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Guggenheim descendants in French court over priceless art treasures Guggenheim descendants in French court battle over art treasures
(about 3 hours later)
The descendants of the famous heiress and art collector Peggy Guggenheim will on Tuesday launch a court appeal over her sumptuous collection of works housed in an 18th-century palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. She was one of the most celebrated collectors of contemporary masters, whose art was displayed in a magnificent 18th-century palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. But since the death 36 years ago of heiress Peggy Guggenheim, her family have been engaged in a bitter legal battle over how her priceless legacy – including works by Picasso, Miró, Matisse, Magritte, Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Jackson Pollock – is managed.
At the tender age of 13, Guggenheim inherited unimaginable wealth when her metal magnate father, Benjamin, went down on the Titanic. She used her fortune to collect and display contemporary art. On Tuesday, one of Guggenheim’s grandsons will launch a court appeal to have the Italian collection restored to its original state, claiming it has been “diluted” by art from other sources.
After amassing a collection including works from, among others, Cocteau, Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Salvador Dali, she bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal and began to display the priceless pieces. Sandro Rumney, who was born in Venice but lives in France, his half brother Nicolas Hélion and their five children, also want “protection” in the palace garden around a plaque marking Peggy’s ashes – a “grave” they believe has been desecrated.
As she neared her death in 1979, she handed over the palace and the collection of 326 works to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation based in New York and run at the time by her cousin Harry Guggenheim. The move is the latest develoment in a long-running transatlantic legal battle between two branches of Guggenheim’s descendants.
But now one of Peggy’s grandsons, Sandro Rumney, has launched a court battle over how the collection is managed, calling for it to be restored to its original configuration. Peggy Guggenheim was just 13 when she inherited the considerable fortune of her father Benjamin, a metal magnate, who was travelling on the Titanic. She led a colourful life and married three times. While in Europe in the prewar years she used her wealth to collect contemporary art. To display it, she bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, now the most visited modern art museum in Italy.
Lawyer Olivier Morice said it was about “respecting the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim to see the collection intact”. As she approached the end of her life in 1979, she handed over the palace and the collection of 326 works to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, based in New York and run at the time by her cousin Harry Guggenheim.
The plaintiffs complain that works from other collections are now being displayed at the palazzo, diluting Peggy’s work. Rumney’s lawyer, Olivier Morice, said the legal action centred on “respecting the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim to see the collection intact”.
They hired bailiffs to analyse the displays, finding in 2013 that there were 94 pieces from the Guggenheim collection and 75 works from the Schulhof collection, put together by a couple of American art collectors. The plaintiffs complain that works from other collections are now part of the permanent display at the palazzo, diluting Peggy’s work. They hired bailiffs to analyse the displays, finding in 2013 that of the 181 works at the palazzo, 75 are from the Schulhof collection, put together by a couple of American art collectors.
They contend that when she bequeathed the collection to the Guggenheim Foundation, it was intended as a kind of visual autobiography. They notably point to a 1969 exchange of letters with Harry Guggenheim, then president of the foundation, in which he accepted her strict conditions that the collection should be “kept as a whole and at the palazzo”, without additions.
Rumney, 56, is also furious that the inscription on the museum’s Grand Canal facade now includes the worlds “Schulhof Collection” next to “Peggy Guggenheim Collection”.
“That was the last straw. The Guggenheim is horrible. This has been going on for 10 years now,” Rumney Rumney said last May.
This “breaks with the original arrangement that Peggy wanted and which should be respected after her death”, the plaintiffs argue.This “breaks with the original arrangement that Peggy wanted and which should be respected after her death”, the plaintiffs argue.
They want the collection’s original state restored, as well as “protection” in the palace garden around a plaque marking Peggy’s ashes – a “grave” they believe has been desecrated. Rumney and his children suffered a setback in July when a lower court threw out the case. It said the dispute had been settled in the 1990s when it was ruled the collection could not be considered as “protected”. Rumney and Hélion say the 1996 protocol has been breached and accuse the foundation of “commercial cynicism”.
The appeal is taking place in France because Rumney and his children live there. They suffered a setback in July when a lower court threw out the case. It said the case had been settled in the 1990s when it was ruled the collection could not be considered as “protected”. Three other grandchildren and one great-grandchild are supporting the Guggenheim Foundation, which was established in 1937 by Peggy Guggenheim’s uncle. One grandchild is employed by the foundation.
The Guggenheim Foundation said it was “proud to have faithfully respected the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim for more than 30 years by keeping her collection intact”, restoring the palace and running the “most visited modern and contemporary art museum in Italy”. The Guggenheim Foundation said it was fighting “baseless allegations”. It added that it was “proud to have faithfully respected the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim for more than 30 years by keeping her collection intact”, restoring the palace and running the “most visited modern and contemporary art museum in Italy”.