London sale brings big bucks and controversy - Front Page - Brief Article

A work attributed to Peter Paul Rubens, Massacre of the Innocents (1609-11), sold in London at Sotheby's July 10 sale of old master paintings for 49.5 million [pounds sterling] (approximately $76.7 million), far above its $14-million high estimate. British press reports say the buyer is Canadian media mogul David Thomson. The most expensive work ever bought at auction in Britain, the painting garnered the third highest auction price in history. Consigned by an anonymous Austrian collector, it was the highlight of a sale that brought $104.7 million, far in excess of the $78-million high estimate, and the largest total ever for a single auction of paintings in Europe.

News of the picture's spectacular success has been overshadowed by recent reports of an investigation by public prosecutors in Austria who are exploring potential fraud in the exportation of the work from Austria to Britain. As reported in the Financial Times and elsewhere, Austrian authorities launched an inquiry after they received a dossier from an anonymous source claiming that the auction house conspired with the painting's owner to illegally remove the work from the country.

Sotheby's maintains that the company initially believed the painting to be by the minor Rubens contemporary Jan van den Hoecke, an attribution widely accepted since the 18th century. George Gordon, Sotheby's expert in the field, first viewed the painting at the Austrian monastery Stiff Reichersberg, where it had been stored for more than 30 years. The dossier claims that when the auction house representatives inspected the piece, they recognized the work as a Rubens but kept the knowledge a secret as arrangements were made to sell the work in London, where it was expected to fetch many times the price it would bring in Vienna.

The investigation focuses on whether Sotheby's considered the work to be a Rubens when it applied for an export permit from the Austrian Cultural Heritage office. The permit was granted to export a "Jan van den Hoecke," but soon after the painting arrived in London, Sotheby's experts declared that it was by Rubens. The investigation will reportedly include searches of the monastery and an attempt to track down the consignor of the work. The auction house has denied all wrongdoing. As we go to press, a new technical report on the painting, commissioned by Sotheby's, found a pigment never before seen in a Rubens, and suggested that the age of the wood is inconsistent with the years 1609-11, throwing the attribution into question. Stay tuned.

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