[MSN] Gallery owner has eye for 'naive' art, Unusual paintings are shipped from rural Croatia - a delicate art in itself.

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Gallery owner has eye for 'naive' art

    Unusual paintings are shipped from rural Croatia - a delicate art in 
itself.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published April 29, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - After six months of flawless operation at his new 
gallery, Jim Nannen's worst business fear came to pass: A shipment of 
fragile glass paintings worth $70, 000 had gone missing somewhere in Europe.

"Nobody was able to give us a proper answer, " said Nannen, the owner of 
Croatian Naive Art Gallery on Beach Drive. "When I went into this 
business, this was my biggest concern."

Nannen sells and displays artworks painted in reverse on glass. They 
come from a decades-old tradition of artists, often referred to as 
amateur or naive artists, who live in rural border regions of Croatia 
near Hungary. Because the paintings are relatively rare and delicate and 
come from a remote part of the world, Nannen was always worried about 
transferring them from the Croatian countryside to the United States.

This latest shipment was bundled up April 11 by a FedEx franchise in 
Zagreb, the Croatian capital. It was supposed to reach Nannen, as had 
all his previous packages, in about three days. This was the largest and 
most valuable shipment to date.

"Once it left Zagreb, it was impossible to find, " Nannen said.

Some reports had the 400-pound crate in Paris; others in Frankfurt. 
There were suggestions the package had been stolen, and Interpol called 
the gallery about its investigations. There was even talk of getting the 
FBI involved. The story was picked up by the Zagreb media.

Then on April 21, Nannen got a call that the package was on its way to 
FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tenn. When it didn't arrive the next day, 
he called and learned it hadn't been shipped to Tampa, as expected, but 
was on its way to Seattle.

FedEx spokesman Steve Barber did not have details about the specific 
shipment but he said the company's systems eventually worked. The 
shipment arrived on April 26. He said he's investigating whether FedEx 
will offer the gallery a discount for its troubles.

Nannen was ill prepared for such international intrigue. He'd spent his 
life running pet stores, first in Massachusetts and then starting and 
growing the Animal House chain here. But he caught the art bug when he 
went to a Croatian art exhibit in 2000 at the Museum of Fine Arts. He 
was so captivated by the mood, texture, color and character of the naive 
art that he set about creating a collection.

As he scoured the Internet for dealers, Nannen learned that the art form 
was rare in the United States. He visited Croatia for an exhibit there 
and was driven to tour the country, knocking on farmhouse doors 
searching for the farmer artists. Seeing a business opportunity, he 
decided to start a U.S. gallery.

The business now sits on the ground floor of Parkshore Plaza, across 
from Straub Park. His pieces range from $300 to $400 for a postcard-size 
work to $30, 000 for larger pieces.

He has about 200 paintings on display, but this latest shipment of 67 
represented a significant new addition. "I was concerned about how I was 
going to continue the business, " he said.

Now that his box has arrived, Nannen said he can sleep again.

"This is very different from the pet business."

If you go:
Croatian Naive Art Gallery
300 Beach Drive NE
824-2800

http://www.sptimes.com/