Provenance_ How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art - Laney Salisbury [126]
In December 2003, the government formed its own Giacometti Foundation, and inherited all the works in Annette’s estate. The foundation filed multiple court proceedings in an attempt to dissolve the association, and tried without success to seize the Cour de Rohan building, which Annette had designated as the headquarters for the foundation she had desired. Palmer and the association successfully fought off every attempt by the foundation to shut it down, and is suing France in the European Court of Human Rights.
The foundation was seen by some as a commercial enterprise rather than an entity devoted to protecting and promoting the artist’s work. In 2006, the foundation hired the prominent Gagosian Gallery in New York to sell posthumously created sculptures and prints. Critics said the sales would cheapen Giacometti’s work and provide forgers ample room to ply their trade.
Meanwhile Palmer and her husband continued with the work of the association by authenticating Giacometti paintings and sculptures, tracking forgeries, and working on the decisive catalogue raisonné.
In retrospect, she believes that if Sotheby’s had been able to send the Footless Woman to Paris after it was pulled from auction in 1991, it could have been seized by police, an investigation launched, and Drewe’s scheme possibly derailed.
Batsheva Goudsmid’s troubles did not end with Drewe’s conviction. She fought both him and the government in court over the proceeds of the sale of the house on Rotherwick Road. She spent months proving that even though Drewe had been coregistered on the mortgage, she alone had bought and largely maintained the house, which could therefore not be confiscated as part of Drewe’s assets. The Crown finally agreed that Goudsmid owned the house and withdrew from the case, but Drewe continued to fight her, asserting that she had forged his signature and had used phony documents to present her case. The judge threw out his claim, saying that Drewe was “not someone on whose uncorroborated evidence I could place any reliance,” and remarking on the irony and gall of a convicted “master forger” protesting that his signature had been counterfeited. Several months later Goudsmid was hit with a lawsuit from Drewe’s mother, who said she had loaned Goudsmid money and was never paid back. This suit too was thrown out.
Goudsmid never returned to work. After Drewe won initial custody of the children, she could hardly work and fight him in court at the same time. The protracted battle had left its mark. Though she tried not to think about the past, she kept boxes filled with legal transcripts and documents from the Drewe wars. She’d been through horrendous years with this man and she had lost a great deal. At least she emerged with one thing intact: Neither the police nor anyone else could ever say she’d done anything but tell the truth.
Daniel Stoakes felt similarly. He often recalled how Drewe tried to reach out to him toward the end of the trial and how he had turned away from his old friend because he felt used and heartbroken. Several years later, after it was all over, he picked up the phone and heard Drewe on the other end. He shuddered and pulled the receiver away from his ear, as if a caterpillar had crawled out of it. Then he hung up.
Miki Volpe was transferred to the Intelligence division—“Now isn’t that ironic?” he said—and moved to a quiet village outside London, where he set up house with a female officer from the homicide squad. Bumblebees gathered around the roses in their backyard, where he planted a creeping vine and set up an old Chinese wrought-iron stove that kept a section of the garden warm after sunset.