Art Dealers Get Ethical
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Both Hammer and Adams downplayed any suggestion that the formation of the new committee is directly linked to recent media coverage of local art dealers Donald Austin and R.H. Love, neither of whom was ever a member of CADA. Austin was accused and found guilty of selling phony prints; Love is currently being sued both for selling fakes and for inflating prices. Adams, who has been a professional in various areas of the business for more than 15 years, has been campaigning for an ethics committee for some time and says he’s glad the group has finally addressed the matter. “I only wish we had set up the new committee before the rush of publicity,” he says.
What was intended to be a routine press screening a few weeks ago of director Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust film Schindler’s List turned into a painful embarrassment for its organizers. A group of Jewish religious leaders was invited to the screening, but as invited guests gathered in the screening room it quickly became evident that the 50-seat facility was not going to accommodate all of the guests. Universal representatives decided to politely ask the religious leaders to leave to make room for the media, but when not enough of them vacated the premises a Universal representative started reading names from a list, asking them to leave the screening room as their names were called. Sources report that as the disinvited guests departed, caustic comments were made about how closely the screening-room events mirrored the themes of Spielberg’s dark film. A Universal spokeswoman said the situation resulted from an “unfortunate misunderstanding” in planning.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Nathan Mandell.
