Seattle Art Museum ordered to pay gallery’s legal fees in Matisse case

Monday, Sept. 4, 2000 | 12:11 p.m.

The Seattle Art Museum filed an $11 million lawsuit against the Knoedler & Co. gallery last summer over its sale of the Matisse. The 1928 work "Odalisque" was stolen by the Nazis from Paul Rosenberg, a well-known French Jewish art dealer, in 1941.

The case is up for trial on Feb. 26, but the Seattle Art Museum angered the presiding judge by failing to show its proof of legal ownership soon enough.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik charged the museum with "recklessness" and ordered it to help pay the gallery's costs due to the resulting delays in the case.

"It was a technicality, really," said art museum spokeswoman Linda Williams.

But attorneys for Knoedler called the move "an extraordinary rebuke of the museum."

"We don't think the museum has the right to sue us. The museum has in no way been damaged by this," said Lewis Clayton, Knoedler's attorney.

"It's always been our position that the gallery acted completely appropriately in this case, and it's irresponsible of the museum to claim otherwise."

The museum received the Matisse from Seattle art collectors Prentice and Virginia Bloedel, who willed it to the museum in 1991. The Bloedels had purchased the painting in 1954 from Knoedler, which had received it the same year.

In 1997, Rosenberg's descendants demanded the return of the painting, which the museum granted last year. The heirs promptly sold it for an undisclosed price to Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, who hung it in the Bellagio, his new hotel and casino.

The museum then sued Knoedler on behalf of the Bloedels.

The judge dismissed the case in October, saying the museum had no standing to represent the Bloedels, who were the most appropriate plaintiffs in the suit. In March, however, the museum proved that the Bloedels transferred all legal claims to the Matisse along with the painting itself.

The judge reinstated the case, but fined the museum this summer for not coming up with the documentation sooner. The fine is not due until the case is resolved.

Thousands of art treasures once owned by Jews and stolen by the Nazis are believed to be in American museums, and Jewish groups have urged curators to check their collections. Lists have been posted on the Internet of hundreds of art pieces with questionable histories in British museums.