PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART FILES SUIT AGAINST AXA ART INSURANCE

According to Courthouse News, the Philadelphia Museum of Art says AXA Art Insurance refused to honor a $1.5 million claim for two paintings that an art dealer effectively stole or lost. The museum consigned the art to the Salander-O’Reilly Galleries in Manhattan in 2006. The Manhattan District Attorney charged the Upper East Side art dealer with one hundred counts of fraud a year ago, estimating damages at more than $90 million.

The Philadelphia Museum says it consigned The Harbor by Maurice Prendergast and Mountain Landscape by Arthur B. Davies to the Salander Gallery.

“Salander’s entire course of conduct during 2007 with respect to the paintings was a continuation of its effort to cover up the fact that, in violation of the agreement, it had sold the Prendergast for $1.5 million and taken the proceeds for its own use,” according to the complaint.

The museum does not state what became of the Davies, only that it did not turn up during an inventory.

AXA, a New York company, issued a $100 million policy to the museum but has not told the museum anything about its investigation of the paintings’ whereabouts or the status of the insurance claim, the museum says.