The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22

Fine arts officials in the Govern.
by dealers who applied for exporta-
ton permits to sell paintings abroad
and then, upon receiving the certiA-
cate enabling them to send a picture
out Of the country because they set
so low q value on 1t, sold the picture
abroad for ten or twenty times the
price declared to the expectation office.
They decided In turn TO deceive the
next owner Of a painting who at.
tempted to evade the payment Of
high tax in this way. When an art
dealer submitted an old painting for
expectation, valuing it at only 5000.
although he attributed it to the noted
Dutch painter Jacob Van Ruysdael,
whose works are generally rated above
$40, 900, the fine arts officials seized the
opportunity to buy it under the right
of preemption allowed them by law.
The art dealer gave a fine performance
Of a disgruntled man as he pocketed
the 50 900, and the Minister of Public
Instruction warmly congratulated the
officials on their shrewdness In pre-.
serving a masterpiece to the nation at
such low price.
Then the awakening came. Protl
Canenaghi examined the picture and
pronounced 1t fraudulent. He deter
mined this largely by a chemical test,
consisting of applying to the picture
a composition of his own invention.
A Russian SwindI~x-
A Russian swindler of criminal
fame who was sentenced to Jail in 1918
was Lew Hauchmann. He originated
the Tiara Of Saitaphernes," repre-
senting it to be the crown Of
Scythian king. and the Paris Louvre
bought it for $4,000. Prof. Stern ~
the University of Halle in Germany
exposed the fake and goldsmith in
Odessa later confessed he made the
by Hauchmann.
The controversy of this tiara had
curious sequel. Among those profess
ing experiences in matters of art who
protested against the tiara as an
imitation when the Louvre bought il
were Luigi Parmiggiani ana Nine
Parmiggiani. Later Parmiggianl was
arrested as an anarchist in a raid on
his antique shop by the Paris police
and his wife asserted that it was due
to persecution by the authorities Of
the Louvre whose methods they had
attacked.
Then 1t developed that this man had
circulated among wealthy society in
New York as Louis Marcy art con-
noisseur, at the same time that he was
In close touch with the anarchist
group in Paterson OF which BrcSci,
assassin of King Humbcrt of Italy
was a member. Marcy had been
nominated as a patron of the Metro
politan Museum of Art, and presented
to Gen. Luigi =. di Cesnola, then d.
rector of that institution, objects 10
which the director declared to be
genuine. Afterward it became known
that he had planned to sell 10 rich
acquaintance there a large collection
OF spurious antiques, together win
bonafide objects, at a value set az
sl,200,000. but that his arrest had
nipped this scheme in the bud.
All CApOSuIc VI ~ bbE Us Sl''N'AAA'''
| antiquity occurred a few years ago
In this country through the customs
officials William Hewson Ba!,zcIl OF
! Wellesley. Mass, imported into t'''s
country early in 1916 a 'marh." tenn
pie" to ornament his estate, described
as "palladic" of the seventeenth cen'
fury and said to have cost THOUSANDS
| OF dollars. Customs officials, dolp'ihS
its age and its status as true NoFN
or original art, which would have IN,
titled 1t to entry free Of duty, l'Nl'u
an impost of 45 per cent. ad Naioren
| on It.
Mr.. Baltzell protested, hut me
United States Court of Customs AP'
peals upheld the customs on'c'aS'
declaring that the temple had hefn
pr oduced partly by machinery ",hn
less than fifty years, and that IL mao
been treated with applications a',
signed to produce an appearance o'
antiquity.
The present King OF England, "h'n
| he was Prince of Wales, is reported
to have purchased on advice Coro'
which he presented to the l'up""
Gallery OF Modern Art The picture
hac the support of four London eN,
peIts. but the opinion was s'F'nsN
| Upheld that it was a copy Of pittu'e
by Meszoly in the Budapest MI
scum, Corot appears to be p"'h',,
OF the past who is most fr"GA' M,
duplicated. one authority STATING "'',
/ to his knowledge Corot had p''n''u
only T50 pictures in his life W.
1900 genuine Corots" have been I'M
1 ported into this country.