The Pompidou Museum has accused New York expert and dealer Achim Moeller of perjury for having refused to authenticate a work by German Expressionist artist Lyonel Feininger which he later recognised as genuine after the museum got rid of it.
The newspaper "Libération" reported on May 19, 2011 that Roger Spiri-Mercanton, a former union chief who worked in the film industry had bequeathed a view of a Baltic port painted in 1915 by Feininger (1871-1956) after his death in 2007.
Before accepting such gift, the Museum contacted Achim Moeller, known as the main expert for Feininger's works, in order to obtain a certificate of authenticity but the latter replied it was a fake. As a result, the Museum turned the gift down.
Alfred Pacquement, the head of the Pompidou Museum, was thus surprised to discover that the painting was to be sold with an estimate of 2 millions euros on May 29 by the Artcurial auction group after Moeller had changed his mind finally to authenticate it in 2010.
The Museum thus lashed out at Moeller to denounce his strange behaviour but the expert replied that the French institution had refused to pay him his usual fees when it contacted him in 2008. As he did not receive any mandate to carry out some useful research his first impression was that the painting was a fake.
According to "Libération", the painting had been bought by Spiri-Mercanton during the 1930s from Hugo Wolf, a Jewish banker who was a friend of Bertold Brecht and Albert Einstein. Wolf had then briefly sought refuge in Paris after fleeing Nazi Germany before settling in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
As a result of Moeller's decision, the Pompidou Museum could not accept this painting in it collections. Two years later, this work was submitted to Artcurial which accepted to pay the request fees to carry out some research on it. Moeller then discovered that it was reproduced in the catalogue of a 1928 exhibition at the Nationalegalerie of Berlin, on loan by Hugo Wolf alongside 12 other work by Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka or Erich Heckel.
In accusing Moeller of being guilty of perjury, the Pompidou Museum has however been responsible of neglect since it failed to go through its own archives. Moreover, the painting was also listed in a book published in 1959 in a book under the supervision of Feininger's widow.
Still, according to some collectors who were confronted to his negative decisions, Achim Moeller is known as being rather tough when it comes to authenticate works by Feininger.
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