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Stolen Sienkiewicz resurfaces
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30 posts in this topic

 

Batman/Joker painting by Bill Sienkiewicz, stolen in 2016, resurfaces in french auction house Cornette de Saint Cyr:


If the name Cornette de Saint Cyr sounds familiar, it may be because it was the auction house featured in the story of the damaged Mignola a few years ago (on page 3 of the following topic).
 

 

Edited by Eltanin
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1 hour ago, Bird said:

I am glad not to be forgotten.

:mad:

I hope the auction house acts with honor in this matter, which was entirely absent in their dealings with me.

BIRD!! I just red that whole thread and feel like its a book with the last chapter missing ?? what happened??

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18 minutes ago, Unstoppablejayd said:

BIRD!! I just red that whole thread and feel like its a book with the last chapter missing ?? what happened??

nothing. They said it was fedEx fault and FedEx said no it was packed insufficiently. FedEx refunded shipping charges, which I got...about $100. The art went for restoration and Robert Dennis did a superb job on it. The auction house refused to even pay for the restoration and in the end I decided against trying for a legal remedy. I had requested a return but was rebuffed, as I was with every attempt at satisfaction. They never even apologized.

Edited by Bird
it may have killed my interest in actively collecting...I buy a few pieces now but nothing like what I did then. They suck.
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1 minute ago, Bird said:

nothing. They said it was fedEx fault and FedEx said no it was packed insufficiently. FedEx refunded shipping charges, which I got...about $100. The art went for restoration and Robert Dennis did a superb job on it. The auction house refused to even pay for the restoration and in the end I decided against trying for a legal remedy. I had requested a return but was rebuffed, as I was with every attempt at satisfaction. They never even apologized.

UGH.. sorry man.. beautiful piece though.

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1 hour ago, Bird said:

nothing. They said it was fedEx fault and FedEx said no it was packed insufficiently. FedEx refunded shipping charges, which I got...about $100. The art went for restoration and Robert Dennis did a superb job on it. The auction house refused to even pay for the restoration and in the end I decided against trying for a legal remedy. I had requested a return but was rebuffed, as I was with every attempt at satisfaction. They never even apologized.

I feel you on this. I was recently a breath away from a hobby grail of mine, started selling the light fixtures, etc, and then the pic came through and the piece looked sun damaged. The great debate ensued (mentally and with the artist) about light fast paints, production enhancements by the publisher, etc. In the end, I would never see beyond the flattened pinks and whites of a beautiful orange and yellow glow the published version has. To cross a grail off in that manner is seriously demoralizing, as dealing with many international auction houses and customs can be. I have my own 6 month saga with Artcurial, which is less tragic than yours but equally infuriating. A piece passed at auction last year, they still have it in hand, the consignor wants to sell to me, they cannot figure out how to do this. An international auction house whose only job is to move lots cannot logistically solve this problem. It reminds me of the 4 hour wait I endured to get into the catacombs only to discover it was a malfunctioning ticket printer causing the issue - the tickets were paper tickets that you literally turned around and handed to another worker. They were completely unnecessary.  

Edited by cstojano
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19 hours ago, Bird said:

I am glad not to be forgotten.

:mad:

I hope the auction house acts with honor in this matter, which was entirely absent in their dealings with me.

Bird, for Cornette de Saint Cyr   what would honor look like? Not destroying another work of art with poor packaging methods? Or declining to sell presumed stolen goods?

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18 hours ago, Bird said:

nothing. They said it was fedEx fault and FedEx said no it was packed insufficiently. FedEx refunded shipping charges, which I got...about $100. The art went for restoration and Robert Dennis did a superb job on it. The auction house refused to even pay for the restoration and in the end I decided against trying for a legal remedy. I had requested a return but was rebuffed, as I was with every attempt at satisfaction. They never even apologized.

Can we get an updated pic....to wrap up the story?

 

 

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On 6/16/2020 at 3:07 PM, Eltanin said:

 

Batman/Joker painting by Bill Sienkiewicz, stolen in 2016, resurfaces in french auction house Cornette de Saint Cyr:

 

The page is clear now, with no pic.  Either the auction date has passed, or the house has taken down the offering.

I wonder if we'll hear what happened.  I hope so.

Andrew

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On 6/20/2020 at 10:11 AM, Eltanin said:

The owner of the piece for sale went to Twitter and claims that the auction house put the wrong picture in the listing: In the replies of this tweet. :popcorn:

I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but I don't buy it. 
I suppose if there isn't a replacement auction with the 'correct' Sienkiewicz painting for sale, then we'll have an answer of sorts.

The auction house should have gone for the reward.  (Maybe they still are, behind the scenes)

Edited by thethedew
Speculation
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On 6/20/2020 at 10:11 AM, Eltanin said:

The auction is in July. Apparently the house has removed the piece from the auction. The owner of the piece for sale went to Twitter and claims that the auction house put the wrong picture in the listing: In the replies of this tweet. :popcorn:

If I were auctioning a piece valued at five figures, I would check the web site early and often to see what the listing looked like. I would notice when the image didn't match the piece in my collection.

Maybe that's just me.

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The owner, on Twitter, claims that this is a serious matter and that the police might get involved. He should be worried. Art theft is a huge issue in Italy, France and Spain. Here is a fraud scandal: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/business/aristophil-lheritier-rare-books.html

And another one about book theft: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/books/unraveling-huge-thefts-from-girolamini-library-in-naples.html. I know a bookseller in Europe who had some of his books seized because of Girolamini case and it took him 6 months to get his books back. One book, who was already sold to a collector, he had to repurchase it to hand it over to the police. Fortunately, after six months he was able to sell it back to his costumer. 

Of course, those scandals are not directly related to original comic book art, but I share it to illustrate that in European countries the police will most likely get involved if an artist claims his artwork was stolen. 

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I know Sienkiewicz made a new version of this commission after the original one was stolen.

The collector who ordered it told it to me when he posted the art on 2DG. He is the guy named on the tweet.

For what I know, the owner's explanation can be true.

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7 hours ago, RBerman said:

If I were auctioning a piece valued at five figures, I would check the web site early and often to see what the listing looked like. I would notice when the image didn't match the piece in my collection.

Maybe that's just me.

Almost all the auction lots come from this guy's collection. He is a big big big collector who already sold tons of art at previous auctions.

I can really think he didn't even watch the catalog.

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3 minutes ago, BPLZ said:

Almost all the auction lots come from this guy's collection. He is a big big big collector who already sold tons of art at previous auctions.

I can really think he didn't even watch the catalog.

I believe that he was the consignor of the Mignola I purchased that got trashed as well. He was aware of my situation (we may have messaged briefly, someone he knows reached out to me) and I was led to believe he could put some pressure on the auction house to do right by me but nothing ever came of it. I hope he & Bill Sienkiewicz straighten out this one.

 

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17 hours ago, BPLZ said:

I know Sienkiewicz made a new version of this commission after the original one was stolen.

The collector who ordered it told it to me when he posted the art on 2DG. He is the guy named on the tweet.

For what I know, the owner's explanation can be true.

So the order of events was:

1) Sienkiewicz painted a particular Joker/Batman piece.

2) That piece was stolen.

3) The owner of the stolen piece had Sienkiewicz make another that looked similar to the stolen piece.

4) That second piece was put up for auction.

5) The auction house used an image of the stolen piece instead of the current piece.

6) The owner didn't check to see whether the image used was of the original piece or the new piece.

7) Someone noticed that an image of a stolen piece was listed for auction, and reported it, and now the cops are involved.

Is that it?

Commissioning a recreation of stolen art seems like asking for trouble. Moreso in retrospect.

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20 hours ago, BPLZ said:

The collector who ordered it told it to me when he posted the art on 2DG. He is the guy named on the tweet.

Are you sure he's the one who ordered it?

Because I thought it was Emilien who ordered it (At least, that's what he told me, also on 2dg).

Edited by Eltanin
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The auction house posted a statement on facebook: 

 

 

I'm not sure how to exactly translate some parts, and I'm not a native english speaker so please forgive me the mistakes, but here is a rough translation: 


Press communication about the July 8 auction at Cornette de Saint Cyr

--------------

As part of the comic art auction of July 8 2020, Mr DAHAN, owner and the painting, and Cornette de Saint Cyr, have been informed that a painting by Bill Sienkienvicz (sic) titled Batman VS Joker would have been stolen during shipping from USA to France.
Mr DAHAN the current owner, wasn't aware of the origin presented as fraudulent of the piece, which would have been stolen in 2016, and which he has bought legally from a person in France who introduced themselves as an agent and friend of the artist. The payment was done by wire transfer in 2016.

Informed of the situation, Mr DAHAN and Cornette de Saint Cyr, have immediately decided to pull the piece from the auction. In addition, Mr DAHAN has immediately instructed his lawyer to file a complaint at the Paris public prosecutor (Parquet de Paris). The complaint for fraud has been filed on June 26 2020.

The artist has been informed of the legal proceedings by Mr DAHAN and could decide to join it.

 

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-05 at 12.27.10 PM.png

Edited by Eltanin
Misspelled Sienkiewicz
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