Suit to Follow: preemptive court declaration sought for Renoir

October 25, 2011

In 2011 Art News reported that the title to Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Paysage de Cagnes” was challenged  in court in Illionos after the painting hung on the wall of a home in Lake Forest, Illinois for over 50 years. For more than half a century Korhumel family, Newton F. Korhumel and his wife, Irene L. Korhumel ,displayed their painting after purchasing it from the Hammer Galleries in New York in 1956. It was reported that the executor of the couple’s estate began talks with Christie’s in the early 2011 selling certain items in the estate, including the Renoir. “In April 2011, Christie’s expressed concern about the provenance of the work in a letter, withdrew it from the auction catalogue, and refused to return it to the estate.”

“On August 15, 2011, a lawsuit was filed in the Illinois Northern District Court, seeking a declaratory order that the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Korhumel is lawful owner of the work. The suit states that heirs of Richard Semmel, a German Jewish textile mogul, are alleging that Semmel once owned the work. If true, Semmel may have been forced to sell the work in order to flee the Nazis. There are records of Semmel selling a large part of his art collection to a Dutch auction house in 1933. In anticipation of a suit for restitution of the work, the Korhumel estate filed this preemptive suit to quiet title.

This is the first time title to the work has been questioned. However, Art News reports the representative for the heirs, who remain unnamed, as stating that the painting was registered as part of the Semmel collection at the Art Loss Register. According to an article in September in the ArtEconomist, the representative “isn’t sure whether his clients have any legal basis to force the painting’s return.” However, the representative maintains “his clients are the rightful owners of the Renoir, one of the works textile manufacturer Richard Semmel sacrificed when he fled Germany in 1933.”

Updated: Oct. 26, 2024

The case was voluntarily dismissed on December 22, 2011 and Christie’s auctioned the Renoir painting a little less than a year later, on November 8, 2012 during the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale. Estimated to sell for a bid between $500,000 and $700,000, it was auctioned off for $866,500.

The auction catalogue stated “Property from the Estate of Irene Korhumel In 1950 our parents decided on the country life and bought a beautiful and historic country estate named Whippoorwill Farm in Lake Forest, Illinois. Situated in a bucolic setting west of the town proper, and about thirty miles north of downtown Chicago, it encompassed forty manicured acres of main house, stables, guest cottage, and both pasture and forest land. Included were outlying buildings such as a green house, dog kennels for forty, a half mile black cinder riding circuit, and extensive flower and vegetable gardens. A true gentleman’s farm, it was an idyllic setting in which to raise three children. As well as being enjoyed by the family, the riding path was open to neighbors and was used by Adlai Stevenson and his house guests, including Eleanor Roosevelt and other notables. This move to the Farm marked the beginning of Newton and Irene’s long-term art collecting, which was most aggressively pursued in the 1950s and 1960s, but continued until their passing in 2001 and 2010. They became personal friends with the American artist Hovsep Pushman and assembled a sizeable collection of his paintings and prints. Over time, they also acquired a Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a Pablo Picasso, a major collection of Flora Danica porcelain, Dorothy Doughty birds and many works from other collecting categories. During frequent visits to London, for example, they bought marvelous English furniture from some of the most prominent British dealers of the period, such as Mallett and Jeremy. All of the art was displayed in the main house and served as a warm and wonderful backdrop for our family life, and we enjoyed living with these things over the past sixty years. As these objects go on to a new generation of collector, we hope that the new buyers and their families enjoy them as much as we did. –Lee A. Korhumel”.

According to the reported provenance the painting was held by a gallery in London and a Gallery in NY before it was offered for sale to the late owner in 1956. The prewar ownership of the painting was not addressed or disclosed.

From the catalogue: 

Redfern Gallery, London.
Acquavella Galleries, New York.
Irving H. Vogel, Philadelphia; Estate sale, Hammer Galleries, New York, 12 March 1956, lot 14.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.

Sources

ArtNews via Arts Journal

Christie’s, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5616162

Docket: https://ecf.ilnd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DktRpt.pl?134605573316688-L_1_0-1