Post #409436 by dogbytes on Mon, Sep 22, 2008 9:12 PM

safe for now!!

(09-22) 18:46 PDT -- The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's matchless collection of art from Papua New Guinea appears to be safe from the auction block for at least three months, regardless of a family's inheritance fight that threatens to have artwork seized and sold.

John Friede, the de Young Museum trustee who pledged his 4,000-piece collection to the museum in a series of deals from 2003 to 2007, said today that he has no intention of turning the artwork over to his brothers, despite a Florida probate court's order to do so.

A San Francisco judge, at the request of City Attorney Dennis Herrera, issued a contradicting order on Friday, directing the artwork to remain where it is.

"Right now, the two courts offset each other, so I don't have to do anything. I'm frozen," Friede said from his home outside New York City. "These are ugly matters and I certainly hope that they resolve in a way that everyone in the family can be happy together."

The Florida ruling that was made public Monday forbids Friede's brothers from selling any of the art pieces before Dec. 20 so that ownership claims can be sorted out. A hearing in the San Francisco case is scheduled for Oct. 6.

The Jolika Collection, which Friede and his wife named after the first letters in the names of their three children, is considered the world's most important private collection of objects from Papua New Guinea.

It became a part of the inheritance battle because Friede promised the entire array to the de Young but then, in a deal dated a week later, put up the collection as collateral in a dispute with his two younger brothers. That inheritance fight started after the death of their mother, Evelyn A.J. Hall, a sister of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg.

Friede agreed to pay a combined $30 million to his brothers, Robert Friede and Thomas Jaffe, to settle the dispute, and the brothers demanded collateral. John Friede maintains the promise of the art as collateral was a temporary measure never designed to involve the sale or transfer of the artwork, which include masks, various figures and dance ornaments.

So far the de Young is in possession of about 400 items in the collection and has them insured for $90 million. The new de Young museum, which opened in Golden Gate Park in 2005, was built with a wing designed especially to hold the collection.

The Florida judge said the brothers could sell up to $20 million worth of the tribal artwork as part of the settlement, but San Francisco officials maintain that the two brothers are not entitled to any part of the collection that John and Marcia Friede compiled over 40 years.

"The entirety of the collection, none of it is owned by John Friede and Marcia Friede. It's owned by the museum," said San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Donald Margolis.

John Friede said most, if not all, of the $30 million he owes his brothers will come from his share of their mother's estate, which includes valuable paintings by Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin. That money is not accessible until the Internal Revenue Service makes a determination on the inheritance tax and that amount is paid, John Friede said.

"The liens to the brothers are simply a guarantee that they will get this money, which I have every intention to pay," John Friede said. "I just don't have access to it until I get this IRS settlement."

An attorney for Jaffe declined to comment on that assessment, and an attorney for Robert Friede did not return calls seeking comment.

If John Friede can come up with $30 million settlement payment, the sale threat to the Jolika Collection disappears and the items will stay with the de Young.

John Friede said that could come in weeks, and by his May birthday at the latest.

"I'm 70. By the time I'm 71 ... I want this to be over with," he said. "They would get their money, and I'll get, whatever you want to call it - relief from legal bondage - and I can go on with my life."

John and Marcia Friede, starting in 2003, promised to provide rotating selections from their collection to the de Young. They later increased the amounts on loan to about 400 pieces, transferred ownership of at least 142 of those to the museum. In October 2007 they gifted the balance of the collection to the de Young, with the pieces to be handed over during the course of several years, documents show."My point is I love this stuff," John Friede said. "In an awful way now, of course, the public will be more interested in looking at it. Now it's not just art, it's a scandal."