Confiscated art is now off-limits

Posted on Sun, May. 01, 2005

ART


Confiscated art is now off-limits

South Florida's sugar-producing Fanjul family reached an agreement with Sotheby's it hopes will help reclaim art confiscated by Fidel Castro's government.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
nsanmartin@herald.com


Sotheby's -- the target of a ''trading with the enemy'' sanctions violation triggered by South Florida's prominent sugar-producing Fanjul family -- has agreed to impose new guidelines that will make it more difficult for dealers to dabble with art confiscated by Fidel Castro's government.

Under an agreement made public Friday, the auction house will not handle any Fanjul family art expropriated by the Cuban government, according to a joint statement issued by Fanjul family attorneys.

''Should it unwittingly come into possession of any such work, Sotheby's will notify the family and maintain possession of such property until any title issues have been resolved. . .,'' the statement said.

The agreement means that valuable art from the Fanjul family collection left behind in Havana and believed to have been smuggled out of the island will be on a watch list that would preclude art dealers with ties to Sotheby's from making a sale.

''With these new guidelines in place, we are confident that our collection will now be off limits in the art world as we trust that others in the art market will follow Sotheby's example,'' José Pepe Fanjul said in a written statement.

''This is a very good thing for anyone whose had something stolen from a government or anyone else and then ends up in the art market,'' Fanjul family attorney Shanker Singham said.

''What it shows is that the art world in general, and Sotheby's in particular, is prepared to not deal in stolen property,'' Singham said.

The dispute with Sotheby's began in 1998 after the Fanjuls discovered one of their paintings by Spanish impressionist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida may have been smuggled out of Havana and obtained by an art dealer in Italy.

The Fanjuls claimed Sotheby's knew but would not tell the whereabouts of the painting, which is part of a collection worth millions of dollars the family left behind when they fled Cuba after Castro seized power in 1959.

The family filed claims with the state and treasury departments, accusing Sotheby's of knowing who holds the Malaga Port painting and violating laws by refusing to provide them with the information.

Under Title IV of the Helms-Burton law, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act, U.S. citizens whose property was confiscated by the Castro government can go after foreigners who use or profit in any way from those properties.

Sotheby's acknowledged some connection to the painting but adamantly denied any wrongdoing.

Singham said the agreement does not automatically absolve Sotheby's from the federal inquiry, but added that calls have been made to Washington on the auction house's behalf.

''Sotheby's is cooperating in our attempts to get the paintings back,'' Singham said. ``With Sotheby's help, we're getting closer to getting the art back.''