Dali and the Danaer
Criminal Investigation: The Dali-Albaretto Collection

(The English Translation of the newspaper article, "Dali und die Danaer, Im Visier der Ermittler: die Dali-Sammlung Albaretto" that was published in the German newspaper, "Zeitung" on Sunday, August 8, 2004. Translated by Elenore Hadrys in August 2004. Courtesy The Salvador Dali Archives, Ltd. NY.)

View the original document (PDF), or read the translation below.

ZEITUNG
Sunday, 8 August 2004

Since a number of years the seriousness of the Albaretto-enterprise has been questioned; also enough Italian lawyers who were legally trying to fight such suspicions. And there were also some German courts which gave up quickly because they were shown documents, which seemed to prove that all accusations were not justified. By presenting these documents which allegedly were signed by Dali himself, Mara and Christiana Albaretto could prove that all the originals and prints which they owned were indeed signed by Salvador Dali. Some courts apparently believed that. International Dali experts however were not as easily impressed by the documents as were the judges.

When in September 2000 a group of sponsors under the head of the "Weltbild-Verlag" gave their hometown Augsburg (Germany) an important Dali exhibition as a millennium present, many experts questioned immediately the seriousness of the suppliers of the pictures. The exhibition in 2000 contained among others also, 140 pictures of the private collection of Guiseppe Albaretto and his wife Mara. It said in the catalogue that the Albaretto couple from Turin (Italy) had been close friends of Dali and this is why the Albaretto collection was presented in the catalogue under the title "pictures of friendship" and the Albaretto daughter Christiana had even been called by Dali his 'little daughter'.

The Albaretto collection had been presented for the first time in 1996 during an exhibition in Palazzo Bricherasio in Turin. At that time already Dali's legal representative and friend Robert Descharnes had called the collection a scandal, tasteless and dangerous for Dali's reputation. Descharnes spoke of falsified paintings, watercolor and graphical pieces of art. And he remembered that Dali himself in April 1987 forbid the Albaretto couple in the presence of witnesses, to in the public present themselves as experts for his (Dali's) works. A notarized verification of Dali's wish is even in the hands of German investigators, who have been focusing for a number of years on this so-called Dali collection. Reynold Morse who is managing a museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, called the Albaretto exhibition "a pity". The author of the graphical part of the Augsburg catalogue, Mr. Ralf Miehler during a visit in Augsburg recognized a number of objects as falsifications and notified the local court. Also the Dali foundation in Spain denied that it had ever issued certificates of authenticity of any work of the Albaretto collection.

In the meantime, the district attorney's office in Freiburg (Germany) has issued three orders of punishment against Mara Albaretto, her daughter Christiana and against the art dealer, Stefan Delbaere. The district attorney's office thereby referred to a small exhibition which had taken place in February 2000 in the Freiburg "Kornhaus" and which had graphical art pieces supplied by Delbaere. At that time already in 2000, Mr. Ernst Schoeller had confiscated questionable pieces. Mr. Schoeller is chief criminal investigator at the state court in Stuttgart and Germany's most experienced art investigator. The district attorney, Wolfgang Maier, called these pieces reproduced mass articles. When the Italian authorities were asked for support, they reacted only many months later and quite reluctantly. The lawyers for the Albaretto family again and again complained against this investigation. The Freiburg district attorney's office did not give in however, as well as Mr. Schoeller and his colleagues. Finally, when German police officers got permission to search the Albaretto apartment in Turin, they found important evidence.

It is clear now, the Albaretto family has sold thousands of falsified Dali graphical works via the publishing company "Les Heures Claires". This publishing company was acquired by Guiseppe Albaretto in the 70's. Mr. Schoeller confirms that "Les Heures Claire" has sold for 30 years graphical art which was photomechanically reproduced with falsified signatures. Certain pieces with motifs [designs] following the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, issued between 1958 and 1964 were printed on paper with watermarks which had been produced in the 70's only. The investigators assume that 30 to 35 motifs were used, each with up to 1000 copies. The German art mail order company "Artes" in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck reimbursed their customers after they had heard of the criminal acts of the "Les Heures Claire". German investigations and apartment searches in Belgium showed that the Albarettos had supplied 2000 graphical artworks in large quantities to Delbaere and his company "Interart" in Bruegge. The Freiburg district attorney's office now for the first time is confident that also those contracts, in which Dali and Albaretto had agreed to cooperate, were falsified. The investigators, after extensive technical detail analysis, could prove that the paper and the typewriter used were not available at that time.

Should the judge accept the evidence, then the Augsburg exhibition will also be subject to a criminal investigation. Many of the prints distributed by "Les Heures Claires" were questioned by the experts like Robert Descharnes. If this can be proved, then it will be a criminal act of fraud and forgery of documents.

The state run Dali foundation in Figueras (Spain), which holds the copyright for Dali's work, is awaiting the results of the Frieburg trial with great interest.

Article by Fine Art Registry, January 14, 2009   |   Print   |  

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