(1888PressRelease)
May 30, 2009 - Fine Art Registry has recently published four articles on the subject of the Millennium Impressions, modern restrikes of eight of Rembrandt’s copper plates, going into great detail about the provenance of Rembrandt’s copper plates and the history and value of the etchings published from them.
After the first two articles appeared on the FineArtAdvocacy website in early April 2009, along with documents which proved that Park West had indeed owned the copper plates since 2003, Park West Gallery put up a new website in which they admit for the first time to having bought the plates in 2003, but not to the intrigue and misdirection that has accompanied their use to publish and sell the etchings made from the copper plates in the five and half years following the purchase.
According to these articles, before Park West Gallery bought the copper plates and existing inventory of etchings in 2003 for a reported $2 million, the plates had been in the possession of Dr. Howard Berger of Beverly Hills, CA. A company called Intaglio Etchings, Ltd. was responsible for marketing and selling the prints, almost the only known late 20th century restrikes of Rembrandt’s etchings. Intaglio Etchings, Ltd. was dissolved at the end of 2003, but Park West continued to represent that Intaglio Etchings were still the publishers of the prints until late 2005, all the while Park West owned the plates, paid for the printing and controlled the sales and prices of the etchings. Park West auctioneers say that until April 2009 Park West told them that the plates were not owned by the gallery, that the entire run of 2,500 of each etching had been printed in the year 2000, and other fictions.
Park West Gallery’s admission that they had owned the copper plates since August 2003 has produced an angry outburst from the gallery’s cruise ship auctioneers who had been deceived and who had, in turn, misled the auction going public on cruise ships about the ownership of the copper plates and misinformed them of the provenance of the etchings.
The four articles published on the FineArtAdvocacy website under the overall heading of Millennium Impressions Article 1, 2, 3 and 4, go into some detail about the history of Rembrandt’s copper plates themselves, the creation of the Millennium Impressions in the 1990s, and the system of numbering and verifying the etchings and making the appropriate disclosures in use by Intaglio Etchings Ltd. until 2003 (the Millennium Impressions are limited to 2,500 examples of each etching). The articles go on to discuss the purchase of the copper plates in 2003, the company incorporated in Nevada in 2004 in the name of a Park West principal as the apparent owner of the plates, the changing of the name from “Millennium Impressions” to “the Millennium edition”, the subsequent omission of any numbering system for the etchings sold or verification or disclosures prior to sale, and reports from Park West auctioneers that “etchings” without plate marks were sent by Park West for sale at cruise ship auctions (all genuine etchings have distinguishing indentations left by the copper plate during printing). The last article discusses the values of Rembrandt etchings in general and the Millennium Impressions in particular, differentiating between the Millennium Impressions published before August 2003 and the later Millennium edition about which little is known.
The information contained in the four articles on the FineArtAdvocacy website should prove of great interest to current owners of Millennium Impression Rembrandt etchings, Millennium edition Rembrandt etchings and to prospective buyers of these etchings from galleries, cruise ship art auctions or on the secondary market including eBay.
“These articles are the result of a great deal of research with much cooperation from many individuals who were familiar with the history and vicissitudes of the eight Rembrandt copper plates,” said Teri Franks, CEO of Fine Art Registry. “They should go far to bring transparency to a subject which has been clouded in mystery for close to six years.”
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