If I had a Corot worth $1.4 mil, I think I’d be a bit more careful with it

There was a wonderful little story on Bloomberg last week about a couple who found themselves with a Corot on their hands. Apparently, they decided that for the $1.4 mil it was worth, they could replace it with a couple of works of art from AllPosters and still have a bit of walking around money.

Now, personally, if I had an honest-to-pete, authentic Corot – “Portrait of a Girl” or “Madame Stumpf and Her Daughter” or “Belfry At Douai”*, and I wanted to unload, I think I’d be pretty darned careful about where and I how I sold it.

Of course, I don’t have a Corot.

What I do have is an authentic late 19th century circus poster that sells in repro for $12, but which – for an original (which I have) – could fetch as much as $500-2,000. Given what I paid to have this sucker framed, I would hope I could get upwards of $2K. But, at present, Achille Philion will be staying right where he belongs, which is over my living room couch. If I were to sell him it, I’d probably take it to the guy who does my framing and ask his advice. Or maybe I’d put it up on eBay. After all, it’s not worth all that much. Of course, if I did have an agent walking around to bars with it under his arm, I’m guessing that, no matter what degree of inebriation he found himself in, he wouldn’t leave behind something that measures about 4’ x 2.5’.

A bit larger, than Corot’s 12 ¾-inch by 9 ½-inch “Portrait of a Girl.” Which is the $1.4 million dollar item that one James Haggerty left somewhere while he was in an alcohol-induced stupor. Haggerty is a friend of Tom Doyle, as well as his colleague at Imperial Jets – a private jet charter service in NYC. Doyle, a co-owner of the painting, along with Kristyn Trudgeon,enlisted Haggerty to help sell the Corot, and offered him $25K for his troubles.

After an abortive attempt to sell the painting to a London gallery owner, Haggerty avec painting is last seen (caught on security cameras) wobbling out of hotel on the upper East Side

On the next Haggerty sighting, when he enters Trump Place, where he lives, he’s painting-less.

Gosh, where would we be without these security cameras accounting for our presence? Unfortunately, there’s a video-less lost hour and a half or so between Haggerty reeling out of the hotel and wheeling into his digs. The morning after the night before, Haggerty called Doyle and let him know that the Corot had gone missing.

Now Trudgeon is suing, and the whereabouts of the Corot remain unknown. Trudgeon has this to say about Haggerty:

"I think he's a complete fumbling idiot," a visibly annoyed Trudgeon said outside her West Side apartment. "He's just a complete a--hole." (Source: Daily News.)

Well, Haggerty may well be a complete fumbling idiot, not to mention a complete a—hole, but if I were going to sell something that was worth over a million bucks, I think I’d want to be dealing with someone who was neither. Of course, Trudgeon and Doyle may not have realized ahead of time quite what an idiot and a-hole Haggerty was – even though Doyle, as a colleague, must have seen him in action at least once or twice. And whether they knew he was an idiot/a-hole or not, presumably they knew whether or not he had any experience in the art world.

Selling private jet services – and my guess is that Haggerty was in sales, rather than accounting, HR, or IT – is one thing. You don’t have to carry the jet around under your arm.

But, after all:

Private jets = rich people.
Expensive art works = rich people.

What’s the big diff?

Still, I think it’s quite a leap to go from office pal to art courier.

I may be wrong here. Haggerty may be a canny and knowledgeable art-dealer-on-the-side kind of guy.

But for a million-plus dollars, wouldn’t your thought have been to go through a professional? Someone bonded?

Maybe it’s just that in this world of eBay and Craigslist, we’re all so convinced of our own savvy that we’ve decided we don’t need no stinkin’ intermediaries. Why pay someone a percentage when you can pocket it all yourself? $25K to Haggerty vs. paying what I suspect an art dealer would skim?

So now it’s law suit time.

See you in court!

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*No, I did not pull these names out of my head; I found them on ArtUnframed, where, I believe they got Mme. Stumpf’s name wrong. I really don’t think it was “Stumpg”.