‘Heist’ the sail
Countess sues art dealer
A cash-strapped countess is suing a British art dealer, saying he shortchanged her by millions of dollars on the sale of a painting by Dutch marine master Willem van de Velde.
Lesley Joan Viscountess Hambleden and her late husband William Herbert Smith — the Fourth Viscount Hambleden — asked former Sotheby’s specialist Timothy Sammons to sell “The English Royal Yacht Mary About to Fire a Salute” in 2012.
The couple was facing money trouble and the Viscount Hambleden was dying of cancer.
Lord Hambleden — who’d already unloaded the family’s Bucking- hamshire estate that was the scene for the children’s film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” — entrusted the 1660 oilon-canvas to Sammons “with whom he’d had years of dealings,” according to court papers.
Sammons advanced her unspecified sums from the future sale of the work, but claimed through the end of 2013 that he still had the painting, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
She was shocked to learn in 2014 that Sammons had sold the painting to a Liechtenstein gallery for the “egregiously low price” of $650,000, her suit says.
Lady Hambleden, who lives in Washington state, discovered the alleged secret sale when she found out that the painting was listed in the Netherlands for $6 million to $9 million.
A UK-based attorney for Sammons did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.