California court rejects lawsuit against Sotheby’s Automatic translate

A federal court in California rejected a lawsuit filed by collector Steven Brooks, who claimed that the painting he had bought at Sotheby’s in London in 2004 could not be put up for auction, as it had previously belonged to one of the leaders of the fascist movement to Hermann Goering.

The court issued a verdict stating that the final decision on the case should be made in a court of England. This was insisted by the lawyer of the defendant, Sotheby’s auction house. In making the decision, the court referred to the terms of the contract of sale, according to which all disputed points in the transaction fall within the jurisdiction of an exclusively English court.

The painting “Allegorical Portrait of a Lady as Diana Wounded by Cupid”, which caused so much controversy, belongs to the artist Louis-Michel van Loo and was painted in the 18th century.

Brooks claims that Sotheby’s experts had to investigate the origin of the painting, and the auction house itself had to inform potential buyers about its past before the sale began. The fact that the painting belonged to Goering was revealed in 2010, when Brooks himself tried to sell the painting through Christie’s auction. House experts found that Goering acquired the painting in 1939 from one of the art dealers, and did not include “Lady Diana” in the list of lots. At the same time, Sotheby’s House refused to return Brooks $ 96,000, which he paid for work in 2004.

The California court ruling said, inter alia, “Sotheby’s annually performs operations in 40 countries, conducting dozens of auctions around the world. The auction house business itself is associated with potential litigation risks. ” It is separately noted that Stephen Brooks, before taking part in the transaction for 96,000 US dollars, should have shown great interest in studying both the history of the picture itself and the terms of the sale agreement. When asked by journalists about whether they would insist on further litigation, Brooks’s lawyer replied that “they will evaluate their capabilities.”

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru