Publisher may drag Van Gogh museum to court
The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam;
(middle) “Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook”; and
a self-portrait of the artist.
The French publishers of a book of “lost” Vincent Van
Gogh sketches on Monday threatened legal action against a Dutch museum that has
questioned the authenticity of the works.
The threat follows the publication in six countries last
month of “Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook” in
which sketches apparently from the artist’s legendary stay in the southern
French city are reproduced.
The Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, however, has
dismissed the sketches as fakes triggering a war of words with publishing house
Le Seuil.
Le Seuil “intends to obtain compensation for the damage
they have suffered as a result of an insidious and unfounded campaign” on the
part of the Van Gogh Museum, the publisher said in a statement, without
elaborating on the exact legal action they intended to take.
The owner of the sketches, who is said to have had them
in her possession for 60 years, is also threatening legal action.
In a statement, the art expert Franck Baille, who was
involved in the discovery, added that the owner, who has not been publicly
identified, “reserved the right to undertake any appropriate action to repair
the damage caused by these claims that describe her as a forgerer”.
Debate ruled out Canadian art historian Bogomila
Welsh-Ovcharov, who authored the book and is the main expert behind the find,
has accused the Amsterdam museum of basing its verdict on photographs of the
drawings rather than properly examining 10 originals which she brought to them.
And in a point-by-point rebuttal of the museum’s damning
assessment of the sketchbook, the experts backing the find have also questioned
its “monopoly” on deciding what is and is not by Van Gogh.
Le Seuil has also accused the Van Gogh Museum of twice
rejecting work it later accepted as the artist’s.
Australian researcher Felicity Strong of the University
of Melbourne said last month “the Van Gogh Museum has been wrong in the past.
“Their unveiling of a long-lost painting ‘Sunset at
Montmajour’ was examined by curators at the museum at least twice before they
reassessed it in 2012 and changed their minds,” she said.
The museum has ruled out a public debate on the
authenticity of the sketches, saying it has sought answers directly from the
publisher and that an open debate would not be useful.
“We will need to have all the hard facts first,” it said
on November 29.
“We therefore call on the publisher and the author to
provide a clear and open response to all our comments, to all the issues in
need of clarification and to the questions raised,” it said.
“Until they have, we see no point in a scholarly debate
and our contribution to the discussion ends here: we will no longer respond to
further questions.”
Source | Asian Age | 22 December 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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