The Dark Side of the Moon

The media landscape/ environment in which I am currently promoting my project Sculpture Park Varna in the USA!  can be felt most clearly in the article “Picasso, Van Gogh and Modigliani masterpieces emerge in Panama Papers. A painting seized by the Nazi claimed in Mossack Fonseca affair”.

http://m.faktor.bg/kultura/artfaktor/71708-platnashedyovri-na-pikaso-i-vinsent-van-gog-nameriha-myasto-v-aferata-panamski-dosieta.html

Masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall and Modigliani were found to be of key importance to the affair. The name of the granddaughter of the Spanish genius also appears in the register. The documents are from the period from 1977 to 2015, but the speculations story began further in the past.

This art aspect of the international scandal fell outside Bulgarian media sphere of interest, but is not to be neglected. For the simple reason that the largest sums of money disappear like water in sand alongside the artwork of recognized masters of modern art., which is bought by the richest among the richest. Extensive revelations about the art market secrets, in the light of “Mossack Fonseca” affair were published in the British “The Guardian”, the Italian magazine “L’Espresso” and many others. We shall only look at the most shocking issues, as they are too many.

The Panama Papers, as everybody calls them, the giant leak of offshore financial records reveals some unknown secrets about the murky art market. The revelations shook not only the global politics but undermined this gigantic market used by the world financial elite to become super-rich. In 2015, sales of art exceeded $63.8 billion, according to the TEFAF Art Market Report, with top-dollar art experiencing the greatest growth. Half of the transactions are private, according to the same source. The rest is done through public auctions, which guarantee sales price transparency but usually still allow the players to remain a mystery.

While secrecy may be exploited legally and is perfectly admissible to avoid unwanted publicity of buyers and sellers, it can also be employed for nefarious purposes, such as evading taxes, hiding shady ownership histories and money laundering since art is easily transportable and can be very expensive, noted The Guardian.

A market left in the shadow for decades, multimillion-dollar auction financing is now commonplace at the highest end of the art market. The documents released provided a look on sellers and buyers of art, priceless masterpieces seized by the Nazis and even mention a granddaughter of Picasso. One of the most expensive paintings sold at the Ganz auction, writes “L’Espresso”, was Picasso's "Women of Algiers, version O." It's one of a celebrated series of fifteen paintings Picasso made in the mid-1950s. In recent years, as art prices have grown dramatically, transactions are often obscured by the use of offshore companies, front men, free trade zones, manipulated auctions and private sales. While secrecy may be exploited legally to avoid publicity, limit legal exposure or ease operations across borders, it can also be employed for nefarious purposes, such as evading taxes and hiding shady ownership histories.

The work at the center of the controversy, by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, is known as "Seated Man with a Cane." Amedeo Modigliani’s Seated Man With a Cane is the subject of a court battle between a New York gallery and the heir of an art dealer forced to flee from the Nazis during the second world war. Modigliani was a bohemian young, alcoholic and died because of tuberculosis a century ago, probably he never thought that his painting would sell today for more than $170 million.

The so-called Panama Papers — the leak of 11.5 million files from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca — have given us a deep look into the many ways offshore shell companies are used to conceal the ownership of art. Leaked initially to Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, the documents have been pored over by a consortium of journalistic outlets, which released a series of articles, several about the art market.

The documents reveal the surprising extent of art ownership behind such veils. At this point, though, the papers have not established the degree to which these strategies are being used, as some suspect, to manipulate markets, evade taxes or launder money.