After all the fuss and print-space given to the coalition government’s allegedly unseemly haste to put 84 paintings and one sculpture by Spanish artist Joan Miró up for auction in London, it appears there is no date in sight for the sale that was hoped to raise as much as €40 million.
The hoped-for proceeds were designed to make up for the State’s catastrophic losses over the collapse of BPN bank.
As newspapers have described, the bank bought the paintings at vastly inflated prices, and they went on to cost a small fortune in storage costs and insurance payments.
The government’s plan to sell the works, all at once – in an act that critics claimed would have flooded the art market – rapidly began unravelling the minute it was announced that the hoard had been “illegally shipped” to Christie’s auction house in January last year.
A subsequent criminal investigation has been opened, which Diário Económico claimed would put multiple State entities, secretary of state for Culture Jorge Xavier Barreto, the Finance Ministry and Christie’s auction house all under the spotlight.
But today, months since DIAP is understood to have launched its inquiry, there are no defendants – and more to the point, nothing seems to be happening with the Miró’s.
National tabloid Correio da Manhã claims it has been in touch with Christie’s which has informed them: “We don’t have any information,” while the President of Parvalorem – the State company in charge of BPN ‘assets’ – has confirmed that no sale can go ahead while the criminal investigation is still in place.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
