I am up to my eyeballs in deadline work so just a very quick post today to point out an intriguing set of events unfolding in Texas centered around a violin,provenance, and authentication. A 1/22/2013 article by Robert Wilonsky at the Dallas News Arts Blog reports that a Dallas Symphony violinist has found himself facing a lawsuit for doing nothing more than buying an instrument under mutually agreed terms.
In short, the seller apparently couldn’t locate the authentication papers that were originally associated with instrument but located them after the sale was complete. Consequently, the seller is now attempting to extract additional monies from the buyer as some sort of provenance after the fact. Perhaps unsurprisingly, if the local courts don’t dismiss the claim in short order, this could open up a giant can of legal worms. If nothing else, the lesson to be learned here is don’t lose your instrument’s papers!
In short, the seller apparently couldn’t locate the authentication papers that were originally associated with instrument but located them after the sale was complete. Consequently, the seller is now attempting to extract additional monies from the buyer as some sort of provenance after the fact. Perhaps unsurprisingly, if the local courts don’t dismiss the claim in short order, this could open up a giant can of legal worms. If nothing else, the lesson to be learned here is don’t lose your instrument’s papers!
