Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Detail from "Dancer Making Points," the Degas painting lost by the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark.
NEW
YORK — The mystery itself is a masterpiece. A $10 million painting by
Degas — a simple figure of a ballerina in a yellow and red tutu pointing
her toe – vanished from the New York City apartments of reclusive
heiress Huguette Clark, and wound up, innocently enough, on the living
room wall of Henry Bloch, a Kansas art collector better known as the "H"
in the tax company H&R Block. How it got there is a multi-layered
tale involving one of the more colorful transactions in the history of
high-end art.
For readers who have been following
the Clark mystery story
on msnbc.com, this episode provides a new piece of evidence that could
be important in the legal battle over her $400 million estate. Now we
know that her longtime physician, as part of a settlement over the
painting, signed a statement swearing to her competency, describing his
then
-102-year-old patient as "mentally and physically alert."
This was in 2008, or three years after she signed a will cutting her
family out of any inheritance and planning an art museum in her
California home.
The circumstances in which the Degas ballerina disappeared from
Clark’s Fifth Avenue apartments in the early 1990s remain unclear, but
for the first time the story can be told of how it ended up in Bloch’s
living room, above the sofa, between a Seurat and a Toulouse-Lautrec.
And how Bloch was allowed to keep the painting even after the FBI came
calling.
When it was discovered in 2005 that Bloch and his wife had purchased a
painting with a tainted past, a quiet dispute over its ownership
erupted. It had been taken from Clark's apartment, but it also had been
bought in good faith by the Blochs.
Valuing her privacy more than
her possessions, Clark had told her attorney and the FBI in 1992 not to
pursue the loss of the painting. She didn't list it on the international
registry of stolen art. As a result, in a high-stakes legal version of
the children's rhyme "finder's keepers, loser's weepers," she may have
lost her claim to the painting. The Blochs' attorney argued that it now
belonged to them.
After
well-mannered wrangling, Clark and Bloch reached a deal. Clark agreed
to donate the painting to an art museum in Kansas City, Mo., the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where Bloch had been a longtime trustee,
chairman and benefactor, and where he and his wife had promised to
donate all their art when they died. As part of the agreement, the
heiress, not America's Tax Man, got the income tax deduction for the
gift.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
"Dancer
Making Points" or "Danseuse Faisant des Pointes," 1879-1880, by Edgar
Degas, pastel and gouache on paper mounted on board, from the collection
of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The
painting was donated by heiress Huguette Marcelle Clark 16 years after
it went missing from her New York apartments.
The handoff
To
seal the deal, the ballerina needed to change hands. In October 2008,
on a clear but crisp Monday at the Bloch home in Mission Hills, Kansas, a
Bloch representative handed the ballerina in the gilded frame to
Clark's attorney, who walked out to the car and handed it to a
representative of the museum, who then handed it back to the
representative of the Blochs, and back on the wall it went. The museum
had agreed to lend the painting back to the Blochs, and they will have
it as long as they live, renewing the loan every year. Then it will go
back to its owner, the Kansas City museum, with the rest of the Bloch
collection of Impressionist masterpieces.
The parties signed a
confidentiality agreement, keeping the whole business secret even from
the staff of the museum. Only three of its 21 trustees were told.
When
the museum announced in 2010 the promise by the Blochs to donate 30
Impressionist masterpieces at their death, the Degas dancer was featured
in The Kansas City Star newspaper, although the museum at that point
had already owned the painting for two years.
Last month, when
asked about the ballerina, the museum public relations staff said
emphatically that it was not owned by the museum.
'Stunning'
"This
is a remarkably beautiful work by Degas. Everything about this work is
stunning," wrote Joachim Pissarro, curator of the department of painting
and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, describing
the gentle figure of a dancer in bold yellow and orange, set against
brown floorboards and a green backdrop of foliage on a stage.
Edgar Degas, the reluctant Impressionist who preferred to be known as
a Realist, painted the ballerina in France in 1879-1880, as his
eyesight was failing. It's a seemingly simple work, 19 by 14½ inches,
with pastel and gouache applied to paper. It's known as "Dancer Making
Points," or in French, "Danseuse Faisant des Pointes."
The
ballerina was sold at a gallery in Paris in 1927, then passed to the
French collector Georges Lévy, who brought his collection to America in
1939-1940 to escape the Nazis. Huguette Clark or her mother bought it
sometime before 1955.
The youngest daughter of the former U.S.
Sen. William Andrews Clark, known as one of the Copper Kings of Montana,
Huguette Marcelle Clark was born in Paris in 1906. In his day, her
father could have bought up all the works of all the Impressionists with
one week's income from his mines, but he mostly preferred older
paintings.
Estate of Huguette M. Clark
An undated photograph of copper heiress Huguette Clark, 1906-2011.
In
1991, at age 84, Huguette Clark moved from her 42-room apartments on
New York's Fifth Avenue, and would live the remaining 20 years of her
life in hospital rooms. She left behind a Monet, a Renoir and many other
treasures.
Documents and interviews show that it didn't take long for one treasure to go missing.
In
1992 or early 1993, her attorney, Donald Wallace, learned that the
Degas ballerina was lost. There was talk that a member of the building
staff had taken it, or that doormen had seen it next to a trash bin in
the building. In any case, the ballerina was gone. Wallace informed his
client, whom he never met face to face in 20 years of representation.
Clark discouraged him from pursuing the matter, maintaining her
longstanding policy of not doing anything that would generate publicity,
even if it cost her millions.
But her attorney, or the building
manager, called the FBI. Wallace explained that Clark saw no visitors,
but the FBI agents barged into her hospital room anyway. She discouraged
them from investigating. She didn't file an insurance claim. She didn't
register the painting with the Art Loss Register, a company founded in
1991 that was becoming the de facto place to check for stolen art.
'Seemingly from a good family'
Later
in 1993, a well-dressed man walked into the Peter Findlay Gallery,
about a 15-minute stroll down Fifth Avenue from Clark's apartment.
"Many
years ago," Findlay told msnbc.com in an email, "I had a gallery on
Madison Avenue and sold good things of a European taste, particularly
Impressionist works such as Degas, etc. Naturally people would stop in
to look and to chat. Among them was a European gentleman, seemingly from
a good family, who visited New York from time to time and would
occasionally visit the gallery.
"At some point he told me that he
had inherited a work by Degas that had been in his family for many years
and asked if I would help him sell it. Eventually the work was brought
to the gallery. It had the aura of a work that had been in a family for a
long time."
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Henry
and Marion Bloch, benefactors of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City. Henry Bloch and his brother founded H&R Block in Kansas
City in 1955. The Henry Bloch biography, by their son, is entitled,
"Many Happy Returns: The Story of Henry Bloch, America's Tax Man."
At this time, Henry and Marion Bloch were shopping in New York for
paintings. Henry and his brother, Richard, had founded a tax accounting
firm in Kansas City in 1955, calling it H&R Block, changing the
spelling slightly from their last name.
They built a nationwide
business after the Internal Revenue Service stopped helping people fill
out their tax returns. Henry Bloch, 89 today, had been a navigator on
American B-17 bombers during World War II, and by all accounts is a
hard-working, humble man. He and Marion, who have been married for 60
years, built a collection of Impressionists, eventually acquiring works
by Renoir, Monet, van Gogh.
To buy one of Degas' famous series of
dance paintings, for an undisclosed price, the Blochs sold a lesser
Degas, of three dancers. Bloch later told The Kansas City Times, "This
was so much finer."
Findlay said he did everything he
could to confirm the provenance of the painting, checking with the Art
Loss Register. "I was shocked when I heard from the FBI that the Degas
was stolen."
Christopher A. Marinello, executive director and
general counsel for the Art Loss Register in London, said in an
interview that buyers should do their own checks on the authenticity and
good title of art. "It costs less than $100 to check the ownership of a
$5 million painting. People will buy a used car and they'll take it
around the corner and put it up on a lift and check it out, and they'll
get a Carfax report. They'll spend millions on art, and do nothing."
The
Blochs mostly kept their collection at home, but in the summer of 2007,
the Degas held center stage at the Nelson-Atkins when the Marion and
Henry Bloch Collection highlighted the opening of the Bloch Building,
named for its benefactors. The exhibition was sponsored by the H&R
Block Foundation. The museum displayed a close-up of the Degas ballerina
as a signature image of the collection, and notecards with the image
are still for sale today in the museum gift shop.
Two years earlier, the museum and the Blochs had learned from the FBI that the Degas ballerina might belong to someone else.
In
2005 an auction house in New York had noticed that a Degas owned by
Clark (known then as "La Faisant des Pointes" or "Making Points") was
apparently the same one sold to Henry Bloch.
"I believe I may have
been first contacted in late 2005," Henry Bloch said in a written
answer to questions from msnbc.com, "by the FBI, who indicated that they
were conducting an art investigation and wanted to confirm their
information that we had purchased the Degas." The FBI, Bloch said, "did
not give any indication that it had been stolen and gave us assurances
there was nothing to worry about. I nevertheless shared the inquiry with
my attorney at the time who discussed it with the Director of the
Nelson-Atkins. I do not believe I was contacted again by them until late
2007."
In late 2007, the Blochs received a subpoena from the U.S.
Attorney's Office, asking them to turn the painting over to the federal
court during the investigation. A round of meetings began with the FBI,
the U.S. Attorney, and the attorney for Clark.
Nobody wanted a lawsuit
The attorney for the Blochs took the position that the painting was theirs, fair and square.
Attorney
John R. Phillips represented both the Blochs and the Nelson-Atkins.
"The law is clear that the Blochs were – and the Nelson-Atkins Museum
now is – the rightful owner of the work," he said in written answers to
msnbc.com.
The two sides couldn't agree whether the painting had
actually been stolen. Clark's attorney argued that the FBI file clearly
showed that the painting had been reported as stolen. The attorney for
the Blochs argued that the FBI never concluded for sure whether the
painting had been given away, lost or stolen.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
The
living room in the home of Henry and Marion Bloch in Mission Hills,
Kansas, showing some of their collection of Impressionists. The Degas
pastel of a ballerina is to the left of the sofa.
Even
if it had been stolen, the Bloch claim cited legal cases requiring
diligence by the loser of property to try to recover it. The idea is
that unreasonable and inexcusable delay puts an unfair burden on the
later possessor of the property. The doctrine is called laches (from the
Old French word for "slack"). Failing to exercise your rights can cause
you to forfeit them. One of the well-known cases involved the artist
Georgia O'Keefe, who never reported to police the loss of a painting.
Moreover, a Kansas law (and the Degas ballerina was then in Kansas),
called a statute of repose, sets a 10-year limit on a lawsuit to recover
an item.
Most people in Clark's position would have fought for
their property, and Clark, a painter herself, did want her Degas to be
returned. Documents show that her attorney, Wallace "Wally" Bock,
advised her that she had the option to sue for the painting or its
value. But she abhorred lawsuits, and a 102-year-old recluse was never
going to sit for a deposition.
The main goals for the Blochs were
to keep possession of the painting during their lifetimes, and to make
sure it then went to the Kansas City museum. Their attorney made a
proposal: If Clark were to donate the painting to the Nelson-Atkins, the
Blochs would give up ownership immediately, and cede possession after
they died.
Before the handoff, Sotheby's appraised the painting at
$10 million. Clark would be able to claim that amount as a charitable
deduction on her income tax return.
On Oct. 7, 2008, in her
recognizable handwriting, now a bit shaky, 102-year-old Huguette Clark
signed a deed giving her ballerina to the Nelson-Atkins Museum. (
Read the document in PDF form.)
'Mentally and physically alert'
There
was one more hitch, which could play a large role in the court fight
now beginning over Huguette Clark's $400 million estate. The museum
would not accept the gift from the centenarian, particularly one whom
they couldn't meet, unless Clark provided a doctor's statement affirming
she was competent to make the gift.
On Oct. 10, 2008, Clark's
longtime physician signed a sworn statement. The affidavit by internist
Dr. Henry S. Singman began by explaining that he was semi-retired, and
had only the one patient.
"I am and have been personal physician to Madame Clark, who resides
at 907 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, since 1991. As such, and
because of her advanced age, I visit her on an almost daily basis."
He
said he had seen her just the day before. "At that time, and on all
previous visits, I found her, although slightly hard of hearing, to be
mentally and physically alert, able to read and comprehend written and
printed material as well as verbal communications, competent to
understand and execute documents and to sign her name thereto without
assistance." (
Read the document in PDF form.)
Huguette
Clark died at age 104 in May 2011, having signed two wills in 2005,
when she was 98. The first will left nearly everything to her family,
the great-grandchildren from her father's first marriage. The second
will, signed just six weeks later, was more detailed, excluding her
family entirely, making plans for an art museum in her Santa Barbara
oceanfront home, and leaving about $36 million to her nurse ($27 million
after taxes), a $40 million Monet to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C., with substantial gifts to a godchild, her doctor, her
attorney, her accountant and others.
If Clark was mentally
competent in 2008 to make a stunning act of generosity, ceding any claim
to a $10 million painting that had been taken from her, then it may be
harder for her family to prove that she was incompetent in 2005 to sign
that second will.
The attorney for the family, John R. Morken,
said he would first question Dr. Singman's independence. The doctor is
not only a beneficiary in that second will, named to receive $100,000,
but also received gifts from Clark of $60,000 to $115,000 a year in her
last years, over and above his payment for medical services, similar to
the large gifts she gave others in her tight circle. "Obviously he
wouldn't say that she lacked capacity, or else these gifts would be
invalid," Morken said yesterday. "All I can say is, I look forward to
his deposition."
Singman also signed a similar statement of her
competency in 1995, as required by one of her banks for a financial
transaction, long before she signed a will. He declined to comment this
week.
The family has made a second argument, contending that Clark
was unduly influenced by the nurse, attorney and accountant to sign the
second will. The attorney and accountant have said that it was drafted
according to her explicit instructions.
"In this transaction,"
said Morken, the family attorney, "I would question what was told to
her, whether she knew what she was giving up."
The temporary
executor of her estate, the public administrator of the city of New
York, has challenged certain gifts paid from Clark's accounts, including
a $5 million gift to her nurse, but has not challenged the gift of the
Degas. That silence could indicate that the executor found the gift to
be well documented. The attorney for the public administrator, Peter
Schram, declined to comment.
'Strict confidentiality'
On Oct. 27, 2008, the
painting changed hands outside the Bloch home in Mission Hills, a suburb
of Kansas City. The museum's director, Marc F. Wilson, now retired, was
present for the round-robin hand-off, as was Phillips, the attorney for
the Blochs and the museum. Clark was represented by her attorney, Bock,
and accountant, Irving Kamsler. The 128-year-old painting was walked
out to the car, handed around gently like a newborn baby, and back
inside it went.
The U.S. Attorney's Office withdrew its subpoena.
No one was charged with taking the painting. The FBI said this month
that the case remains open.
W.A. Clark Memorial Library
A childhood photograph of copper heiress Huguette Clark, 1906-2011.
The
exchange was kept secret. The Blochs and Clark signed a confidentiality
agreement. The museum told only three of its 21 trustees, the three who
serve as an executive committee. Even the museum's curators of European
paintings were not told. No entry for the painting was created in the
museum's records.
"We have consistently worked to honor our
donors’ wishes for privacy and to respect the strict confidentiality
requested by Ms. Clark at the time of the gift to the museum," explained
the new director of the Nelson-Atkins, Julián Zugazagoitia, who joined
the museum in 2010, in written answers to msnbc.com.
Was the
museum's decision to lend the painting back to the Blochs, secretly, the
ethical choice? The Nelson-Atkins is open free to the public, which
would be able to enjoy the Degas today, if the museum staff knew that it
owned the painting.
If the Blochs had fought for ownership and
won, the painting wouldn't have come to the museum any sooner, staying
at the Bloch home as part of their collection until their deaths. If
they had fought and lost, the painting would probably have remained
hidden away in the Clark apartment until after she died in May 2011, and
would be headed for her proposed art museum in California if her last
will is upheld.
"Despite a highly unusual course of events,"
museum direcdtor Zugazagoitia wrote, "and thanks to Ms. Clark's role as
an additional benefactor to the museum, Mr. Bloch has been steadfast in
ensuring that the work ends up in the museum's collection for the
benefit of the public. We are extremely grateful for the generosity of
both the Blochs and Ms. Clark."
A memento
Before the transaction was concluded, Huguette Clark made two requests.
Though
Clark gave the painting without restriction to the Nelson-Atkins, in a
side letter she asked that her beloved Corcoran Gallery, where most of
her father's art is on display, should be allowed to borrow the painting
up to three times in 25 years. If it were shown there, she would
receive credit by name. But in Kansas City, the painting is listed as an
anonymous gift.
After the Degas was deeded to the museum, the
heiress also asked for, and received, a full-size color photograph of
her ballerina.
---
Reporter Bill Dedman is
writing a nonfiction book about the Clark family. If you have information, you can reach him at
bill.dedman@msnbc.com.
Here's a video companion piece from KSHB in Kansas City:
Degas
masterpiece has its secret story of ownership revealed with ties to
heiress Huguette Clark and Henry Bloch of H&R Bloch. KSHB's Christa
Dubill reports.
Previous stories in the Huguette Clark mystery series on msnbc.com:
Archive of all stories, photos and videos.
Photo narrative, "
The Clarks: An American story of wealth, scandal and mystery," Feb. 26, 2010.
Printable version of the photo narrative, Feb. 26, 2010.
Clark family notes and sources, Feb. 26, 2010.
Investigative report, part one, "
At 104, the mysterious heiress Huguette Clark is alone now:
Relatives are kept away. Only her accountant and attorney visit. Who
protects HuguetteClark, with 3 empty homes and no heirs?" Aug. 19, 2010.
Investigative report, part two, "
Who is watching Huguette Clark's millions?
Reclusive heiress's assets are sold by two advisers, one an accountant
with a felony conviction. Another elderly client signed over his
property to the same accountant and attorney," Aug. 20, 2010.
"
Criminal probe begins into the finances of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark:
Manhattan DA's Elder Abuse Unit is on the case. The same unit
prosecuted the Brooke Astor case; Clark has about four times the
wealth," Aug. 24, 2010.
"
Report sparks welfare check on heiress Huguette Clark," Aug. 25, 2010.
"
Generosity of an heiress: four homes for a nurse, gifts for attorney's family," Sept. 1, 2010.
"
Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress, has signed a will, attorney says," Sept. 2, 2010.
"
Family of copper heiress asks court to protect her from attorney, accountant," Sept. 3, 2010.
"
Attorney for 104-year-old heiress defends his handling of her finances," Sept. 7, 2010.
"
Judge leaves pair under investigation in control of heiress Huguette Clark's fortune," Sept. 9, 2010.
"
Huguette Clark, the reclusive copper heiress, dies at 104," May 24, 2011.
"
Family excluded from Huguette Clark burial," May 26, 2011.
"
Heiress Huguette Clark's will leaves $1 million to advisers," June 22, 2011.
"
The 1 percent of the 1 percent: How Huguette Clark's millions were spent," Nov. 19, 2011.
"
A $400 miillion twist: Huguette Clark signed two wills, one to her family," Nov. 28, 2011.
"
Tax fraud alleged in estate of heiress Huguette Clark; accountant resigns," Dec. 21, 2011.
"
Nurse, in line to inherit millions, battles family of heiress Huguette Clark," Dec. 22, 2011.
"
Judge bounces attorney and accountant from estate of heiress Huguette Clark," Dec. 23, 2011.
"Book coming on reclusive heiress Huguette Clark and her family," Feb. 3, 2012.
"You can move into heiress Huguette Clark's building, for $25 million," Feb. 6, 2012.
"
Family of heiress Huguette Clark claims fraud by nurse, attorney, accountant," Feb. 15, 2012.
"
Heiress Huguette Clark's apartments hit the market, listed at $55 million," March 9, 2012.
"
The jewels of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark go on auction," March 13, 2012.
