The Courthouse News Service reports on a case between a couple who bought a painting from Richard Feigen 20 years ago that Sotheby’s now says was painted by someone else:
Richard and Saundra Verri say that in 1991 they bought “Landscape with a Peasant Girl and Her Cow” from Richard L. Feigen & Co., who claimed it was by Rosa Bonheur, “one of the most prolific and famous female painters of the 19th Century,” according to the complaint in Maricopa County Court. […] The Verris decided to sell the painting in 2010 and sought to consign it to Sotheby’s for its “Old Master and Nineteenth Century European Art” auction.
The Verris say that was after they approached Feigen & Co., “to inquire into whether the defendant corporation would be interested in arranging for the sale of the painting,” and Feigen replied that “it had no interest in arranging for the painting’s sale.” the lawsuit claims.
The Verris say Sotheby’s told them in March that the painting “was in fact painted by Rosa Bonheur’s brother, and that the peasant girl on the swing and the animal appearing in the painting were painted at a later date, and were possibly posthumous additions.”
The couple want the $15,000 they paid for the painting returned.
Couple Say They Were Sold Bogus Art (Courthouse News Service)
