Photos tied up in appraisal knot
LEIBOVITZ COLLECTION DESTINED FOR HALIFAX GALLERY FAILS CERTIFICATION
Someone — and absolutely no one involved seems ready to say who — came up with an idea in 2012 for a patron to purchase 2,070 photos by the American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz and then donate them to a museum in Halifax.
This was a colossal score for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, which owned nothing by Leibovitz at the time.
For Leibovitz, who had a financial crisis several years earlier, the transaction meant she earned several million dollars. And the donor, a Deloitte Canada partner who said he had bought the collection to honour his mother’s memory, stood to qualify for a generous tax deduction and recognition as an arts patron.
Four years later, though, a government panel that must sign off on the deduction still won’t approve it, partly because the panel will not accept a $ 20- million valuation for a collection that the donor purchased for just $4.75 million. On Wednesday, a gallery spokesman said the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board had rejected its application to certify the collection. The board concluded that the bulk of the photographs did not meet the criteria for “outstanding significance” or “national importance,” crucial for tax incentives for the family that donated the collection.
Spokesman Colin Stinson said the gallery was “extremely disappointed” and disagreed with the federal board’s decision, noting that Leibovitz is one of the most influential photographers of her time.
The collection includes a portrait of a naked and pregnant Demi Moore, a brooding Queen Elizabeth II, and the haunting photo of a naked John Lennon and Yoko Ono cuddling on a floor hours before the musician was gunned down in front of his New York apartment.
It was the gallery’s fourth attempt at certification, and officials have said it is likely their last.
Whether the photographs are ever displayed is now a decision that rests with Leibovitz.
Stinson said the gallery’s priority was to display the photography, but without the designation that decision belonged to Leibovitz.
Harley Mintz, the Deloitte Canada partner, now retired, who bought the Leibovitz material in 2013 has vigorously disputed a characterization by an adviser to the panel who referred to the financial deal as a “tax grab.”
“We were asked,” Mintz said in an email to the New York Times, “to help facilitate a major gift to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia that would provide it with a unique collection of art from one of the world’s most praised photographers and that is exactly what we did. Instead of being celebrated, it has been met with resistance, for reasons that we do not understand.”
The odyssey of Leibovitz’s collection provides a window into the process by which governments work to bolster cultural enrichment by underwriting private donations of art with tax deductions. But the process can include disputes over the national significance of the art, as well as its value, and sometimes, questions regarding whether a donor’s motives are more philanthropic or opportunistic.
Right now, the entire collection is in storage and Leibovitz has received only half of the promised $4.75 million. By contract, she does not receive the rest of the money unless the government panel signs off, according to Mintz.
Just how this ambitious, but now stalled, art initiative was born remains unclear. Leibovitz, through her gallery, declined to comment. The museum said through a spokesman that it did not come up with the idea. And Mintz said only that he was approached by “knowledge- able art- world figures” after the idea for such a gift arose.
Mintz was the second businessman to consider buying the collection for the museum. The first, Larry Rossy — founder of the discount retail chain Dollarama — dropped out in 2012 after beginning the application process for a tax shelter, according to the CBC.
Mintz, who said he was approached about the gift a few weeks later, said the opportunity attracted him because his mother had been a big fan of Leibovitz.
But why would Leibovitz accept $4.75 million for a collection that might be worth some multiple of that? That is one issue that has given Canadian officials pause, though the $ 20- million valuation is supported by three independent appraisals undertaken by the museum within days of the sale and donation.
Alan Klinkhoff, a gallery owner who has been an expert for the Canadian government, agreed that it was conceivable that the Leibovitz photographs could be fairly valued at $20 million. Leibovitz, he said, could have been motivated to accept less because she was able to sell several photographs quickly.
For t he museum, t he Leibovitz collection was supposed to be a triumph that would cement Halifax as a premiere cultural destination in Canada. Instead, it has become a headache.