Gallery owner alleges major US Western art sale defamed him
RENO, Nev. (AP) — With Western American art long dismissed as unworthy of the fine art world, few collectors would have even cared 25 years ago if an early 20th century oil painting of cowboys or Indians on the frontier was authentic or not.
Now, the owner of galleries in New Mexico and New York City is suing one of the world’s largest Western American art auctions, a Nevada gallery and others for defamation, accusing them of falsely claiming a $1 million painting he sold is a fake.
Gerald P. Peters of Santa Fe seeks unspecified damages from Peter Stremmel Galleries of Reno, the Coeur D’Alene Art Auction of Nevada and auction partner Mark Overby of Hayden, Idaho. The defendants’ lawyers say the claims have no legal basis. They filed motions in federal court in Reno last week to dismiss the suit.
The high-society legal battle offers a glimpse into the high-stakes Western art market that’s evolved from California to Manhattan, with many millions of dollars in sales of paintings, sculptures and pottery annually.
“It wasn’t really until the late 1980s or mid- to early-1990s that a lot of art historians and museums began to start taking Western American art seriously,” said Amy Scott, chief curator of the Autry Museum of Western Art founded in Los Angeles in 1988.
The lawsuit centers on “The Rain and the Sun,” which Peters says is the work of Iowa-born Frank Tenney Johnson (18741939), a one-time illustrator for Field and Stream magazine who became famous for his oil paintings of nighttime frontier scenes.
Peters sold it years ago for $750,000 as part of a trade with other artwork to R.D. Hubbard, a wellknown Western art collector, business tycoon and horse-track owner.
Peters says he took back the painting from Hubbard last year after Stremmel, of Reno, repeatedly insisted it was a forgery.
In its current tainted state, the painting is worthless, his lawsuit says.
“Word travels quickly within this small community when a work of art is called a fake,” the suit says. “It is hard, if not impossible, to unring that bell.”
Peters should know. He was at the center of an unrelated forgery caper 30 years ago and ended up refunding $5 million to a Kansas City, Missouri, museum after a series of watercolors that were purported to be the work of Georgia O’Keefe turned out to be fakes.
In this case, he insists the work is that of Johnson, dubbed the “master of moonlight” for his nocturne paintings known for their remarkable depth and color.
Court documents don’t include an image of the painting, and Peters’ lawyers declined to describe it to The Associated Press.