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A painting by French 17th century master Georges de La Tour representing the repentent Magdalen will be sold on June 23rd 1998 in Neuilly, a plush Paris suburb after years of legal disputes.
This de La Tour case started in September 1981 when auctioneer Claude Aguttes sold a dirty painting for less than US $ 700 in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, after a woman had just consigned it for that sale. The buyer, a Parisian dealer, sold the painting back to a small collector who then asked him to have it cleaned.
It was during restoration work that traces of a signature on the painting showing Magdalen holding a skull under a candle light were discovered.
The restorer thus managed to decipher the letters «Gs de la Tour F» inscribed on the upper left side of the painting measuring 78 x 101 cm.
The painting was later sold to an American collector in obscure circumstances which led to a court action by the French buyer who had asked for its cleaning.
One year after entrusting the Clermont-Ferrand painting with the dealer who sold it to him , the French buyer started to search for it and traced it back in the U.S.
Claiming to be its legitimate owner he engaged proceedings in New York where a court finally decided that its legal ownership had to be shared between him and the American buyer. However the latter died quite indebted and crediutors obtained that his heirs would give up claims over the painting.
This incredible story now finds its epilogue with the June 23rd 1998 sale in Neuilly which will be conducted by Claude Aguttes himself now installed there the arrangement being that the French and American legal owners will share the proceeds of the sale while the woman seller who owned the painting before the Clermont-Ferrand sale will receive compensation money.
The « Penitent Magdalen », despite its poor condition, is estimated at some US $ 2 million. It had been reported as lost until traced back in a private collection in which it had remained until 1910. Only a poor copy made on panel was known to exist while four other versions were known to have been painted by de La Tour. One is in the Louvre Museum, the second in the Los Angeles County Museum, the third in the National Gallery of Washington and the fourth in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
The Clermont-Ferrand painting has been authentified by most experts as being by de La Tour and is reproduced in the catalogue raisonné of the artist's works published by Jacques Thiullier in 1992 (page 287, number 34).
It is belived to have been painted between 1630 and 1635 like the work representing St John the Baptist which was recently discovered on the Parisian market. This one, estimated a mere $ 1,500 was withdrawn at the last minute from a Paris sale which was due to be conducted by the Rabourdin -Choppin de Janvry auctioneering group at Drouot in 1993. Much dissatisfied about its former attribution - it was presented as by a painter of de La Tour's circle- its owners decided to sell it through Sotheby's. However, French cultural authorities listed it as a national treasure which prevented its export and some solid bidding since it was finally sold to the State for US $ 1,650,000 on December 2nd 1994 in Monaco.
The de La Tour painting offered for sale in Neuilly might thus fetch between US $ 2 and 3 million, not far from the record US $ 2,982,460 (not inclusive of buyer premium) paid at Christie's on December 13th 1991 in Monaco by London -based Agnew's for the «Blind hurdy-gurdy player seated three quarter length to the left » measuring 84,7 x 61 cm.
The « Penitent Magdalen » can be exported freely and in that case the final price will probably be high though the painting suffers the handicap of its poor condition and is not considered as a discovery since it was shown in the great exhibition on de La Tour held in Washington and Fort Worth in 1997.
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