Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1910-10-20
ART IMPORTERS
IN LAWS COILS
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Du-
veen Bros. of Frauds.
UNDERVALUED IMPORTATIONS
Henry and Benjamin Duveen Held in
Bonds of $4,000 and $4,000 for
Trial After Formally Enter
ing Plea of Not Guilty.

New York, Oct. IS. - The federal
grand jury has handed down indict
ments charging Benjamin Duveenl
Henry J. Duveen, Joel j. Duveen, Jo-
seph ]. Duveen and Louis ]. Duveen
with cOnspirlng to defraud the govern
ment by undertaking importations Of
art objects by means of false and
fraudulent invoices, entries, state
ments, affidavits and other false and
fraudulent devices. At the same time
Henry and Benjamin, the only mem
bers of the firm in this country, were
served with a summons in a civil suit
by which the government seeks to re-
cover the value of undervalued impor
tations for more than 100000.
AS soon as the indictments were
handed down, Henry and Benjamin
Duveen were arraigned on bench war
rants before Judge Hand in the
United States court where John B.
Stanchfield appeared as their counsel,
in addition to Corbitt and Stern. Mr.
Stanchfield entered a formal plea of
not guilty
When the question: of bail came up
a reduction was objected to by Assist
ant United States Attorney Wemple,
who pointed out that the defendants
were not citizens of the United States
and very probably could not be ex-
tradited in case they fed to England.
Judge Hand took this view of the case
and fixed bail for Benjamin and Henry
Duveen in the original amounts, $780,
900 and $4,000 respectively.
The Indictment itself, however,
would seem to make Of no effect line
of defense which it has been said the
importers would take. It was said that
they would claim as authorities in the
art world, they fixed prices arbitrarily
and that while they might buy an OBJ
ject of art at a small price they, by
putting the stamp of their approval on
it, might sell it for a much greater
price after importing 1t. This argu-
ment, if it was ever contemplated,
would not apply to the covert act"
mentioned in the indictment, which
was the importation on Feb. 10, 1908,
of three vases, stated in the invoices
to be damaged Japanese vases valued
at S1,107, whereas, says the indict-
ment, the vases were not Japanese
vases at all, but were three black
vases with stands, the true value OF
which was s28,O75. The indictment
also alleges that Henry J. Duveen at
the time these vases were imported
know of the existence Of the private
invoice in which the dutiable value
of the vases twas stated at $2S,075."
While only one fraudulent act Is
specified in the Indictment handed
down, it is understood that this in
dictment was handed down hurriedly
so as to make it unnecessary to have
a preliminary hearing before Commits
sioner Shields, and that further counts
will be added when the United States
attorney has had more time to pre-
pare and submit to the grand jury the
evidence which is being collected from
the books seized at Duveen's offices.
Still another suit will be instituted
against the art importers, this one be-
ing to recover duties withheld through
the differentiation of imports. The
statute of limitations does not run
against this latter suit, SO the govern
ment is in no hurry to file the COM
plant. 1t is in this suit that the i'm
portations of the firm for the past
thirty years will be involved If under
valuations are found.