How the Denney Collection of Modern Art
went missing from Dallas and ended up
in Toulouse...
by Dr. Antony Anderson
The Cat was moved from the
Dallas Museum of Art by letters signed"Anthony Denney", but Denney
was already dead...
Antony Anderson describes the strange case of an Art
Loan Failure.
Anthony Denney well-known English photographer, interior
designer and art collector built up a fine collection of modern art during
the 
1950's and 1960s. He remarried in 1970 and retired
to Spain with his new wife where he bought and restored the ruined and
remote 12th Century castle of Salvatierra de los Barros. He solved the
problem of housing his collection by lending the most important part -
worth somewhere between 5 and 10 million dollars - to the Dallas Museum
of Art (DMA). This arrangement worked well for twenty years until 1990,
the year in which Denney died, when things went wrong.
This cautionary tale of Art and Law begins about two weeks after Denney's
sudden death (April 30th 1990) when the DMA received a letter instructing
them to transfer the collection to the Museum of Modern Art in Toulouse.
The letter was signed "Anthony Denney" and dated 27th April,
three days before his death.
A second letter updating the insurance values dated 22nd August was
to follow, also signed "Anthony Denney". The writer excused the
inevitable delay in replying claiming to have just come back from holiday!
Dallas, not knowing the real Denney was dead, arranged the shipment
as requested and Toulouse paid the insurance and transport costs. On arrival
in Toulouse the pictures were hidden for the time being.
Denney's three children by his first marriage knew nothing about what
was going on. But in September 1990 they each received a copy of Denney's
Spanish will and an explanatory letter from his widow. The letter implied
that their father's estate comprised merely the castle and the surrounding
land and that the will disinherited them. But the will said something different:
that the disposition in favour of the widow was without prejudice to the
legitimate rights that the children might have under their father's national
law. Which begged the question: what might these rights be in the case
of an Englishman making a Spanish will who was domiciled in Spain? They
initiated litigation to establish the point, which now has reached the
Spanish Supreme Court..
The collecting habits of Mr Denney were a family joke: he had over
the years acquired a reputation for squirrelling away his possessions in
the attics of obliging friends against a rainy day. For him to pass on
without leaving an art collection behind seemed rather unlikely. Yes, the
castle had cost money to restore, but the sale of a Fontana or two, or
a Dubuffet would probably have paid for it all twice over. So what had
happened to all the rest of the pictures? The records were locked up in
the castle and could not be got at. The breakthrough came from the Tate
Gallery Archives. Pictures belonging to Anthony Denney had been sent to
an undisclosed destination in Texas in 1970.
The collection was traced to Dallas and from there to Toulouse where
the late Anthony Denney was being presented as a collector whose last wish
had been to give his collection to the City. His widow, respectful of his
wishes was proposing to make a donation of what had come into her possession,
and she was most anxious to do it as quickly as possible and without letting
the fact be known to the Spanish tax authorities. The City appears to have
obliged by hiding the collection in its paperwork. The Act, finally signed
in September 1993, claimed to pass title to Toulouse and empowered the
City to defend the title against all comers.
The City claims the collection to be a gift from heaven, that they
could not refuse but the reality is different: it was extracted from Dallas
by forged letters, it remains apparently undeclared to the Spanish Tax
authorities, it is the subject of litigation in Spain and, finally, it
appears not to be a gift at all, but a barter arrangement, to the mutual
benefit of the City and the widow.
Mayor Dominique Baudis says that the litigation in Spain is a private
matter in which neither the state nor the region nor the city is in any
way involved.. Yet he justifies the use of public funds to pay the widow's
legal expenses because he considers that she is defending the interests
of the City of Toulouse in Spain. The widow claims that because the Mayor
is not involved in the Spanish Litigation he is placed at an unfair disadvantage
in defending his title: he should have been able to make his views known
at the proceedings and because he was unable to do so the case should be
thrown out. The acid test of all this posturing is to ask why, if the title
in question was so good, was it necessary to spirit the collection out
of Dallas with forged signatures in the first place. Surely the collection
could have remained in Dallas until someone properly authorised by a grant
of probate came to take possession?
The Denney case demonstrates how vulnerable loans are to attack by
third parties and the need to give loans the same protection afforded to
a museum's own collection. Ask yourself what would happen if museums abandoned
the common norms of industrial custom and practice and took their cue from
the Denney case? Who would then feel safe lending to a museum? Might not
the whole Art Loan system collapse? There is a moral in the Denney story
for collectors. Draw up loan agreements that take into account the remote
possibility that someone may try to hijack your Picasso. But even the best
loan agreements cannot cope with every situation. For example, what about
the time when family and friends are preoccupied with funeral arrangements
and giving you a good send off? Who will be thinking about the safety of
your Picasso then? Just the right time for a good impersonation and the
perfect moment for a hijack! So to preserve your heritage for your rightful
heirs, not only draw up a proper loan agreement and cover the loaned Picasso
in your will, but make sure to send the museum a copy of your obituary!
For the complete "Lessons from the Denney Collection" click
here for the Museum Security Network:
Post script
The Denney Collection is currently in Toulouse in the possession of
the Museum of Modern Art.
The litigation concerning the rights of inheritance of the Denney children
is still before the Supreme Court in Madrid. A decision is imminent.
