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A rediscovered Georges de la Tour painting which was at the centre of a court controversy in New York failed to reach its 10 million FF (US $ 1,66 million) reserve price on June 23rd 1998 at Neuilly, just off Paris.
The painting, representing the Penitent Magdalen remained unsold at 9,3 million FF ($ 1,55 million) to the dissatisfaction of its two legal owners. The reason for this disappointing result being that it had been heavily restored notwithstanding the fact that Pierre Rosenberg, the head of the Louvre museum, did not seem entirely convinced about its authenticity.
The de la Tour painting belonged to a lady, owner of a castle in central France where it had hung for years over a chimney-piece. She had put
the canvas for sale in a small auction sale in Clermont-Ferrand and a Paris dealer eventually bought it for a mere $ 1,500 before selling it back to a French collector for $ 150,000.
The latter entrusted the dealer to clean the painting much damaged by fumes and it was during restoration work that the de la Tour signature was discovered.
The dealer reportedly sold the painting in the U.S without apparently informing his buyer who finally traced it back in New York a year later.
The new American owner died bankrupt and his creditors recovered the painting while the French collector seized a New York court for repossession. However, the court delivered a king Solomon type of verdict stating that the ownership of the painting should be equally shared between the creditors and the former buyer.
An agreement was then reached according which the painting would be sold in Neuilly, ironically by the same auctioneer who conducted the Clermont-Ferrand sale some years ago.
As part of the deal, it had been decided that a percentage of the proceeds would be allocated to the very first owner, that lady who would have been in her own right to enact a court action on the basis that the painting was worth much more than the money she received from the Clermont-Ferrand sale.
Commenting on this disappointing result, the Neuilly auctioneer said he was confident that the de la Tour work would find a buyer at over 10 million francs in the months to come. Adrian Darmon
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