those who could identify the robbers or the whereabouts of the stolen paintings. "Any information that leads to the successful recovery of the pictures will be rewarded," Ms Koplowitz said in a press statement. The raiders attacked a private security officer who was guarding the small, exclusive apartment block where the multi-millionaire lived after luring him out of the building by smashing a pane of glass. He was beaten over the head and then tied up, blindfolded and gagged while the robbers went about their work. They stole the security officer's keys but eventually just kicked in the door of Ms Koplowitz's penthouse apartment. The apartment itself was empty. Police said three robbers entered the building while a fourth waited with a vehicle. Ms Koplowitz, who holds the title of Countess of Casa Penalver and Cardenas de Monte Hermoso, is the largest shareholder in Spain's biggest construction company, FCC. Her personal wealth is estimated at nearly £1bn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Sotheby’s in frame for £5.9m loss
Miriam Hils-Cosgrove
NEW York-based art auctioneer Sotheby’s said it lost $8.3 million (£5.9 million) in the first half of this year, due to tough competition in the sector and the high cost of settling anti- trust litigation. Despite the introduction of cost-cutting measures, the firm said it expects to report a net loss for the full year as difficult trading conditions persist. The auction house, which lost almost $200 million last year due to legal costs arising from allegations of price- fixing with Christie’s, said yesterday it was still dealing with the aftermath of the litigation. Sotheby’s also said it was saddled with employee retention costs of $8.7 million (£6.1 milion) in the first half, as the price of keeping key experts on its payroll continued to rise.
William Ruprecht, president and CEO of Sotheby’s, called 2001 "a time of transition". He said: "Our earnings reflect the current competitive environment in the art market, as well as more selective buying in our live auction business. "Additionally, our results reflect the costs associated with our employee retention programmes, as well as legal and other professional fees associated with the resolution of antitrust related matters." Ruprecht said group revenues for the first half decreased 12 per cent over the same period of the previous year to $186.9 million (£131 million), mainly as the result of lower contributions from the firm’s auction and real estate operating segments. The company is undergoing a restructuring process aimed at reducing operating expenses, primarily in the area of online sales.
Ruprecht said that, while the restructuring had not yet been fully implemented, Sotheby’s had trimmed $16.8 million (£11.7 million) from its operating expenses in the first half. For the second quarter, net income fell to $14.3 million (£10 million) . http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/
Art museum delays opening
MILWAUKEE (AP) - The Milwaukee Art Museum's glass reception hall won't open on schedule next month because of safety concerns over a sail-shaped sunshade workers are installing on the hall's roof as part of a $100 million expansion. Sections of the expansion opened in May. Construction of the hall should be finished by Sept. 14, the day the rest of the revamped museum is set to reopen, said Christopher Goldsmith, the museum's executive director. But museum officials said Wednesday they won't open the hall until Oct. 12 because they are concerned patrons could be injured as workers raise two wings weighing a combined 100 tons onto the sunshade. Goldsmith said officials are worried a worker might drop a tool on the hall's glass roof and shatter it. http://207.201.176.42/newsroom.shtml