The New York Daily News has a fairly detailed story on a case involving insurance damages to Peter Brant’s Warhol little electric chair series of 12 differently colored works. Brant is suing his insurer for damage when when the work was loaned to an Italian museum two years ago.
The case is a contrast to the famous Steve Wynn incident where the owner damaged a prized Picasso, was compensated by his insurance and then reaped the benefit of a rising asset value. Brant’s set of electric chairs was valued at $60m. We will know more later this week if that is still a current value:
Without providing any details about where and how and when the collection was damaged, the court papers say merely that two of the Electric Chairs canvasses needed repairs — the red and the purple. […] Court papers say the Brant Foundation, a Greenwich nonprofit that specializes in modern art, hired Amman Estabrook Conservation Associates which specializes in Warhols to repair the panels and appointed Stellan
Holm, another Warhol and modern art expert, to determine the permanent impact of the repairs on the value of the collection. Holm estimated a 15% drop in value or a loss of $9 million and the next step was for Lloyd’s to get an appraisal. Lloyd’s hired Victor Weiner of NYC but it did not share his report with Brant and so far has refused to pay for the repairs or the loss in value, according to court papers.
$9M lawsuit over damage to Warhol paintings: court papers (NY Daily News)
