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Minor Sale

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

Bloomberg's Katya Kazakina and Lindsay Pollock report that a sale last night at Phillips of works from the collection of Halsey Minor "raised $21.1 million to pay his creditors": "Proceeds from the sale ... will go toward a $21.6 million judgment obtained in October by ML Private Finance, a Bank of America affiliate, on a delinquent loan to Minor."

In the NYT, Carol Vogel adds the interesting detail that, in order "to compete with Christie?s, which also tried to get the property for sale, Phillips agreed to give 8 percent of the buyer?s premium back to ML Private Finance, according to court papers."

Kazakina and Pollock also sum up the state of play regarding Minor's other collection (i.e., auction house-related litigation):

"Minor has existing litigation with Sotheby?s and Christie?s International. In April, Sotheby?s won a $6.6 million judgment against Minor in connection with three artworks he had purchased at auction and later refused to pay for. 'Sotheby?s has a judgment lien on any sales proceeds in excess of the amounts payable to Phillips and Merrill Lynch as a result of an order entered by the court in Merrill Lynch?s action against Mr. Minor,' said Diana Phillips, Sotheby?s spokeswoman, in an emailed statement. Minor and Christie?s remain embroiled in several lawsuits, with a jury trial underway in California this week. Minor sued Christie?s for an alleged mishandling of a consignment involving art by [Richard] Prince; Christie?s sued Minor over default on payments for $13 million worth of art bought at auction."

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).