[MSN] Police: Dealers made off with valued art. Case sheds light on business world of art.

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Police: Dealers made off with valued art
Case sheds light on business world of art 


Jeff Chiu, The Associated Press
Nancy Wandlass walks out of a courtroom after an arraignment, accompanied by
her attorney Joseph Morehead in San Francisco on Friday. Wandlass and her
husband, Thomas, owners of a San Francisco art gallery, are facing felony
charges of grand theft and fraud after they reportedly refused to return oil
paintings valued at $300,000, according to police.
Photo:
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061210/NEWS10/61210
0322/1024


Kim Curtis
The Associated Press
December 10, 2006 

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SAN FRANCISCO - Kevin Anderson had two pricey French paintings to sell and
it was July, a slow time in the art world.
So when San Francisco art dealers Thomas and Nancy Wandlass said they had a
buyer in mind, Anderson sent them the artwork on consignment with the
understanding they would pay him $300,000 or return the paintings.

Neither reportedly happened - until Anderson got the police involved.

A full year after the Beverly Hills gallery owner entrusted the works by
Gustave Loiseau and Louis Valtat to the couple and his efforts to get them
back went unheeded, police seized the captive canvases and investigated the
Wandlasses pasts as fine art brokers. It turned out they had been accused of
hanging onto paintings that didn't belong to them several times in the past.

"It could be they were intending ultimately to sell these paintings and
either shortchange the true owner or take the commission," said Bob Ring, a
San Francisco prosecutor who has charged the couple with felony grand theft,
fraud and conspiracy. "They are taking people's property as a trustee on
consignment and refusing to return them. It's tantamount to theft."

While the Wandlasses pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday, the case
offers a window into a rarefied world where business deals worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars are built on appearances, word of mouth and who knows
whom.

It's a society astonishingly short on paperwork and long on the power of a
handshake.

"Art transactions have a tendency to be very secret, and people who have
been defrauded don't want anyone to know," said Los Angeles police Detective
Don Hrycyk, who has investigated art heists for a dozen years. "They pride
themselves on being excellent judges of character and when they're proved
wrong, they have egg on their face."

Like Kevin Anderson, San Francisco gallery owner Pasquale Iannetti says he
learned the hard way. He misplaced his trust when he asked the Wandlasses to
sell a $300,000 Franz Kline painting for him on consignment in 2002. When
the painting hadn't sold after several months, Iannetti says his client
asked for it back and "that's when the excuses started to happen." He said
they would ask for another week, then two, each time saying they were
nearing a deal.


 More time had passed when a colleague noticed the painting being offered at
auction, according to Iannetti. Nancy Wandlass, who later pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor charges including unlawful delivery of goods, had accepted a
$40,000 advance from the auctioneer, according to court documents and her
lawyer. She eventually reimbursed Iannetti $35,000 for his legal fees.
But Iannetti said he had lost something more valuable - the trust of his
best client, which could never be replaced.

Selling art on consignment is common throughout the world. Because the
market requires both knowledge and the finesse to work with a small pool of
potential buyers, dealers rely heavily on each other to get pieces out of
their galleries and into people's homes or offices.

When dealers, acting as middlemen or brokers, find a potential buyer, they
contact the owner or a fellow dealer and ask to examine the piece. A
consignment agreement is often drawn up, noting the selling price, the
consignment period and other details. Brokers receive no set percentage -
their proceeds vary according to the selling price of the work - and the
agreements usually specify a time in which the piece must be sold or
returned.

Anderson and Nancy Wandlass signed a seven-day consignment agreement on July
19, 2005. She refused an interview, but her lawyer, Joe Morehead, said
Anderson repeatedly extended the consignment period and there was no reason
for police to get involved.

But Anderson alleges he repeatedly demanded to have them returned as it
became clear the Wandlasses did not have a buyer. Eight months after
receiving the paintings, Thomas Wandlass sent Anderson a receipt showing he
shipped two crates, presumably his paintings, to a storage facility in South
San Francisco.

In response, Anderson called the receipt meaningless and threatened: "If I
do not have a cashier's check for $300,000 by Friday, March 31, I am
reporting the paintings stolen to the proper authorities. Good luck in
prison."

In July, Anderson flew up to San Francisco to report the theft in person.
Within days, police Inspector Gregory Ovanessian found the paintings in a
warehouse, retrieved them with a search warrant and returned them to
Anderson's gallery in Beverly Hills.

"Everyone knew they were crooks, but, somehow, it never got out to the right
people," Anderson said.

Allegations of wrongdoing by the Wandlasses, who have since declared
bankruptcy, go back to the late 1980s, according to Ovanessian. Nonetheless,
they were an attractive couple - well-spoken and well-heeled - who somehow
managed to inspire confidence among their colleagues.

Hrycyk, the Los Angeles art crimes detective, says cultural crime is
rampant. It's the world's third-largest crime problem behind drugs and
weapons dealing, according to the FBI and Interpol.

"These people can operate for years and cause an immense amount of damage
because it's like a pyramid scheme," he said. "They'll defraud people and
they will only cough up the money or the property if someone really puts
pressure on them."

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