Renoir found at flea market returned to museum by Virginia court
Paysage Bords de Seine was painted by French Impressionist at a restaurant near the Seine River
Paysage Bords de Seine, dashed off for his mistress by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Photograph: AP
A Renoir painting bought for $7 at a flea market but valued at up to $100,000 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951, a federal judge ordered on Friday.
The 1879 Impressionist painting Paysage Bords de Seine, dashed off for his mistress by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir at a riverside restaurant in Paris, has been at the centre of a legal tug-of-war between Marcia "Martha" Fuqua, a former physical education teacher from Lovettsville, Virginia, and the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.
Judge Leonie Brinkema, in a district court hearing, dismissed Fuqua's claim of ownership, noting that a property title cannot be transferred if it resulted from a theft.
"The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen," Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records.
"All the evidence is on the Baltimore museum's side. You still have no evidence – no evidence – that this wasn't stolen," said Brinkema to Fuqua's attorney before ruling in favour of the museum.
Fuqua bought the unsigned Paysage Bords de Seine for $7, along with a box of trinkets, at a flea market in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 2009 because she liked the frame, she said in a court filing. Although the frame carried the nameplate "Renoir 1841-1919," Fuqua was unaware the painting, measuring 5½ by 9 inches (14 by 23 cm), was genuine.
Her mother, an art teacher and painter, urged her to get the painting appraised. Fuqua took it to an auction house, which verified it was as an authentic Renoir.
After media reports about the painting, the Baltimore Museum of Art said it had been stolen.
An appraisal carried out for the FBI said the painting was worth about $22,000 (£13,000).
The painting is soiled and "there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for paintings by Renoir now considered a more old-fashioned taste," appraiser Ted Cooper said.
It came to the Baltimore museum through one of its leading benefactors, collector Saidie May. Her family bought the painting from the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris in 1926 and it was loaned, along with other works, to the museum in 1937.
May died in May 1951 and the collection was willed to the museum. As its ownership was going through legal transfer, the painting was stolen while still listed as being on loan.
The 1879 Impressionist painting Paysage Bords de Seine, dashed off for his mistress by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir at a riverside restaurant in Paris, has been at the centre of a legal tug-of-war between Marcia "Martha" Fuqua, a former physical education teacher from Lovettsville, Virginia, and the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.
Judge Leonie Brinkema, in a district court hearing, dismissed Fuqua's claim of ownership, noting that a property title cannot be transferred if it resulted from a theft.
"The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen," Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records.
"All the evidence is on the Baltimore museum's side. You still have no evidence – no evidence – that this wasn't stolen," said Brinkema to Fuqua's attorney before ruling in favour of the museum.
Fuqua bought the unsigned Paysage Bords de Seine for $7, along with a box of trinkets, at a flea market in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 2009 because she liked the frame, she said in a court filing. Although the frame carried the nameplate "Renoir 1841-1919," Fuqua was unaware the painting, measuring 5½ by 9 inches (14 by 23 cm), was genuine.
Her mother, an art teacher and painter, urged her to get the painting appraised. Fuqua took it to an auction house, which verified it was as an authentic Renoir.
After media reports about the painting, the Baltimore Museum of Art said it had been stolen.
An appraisal carried out for the FBI said the painting was worth about $22,000 (£13,000).
The painting is soiled and "there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for paintings by Renoir now considered a more old-fashioned taste," appraiser Ted Cooper said.
It came to the Baltimore museum through one of its leading benefactors, collector Saidie May. Her family bought the painting from the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris in 1926 and it was loaned, along with other works, to the museum in 1937.
May died in May 1951 and the collection was willed to the museum. As its ownership was going through legal transfer, the painting was stolen while still listed as being on loan.
7美元…買到10萬美元雷諾瓦真跡
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2014/new/jan/12/today-t3.htm
自由〔編譯詹立群／綜合報導〕美國維吉尼亞州一名女子傅果，二○○九年在該州
一處跳蚤市場以七美元買到一幅畫，經鑑價後竟是法國印象派畫家雷諾瓦的作品，價值十萬美元，原本以為撿到寶，不料馬里蘭州巴爾的摩美術館宣稱，這是他們一
九五一年失竊的藏品，名畫所有權官司打了一年多，法官十日裁決贓物須物歸原主。美女子看中畫框 不識真跡
五 十一歲的傅果說，當初她是看中這幅長二十三公分、寬十四公分的油畫畫框才買，框上刻有「Renoir（雷諾瓦）1841-1919」字樣，但她不知道是真 跡，包在垃圾袋裡放了兩年半，直到二○一二年她身兼美術老師與畫家的母親催她把畫送拍賣公司「波多馬克」鑑定，才知道是雷諾瓦一八七九年的作品「塞納河畔 風光」，估價高達十萬美元，是畫家在河畔餐廳幫情婦所畫。
就在拍賣開場前，華盛頓郵報記者發現該畫是原巴爾的摩美術館館藏，館方接著出示一 九五一年十一月展覽時遭竊的相關文件，與傅果衍生搶畫訴訟，引發聯邦調查局（ＦＢＩ）介入，ＦＢＩ從拍賣公司取走畫、保存在局裡等待法院裁決；但畫作如何 被偷與淪落跳蚤市場之間的過程仍是個謎。
1951年失竊 流落跳蚤市場
傅果主張畫應該是她的，因為買畫時根本不知道是贓物，她在電訪中得知裁決結果說「真糟糕」，也感到十分失望；拍賣公司估價十萬美元，但ＦＢＩ鑑價紀錄是兩萬兩千美元，原因是畫被弄髒了，加上現在市場不是那麼喜歡雷諾瓦，而且所有權爭議也影響畫價。
「塞納河畔風光」是由巴爾的摩美術館的捐助人梅（Saidie May）的前夫在一九二六年從巴黎一家畫廊購得，梅在一九三七年把它跟其他一批畫外借給博物館，梅在一九五一年過世後，畫作就成永久館藏。「塞納河畔風光」是在外借期間遭竊。
搶畫大戰 法院判還美術館
聯邦地方法院法官布林克馬駁回傅果的所有權主張，裁定屬於贓物的畫作所有權不得轉移。他引述一九五一年的警方調查報告與館方紀錄，說所有證據都直指該畫原屬美術館。
國立故宮博物院去年展過雷諾瓦真跡。雷諾瓦與莫內等人被歸類為「印象派」，經典之作是「煎餅磨坊的舞會」，一九九○年在紐約蘇富比拍賣會創下七八一○萬美元拍賣價。
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