The Times, UK
Aug 2 2018
Gulbenkian art dynasty entangled in $1.4m 'fraud'
by Valentine Low
In the arts world, it is one of the best known philanthropic names, up there with Rothschild, Getty and Tate.
However, the Gulbenkian family name, which usually brings to mind the world-famous museum in Lisbon, is about to be dragged through the courts after one of its members was accused of fraud over a million-dollar art deal.
Angela Gulbenkian, an art collector, is being sued in the High Court in London over a deal that went wrong. A buyer from Hong Kong claims he paid her nearly $1.4 million for a sculpture that never materialised. Mathieu Ticolat, an art adviser and director of Art Incorporated, has launched a claim to get either the sculpture, a 81kg (179lb) spotted yellow pumpkin by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, or the money back.
Ms Gulbenkian, 36, is a German who married a great-great-nephew of the oil tycoon Calouste Gulbenkian, whose fortune has funded the multibillion-pound private foundation and museum that bears his name. In 2016 she set up a company in London, FAPS-Net, with a German art adviser, Florentine Rosemeyer, who has since left.
Art Incorporated said that it entered into a contract with Ms Gulbenkian last year to buy Yellow Pumpkin from an anonymous seller for $1.375 million (about £1 million). The company's lawsuit says that FAPS-Net claimed to be acting on behalf of the owner. "Those representations were false and the defendants knew them to be false or did not believe them to be true," it said. No defence has been filed yet but Ms Gulbenkian is understood to be resisting the claim.
The dispute raises issues of how much buyers and sellers know about who they are dealing with when transactions are channelled through intermediaries. Christopher Marinello, of Art Recovery International, who is working with Art Incorporated, told Bloomberg: "People are buying expensive art and are not doing due diligence on people they are buying the art from."
Born Angela Maria Ischwang, Ms Gulbenkian grew up in Munich and studied politics and history in London, where she opened a marketing firm. She married Duarte Gulbenkian, a football agent, and moved to Lisbon in 2016. Some of those who have had dealings with her formed the incorrect impression that she was connected to the Lisbon-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which distributes money for the arts, social welfare, education and science and is valued at about (EURO)3 billion. The foundation said: "Angela Gulbenkian has nothing to do with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation or the museum." Mr Ticolat told Bloomberg: "I got fooled by the name."
Ms Gulbenkian's Instagram account describes her as "Fine Art Collector | Gulbenkian Art Collection". In an interview with a Portuguese financial newspaper, Jornal de Negocios, last year she talked about bringing new artists to Lisbon although she said that she did not want to interfere with the foundation. Talking of the Gulbenkian name, she said: "In the art world this name opens doors, but doesn't close deals." It is understood that Ms Gulbenkian has denied presenting herself as acting for the foundation.
Ms Rosemeyer, who is now an independent art adviser in Munich, said: "In the spring of 2017 I heard through contacts that one of Yayoi Kusama's statues might be for sale. I put Angela Gulbenkian in touch with those contacts. I did not have anything further to do with this deal and received no updates from Ms Gulbenkian. I was shocked to learn of the allegations now being made against Ms Gulbenkian."
According to Bloomberg Ms Gulbenkian has said that she offered to get the sculpture to Mr Ticolat before the case was filed. She had spoken to the owner, who was prepared to transfer the work, but Mr Ticolat did not want a deal.
Mr Ticolat's team denies these claims and say that she was not able to procure the piece because it had been sold. Bloomberg also reported that Ms Gulbenkian had said that she had been arranging for the money to be repaid, although representatives of Art Incorporated claim not to have seen evidence of this.
An all-consuming passion
· Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was an Armenian who played a major role in developing oil in the Middle East – particularly Iraq – around the turn of the 20th century.
· He amassed a huge fortune, which he used to build up an art collection that he kept in a private museum at his home in Paris.
· An art expert said in 1950: "Never in modern history has one man owned so much."
· In his lifetime he was said to have collected more than 6,400 pieces of art, from antiquity to the 20th century.
· When he grew tired of an object he would give it away, exchange it or use it in part-payment for something else.
