Date: Fri 05-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

Wolf's-Pissarro

Full Text:

Court Will Try To Determine Painting's Owner

CLEVELAND, OHIO (AP) -- A trial is set for March 24 to determine the ownership

of a painting by the French master Camille Pissarro.

The painting, of a dock scene, was scheduled to be auctioned October 24, 1998,

at Wolf's auction house in Cleveland, but was pulled from the sale after a

question of ownership arose.

An out-of-court settlement does not appear to be an option, said attorney

William J. Novak, who represents the estate of Helen Stoddard. Stoddard

claimed to be the last legitimate owner before the painting was stolen from

her home. Stoddard died November 28, 1998, leaving the painting to the

Worcester Art Museum in her will.

Novak has police reports that show the Pissarro was stolen in a burglary in

1978. He also has a title history for the painting and a finding of

authenticity by the former director of the Worcester Art Museum, Richard S.

Teitz, who, in a deposition February 2 at Cleveland FBI headquarters, said the

painting held there is by Pissarro and identified it as belonging to Stoddard.

Lawyers present told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that Teitz identified

the painting as "Bassins Duquesne et Berrigny a Dieppe, Temps Gris," one of

ten artworks stolen in July 1978 from the Stoddard home.

Attorney George Oryshkewych of Parma, who represents Kenneth Bement of Madison

and Daniel Zivko of Kirtland, questions whether old police reports are

admissible evidence. He also wonders whether the Stoddards forfeited their

ownership rights when they accepted a $90,000 insurance payment for the stolen

painting.

Bement, who owns a restaurant in Painesville, and Zivko, who owns a Wickliffe

plastics company, bought the painting in good faith, he said.

"You can imagine the feeling when one day you're told you have a million

dollar painting and the next day you're told you don't," Oryshkewych said.

The painting has an estimated value of at least $400,000.

The Stoddards were benefactors of the Worcester Art Museum, where Teitz was

director from 1970 to 1982. Teitz now is an administrator at St. Philip's

College in San Antonio, Texas.

Zivko and Bement say they bought the painting in 1997 from Jennifer Cornell,

identified only as a Massachusetts resident, and are its rightful owners.

George R. Oryshkewych, a lawyer for Zivko and Bement, said they intend to

press their claim for ownership.

Oryshkewych said Bement had known Cornell for several years, and that she may

have acquired the painting in a divorce settlement with her former husband,

who collected art.

The FBI would not say whether agents have talked to Cornell, but they said the

investigation continues.

Jan Saurman, a lawyer for Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which paid the

Stoddards about $95,000 for loss of the painting, said his company has no

interest in owning the work of art, but wants only a reasonable reimbursement

for the insurance claim.

Helen Stoddard was 94 when she died in November, just weeks after the painting

turned up in Cleveland. She gave a deposition on videotape for the suit

shortly before she died.

She said she and her husband bought it for $7,000 in 1951 from the M. Knoedler

Gallery in New York City.