Art Dealers

In her L.A. gallery's cluttered office, Sue Spaid is hunkered over the telephone with the editor of a magazine of art world gossip. She's raving about the turnout for her artist Carole Caroompas' show at the SoHo gallery P.P.O.W. She hints that all the truly important collectors and writers were in attendance despite competition from a reception for the more famous artist David Salle at the posh Larry Gagosian Gallery. Her remarks are impertinent, daring and typical of the upstart gallery owner.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged an Orange art dealer with selling counterfeit prints attributed to such artists as Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. A civil complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles accused Hang-Ups Art Enterprises Inc. of selling fake limited-edition prints carrying forged artists' signatures. The commission seeks an injunction to prevent further sales of the work and to refund money to customers.

A long-running lawsuit to force the Norton Simon Museum to surrender one of its prized artworks, 480-year-old paired paintings of Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder that were looted during the Holocaust, has reached what could be its last legal round: plaintiff Marei Von Saher's recent appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. If her appeal fails, it could have far-reaching implications, potentially undermining a larger class of claims to recover Nazi-looted art. Von Saher, who lives in Connecticut, contends that the "Adam and Eve" diptych that has hung in the Pasadena museum since the late 1970s remains stolen goods.

In the marketplace for antique American Indian artifacts, Mark Winter is known as a man with a Midas touch. He forged his reputation in the mid-1970s when he parlayed a small personal loan into a world-class collection of rare Navajo rugs later exhibited at museums across the nation.

Who is the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art? According to the museum it's Jeffrey Deitch, the former New York art dealer who - with virtually no prior museum experience - assumed the top job at one of America's leading institutions two years ago. But don't be so sure. Late Wednesday, MOCA dumped Paul Schimmel, its chief curator for 22 years and a prime reason for the museum's stellar international reputation. No curator working in the United States today has a more impressive record of exhibitions and acquisitions in the field of art since 1950 than Schimmel.

ART dealers seem to have an opinion about everything and a great willingness to share it. Ex-soldiers are known for reticence, especially about their military experiences. Robert Gunderman is an Army veteran and the co-owner and operator of ACME, one of Los Angeles' leading galleries of contemporary art. As a dealer, he's unusual because he won't talk your ear off when there's art to be looked at.

An organization of religious art dealers has turned to the Internet to recover 19 rare statues stolen from churches across Wisconsin this month. The National Church Goods Assn. posted a list of the icons stolen from congregations since Nov. 9 on its Web site to inform dealers to be on the lookout. The statues are generally made of cast fiberglass or plaster and are worth thousands of dollars.

The annual ArtReview Power 100 list is out and this year's ranking of the art world's most influential and powerful people features a woman in the No. 1 spot for the first time. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the curator at Documenta (13) in Germany, occupies the top slot as determined by an international jury convened by the online magazine. Last year's No. 1 was Ai Weiwei, who ranks No. 3 this year, just behind art dealer Larry Gagosian. Rounding out the top five are art dealers Iwan Wirth at No. 4 and David Zwirner at No. 5. ArtReview said Christov-Bakargiev was chosen for the No. 1 spot because of "her influential and globally ambitious" Documenta exhibition, which this year extended to Kabul, Afghanistan; Banff, Canada, and venues in Egypt.

Knowledge is the best protection against the purchase of dubious limited-edition prints, art experts agree. "You can't expect to avoid these delicate situations if you purchase a work of art in a blind or naive way," said Victor Carlson, senior curator of prints and drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Know what you're doing," said the Art Dealers Assn. of America's Gilbert S. Edelson. "It's like buying a house or a car: You have to do your homework.