There are several statements in his last email that raised some questions. First, his statement that “He has never owned or possessed works by Calder or Picasso, Jane Peterson, etc... and has never been fond of, let alone collected, works of this period.”
Suzanne Googled "Frederick Koch Sotheby's" looking to find out what artwork Frederick had collected. The top result was the following article.
Art Market: Victorian values: Official objections and a disastrous fire ended an American millionaire's plans for a museum here to show his splendid 19th-century paintings. Now he is giving - and selling - up. Geraldine Norman reports https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-market-victorian-values-official-objections-and-a-disastrous-fire-ended-an-american-millionaire-s-plans-for-a-museum-here-to-show-his-splendid-19thcentury-paintings-now-he-is-giving-and-selling-up-1489906.html After reading the TITLE and before clicking in, Suzanne's stomach turned, she knew she was about to find the fire she had been searching for. Her mother had told her, Mr. Koch had told her the damage to the artwork was from it being saved from a fire at an art storage warehouse. Mr. Koch discussed working on a museum too (Suzanne's mother thought the fire and museum were both in Miami) read about Suzanne's Miami Research here.
As Suzanne read the article, she was starting to figure out why these men were lying. If they hadn't been denying the visits, it wouldn't be so suspicious as to what these visits with Suzanne's mother were about. Now there was a crime. How is she ever going to tell her mother that this man she has talked so highly of all these years was up to no good?
This was the first possible crime Suzanne had found. Up until this point, Suzanne had no answers to much of the mystery surrounding her mother's story. After reading the article, Suzanne immediately emailed Lloyds of London, the insurance company that handled the fire. Suzanne believes the artwork sold to her mother came from this fire. It is what the man named "Mr. Koch" told Mary. That the damage to the artwork was from it being saved from a fire an art storage warehouse. This article has a Mr. Koch ART fire at an art storage warehouse. How many other fires at an art storage warehouse with a Mr. Koch are there? Another important statement in the article for Suzanne is: "Koch, who never speaks to the press, has not allowed either auction house to use his name, which makes identifying the paintings that belong to him a little problematic. However, his ownership of several important works is an open secret in the London trade." That has definitely been an issue when trying to prove this man sold Mary this artwork.
Below is an article that states “After 1980 buyers, led by Wendell Cherry, Fred Koch and the Getty Museum, elevated French Impressionism, Van Gogh, Picasso and early 20th Century Europeans to the summit and ensured that on the auction houses' current list of the Top 100 Pictures Ever Sold, no fewer than 92 are works since 1870. “ But John Olsen states in his email that Frederick didn't collect Picasso or other art from this period and their (self-created) database supports this...
|