A Wooden Model for a Famous Picasso Sculpture That Languished for Years in a School Gym Is Spurring Auction Drama in the Midwest

A fabrication model for a giant
Picasso sculpture is at the center of a lawsuit brought by a
Brussels art collector against an auctioneer in Gary,
Indiana. 

Kraft Auction Services put up
the sixteen-foot-high plywood model for sale in January, as part of
its annual anniversary auction. (Kraft Auction Services—You name
it, we sell it!”—also handles farm equipment and real estate, among
other specialties.) The wood model, with Picasso’s approval, served
as the basis for the sculpture, an abstracted, sphinx-like female
figure, that was installed in Chicago’s Daley Plaza in
1967.

Jean-Christophe Scheere, who
lives in Brussels, beat out four Midwestern bidders, and the hammer
fell at $20,000 ($23,000 with fees). The auction house’s owner,
Jonathan Kraft, told the Northwest Indiana Times that “If it had been his [Picasso’s] creation,
I think it would have brought in a ton more.” 

The Chicago sculpture was
fabricated at Indiana’s American Bridge, the fabricator behind many
of that city’s bridges, according to Northwest Indiana Times, with steel provided by Gary Works. According
to the suit, the model was given to the school system nearly fifty
years ago, but languished in a school gym, subject to abuse and
vandalism, “with its identity and significance all but
forgotten.” 

The sale of the Picasso model
was part of an extensive auctions of property from the school
system, which was over $100 million in debt. The sales were
overseen by an emergency manager’s office.

The sale of the historic model
did not sit well with Gary City Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt, chair
of the council’s historic preservation committee, who called on
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson to try to keep the model in Indiana.
After consultation with the mayor, who said she was not given
sufficient notice, Kraft re-opened the bidding in order to give
concerned locals the opportunity to bid—six days after Scheere paid
for the model, and without informing him. After getting no new
bids, Kraft extended the bidding again, through March 15, again without publicizing
the sale or informing Scheere, says the suit. 

In the end, a bidder named in
the suit as Paul Terrault, of Wisconsin, bid $40,500. In the
meantime, while the auctioneers had reopened bidding, Kraft was
telling Scheere in emails that there were only temporary delays in
sending him his prize, involving having to run the sale by the
mayor but merely as “a curtsey [sic] gesture,” because,
unfortunately, “this is how Gary works.” 

Only on March 14, in an email
quoted at length in the suit, did the auctioneer inform Scheere
that Kraft’s lawyers failed to inform the mayor of the Picasso
model sale, and that only when the sale made the news did anyone
raise an outcry. Apparently without expecting anyone to beat
Scheere’s bid, he explained, Kraft quietly placed the item back on
its website, only to have “a local museum” place the winning
bid.

Scheere is now suing
the school system for fraud and
breach of contract, and suing the city for interference in his
contract with Kraft.

Chelsea Wittington, the PR rep
for the school system, told Artnet News that the district doesn’t
comment on pending litigation. The auction house did not respond to
emailed requests for information; an operator hung up the phone on
this reporter when asked to be directed to the auctioneer’s legal
representation.

The post A Wooden Model for a Famous Picasso Sculpture That
Languished for Years in a School Gym Is Spurring Auction Drama in
the Midwest appeared first on artnet News.