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A £100,000 painting is at the centre of a dispute between Sotheby's and the descendants of a British colonial officer.
Winslow Homer's Children Under a Palm Tree was withdrawn from sale minutes before going under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York yesterday.
The sale was halted in an eleventh hour appeal by Simon Murray, the great, great grandson of British colonial administrator Sir Henry Arthur Blake. Sir Henry was given the 1885 painting of his children by the artist during his tenure as Governor of Bahamas.
Mr Murray, 34, a lawyer who lives in the City, claims the painting, which appeared on Antiques Roadshow last year after being found in a fly tip in County Cork in Ireland 20 years ago, had initially been stolen from his family estate nearby. The BBC programme's art expert spotted that it was signed by Winslow Homer, a renowned American landscape painter, and was worth £100,000.
Sotheby's said that, after the watercolour was brought to them in March, the family was given “every opportunity” to claim it. The painting is now in limbo until the auction house is given “documentary evidence” it was stolen.
Mr Murray says his mother Shirley Rountree, 60, who still lives in the family estate Myrtle House, had never been contacted by Sotheby's and only realised the heirloom was being sold on Tuesday after reading a newspaper article about the auction.
Mr Murray said: “She was distraught. She didn't know they were selling this painting. They did contact the family but gave a wrong number. They should have made a better effort. As we are concerned it belongs to us.”
Mr Murray said that Myrtle House suffered several break-ins in the early Eighties when the painting was found on a rubbish tip a mile away by a man who was on a fishing trip. His daughter approached Sotheby's in March.
Mr Murray says he was fortunate to have been in New York this week, so when he received the call from his mother was able to go in person to Sotheby's Manhattan auction house and stop the sale. He added: “Hopefully we can take back what is ours.”
A Sotheby's spokesman said that “extensive” checks were carried out to ensure it was not stolen and that no evidence has been presented.
Reader views (3)
Saw slimy Simon on a TV show last night. yuuuk. Made my skin crawl. Didn't need to be a body language expert to spot a "history revisionist" loud and clear.
- olBob, Melbourne,Australia, 06/09/2011 17:11
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I love the way in which this article is loaded to Simon Murray, and doesnt mention the wonderful honest Selina whose father found this peice along with other " tat" actually on a rubbish dump, minuets or hours away from being totally ruined by rain or wind. Then it was safely kept in her attic until they dug out the find to take it to the antiques road show, where they valued it at such a sum it would change her and her four childrens lives.....you follow her amazing jounrey to new york where she had never been ( and couldnt afford to fly too), the incredible raising of the value of the piece....to hundreds of thousands...then at the last minuet slimy simon, once he has seen the value suddenly charges in and uses every nasty under handed trick to try to wrest this painting back, one that his fmaily never reported missing or even knew they ever had! He has even sent the police to ths ladys house to bully her to give it to them! The Murrays come off as totally shameful, I hope if they do get this picture it brings them misery as ill gotten gains. He said Selina would probably want to buy flash cars and build swimming pools with the money! She has a small postage stamp garden! She wanted it for her childrens future. Shameful.
- Lisa, London, 11/08/2011 12:11
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Fairly obvious that the family are struggling to show that their allegation of theft does not hold water. If there was proof of theft they would have been able to produce that by now.
Why didn't they offer the "finders" daughter a reasonable proportion of the value rather than a derisory 25%?
I suspect they will lose this case and only the lawyers will benefit.
- YourMrBumbles, Wiltshire, 27/06/2011 23:37
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