Met museum and Jan Cowles -- the true owners of the Mark Tansey cow painting -- file their own complaint against Wylde

Mark Tansey's "The Innocent Eye Test" (1981), the painting
that continues to spew litigation

The true owners of the Mark Tansey cow painting sold by Charles Cowles to Robert Wylde through Gagosian Gallery have filed a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment to force Wylde to hand over the painting. The Metropolitan Museum and Jan Cowles (mother of Charles Cowles) each own 31 and 69%, respectively, of the painting. Crucially, the fact that the plaintiffs co-owned the painting was a matter of public record (see the Met's website here).

Meanwhile, litigation instituted by Wylde against Gagosian Gallery is already pending (see here) and has attracted a lot of attention as people anticipate getting a  closer glimpse at the inner workings of the Gagosian powerhouse.

UPDATE: Robert Wylde v. Gagosian Gallery, Inc.

"The Innocent Eye Test," by Mark Tansey (1981)

The FT.com has reported that the Metropolitan Museum's website listed the Mark Tansey painting the subject of the recently filed claim against Gagosian gallery as "Partial and Promised Gift of Jan Cowles and Charles Cowles." And indeed it does -- here is the direct link. Last week, a spokesperson for Gagosian made a statement saying the gallery would "vigorously" defend the action and that Charles Cowles had "represented that he had clear title to the painting."



But shouldn't the gallery have done due diligence (granted, delicately) at the very least to confirm that its client had title to sell the consigned painting? Had they made even basic inquiries about the provenance of the painting the connection to the Met would have been revealed and a simple search of their website would have revealed the museum's interest in the painting. Surely the gallery doesn't just take representations of title made by prospective clients at face value (even if the seller is Charles Cowles)? The suit (which also comprises a claim over a cancelled sale of a Richard Prince nurse painting) will shed much-needed light on the inner workings of what is widely considered to be the most successful gallery in the world.

For background on the torts/property/fraud action brought by Robert Wylde against the Gagosian gallery see here.

LINKS

• PARIS. Artworld Salon reports on the Deloitte "Art & Finance" conference held at the end of last month. It highlights three themes: I agree with the first, disagree with the second and would modify the third. The final paragraph is by far the most astute: "before we continue to develop art into an investment vehicle (in whatever way), let's take a step back and think about what makes art different to other assets and markets, not what makes it similar" (my own emphasis added).
•  "Whose painting is it anyway?" Pop quiz on what constitutes good title to art.
• LONDON. Another deferral of an export license to allow public instutions to match the sale price and keep the art in the UK. At least this case involves a painting by "simply the greatest British painter of the 19th century" which foreseeably meets the Waverely Criteria (unlike the case of the export of the Fatimid ewer where it's far less obvious).