Our client is a trustee who is in possession of two paintings by an artist who was convicted of terrible crimes. An auction house has confirmed in a desktop valuation that they are worthless. None of the beneficiaries have any interest in them, unsurprisingly.
We have considered that the trustee might try to sell the paintings purely as objects, without reference to the artist. They are themselves inoffensive. But, this raises some ethical concerns.
Other than that, what options are available to the trustee? For example, can the beneficiaries consent to their destruction, indemnifying the trustee by deed? The trustee is in contact with a number of living potential beneficiaries, but the specified class includes the remoter issue of the settlors and is therefore not fully ascertainable.
If the trust allows, could the paintings be appointed to one of the beneficiaries who would then undertake the destruction? Or perhaps to all of the known beneficiaries in equal shares, who can then together consent to the destruction?
It does give cause to consider whether the art should be separated from the artist, but saying that, I do not think I would wish to have a Rolf artwork, for example, hanging on my wall!
It seems that Harris’ paintings have some artistic merit and have a value despite what the artist did.
Conversely it seems that Hitler’s paintings have no artistic merit but have a value because of what the artist did.
Eric Gill’s works still have value despite his diary entries.
And paintings by a murderer (Caravaggio) don’t appear to be worth less than otherwise because of his crime and might be worth more because of it..
I don’t think that the trustees have tried hard enough. They should approach more than one auction house and try other ways of sale such as hawking the works around antique dealers and the likes of E Bay.
Just send them to auction being totally upfront about the artist’s identity. There’s no doubt someone will buy them, and merely because the artist is a convicted criminal doesn’t raise any ethical concerns as far as you’re concerned, as the artist won’t benefit from the sale.