Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
I’ve left stuff in taxis before. So have a lot of people I know, from wallets to umbrellas to phones. But I think if I were in a cab with a million-dollar painting, I wouldn’t let it out of my sight. But one Miami rideshare driver has recently returned one such painting after driving off with it still in their trunk.
On December 3rd, Rodrigo Salomon curated a booth at Art Miami for Dmitri Shchukin, managing director of Gallery Shchukin. Among the works they were handling was a relatively small Madonna & Child painting that they claim is by the Spanish Baroque master Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. A contemporary of Diego Velázquez, Murillo is mainly known for his religious paintings, which have sold for millions at auction. This Madonna is allegedly worth $500K to $1 million if it is, in fact, by Murillo. Salomon and his wife were taking a Lyft to the Westover Arms Hotel in Miami Beach, where Salomon would hand it over to its buyer, who was also there to discuss other matters regarding the painting. Salomon put the painting in the trunk of the car. Distracted by a phone call, Salomon got out of the vehicle, and the driver left. After failing to retrieve the painting from the driver, Salomon and Shchukin have since filed a police report, contacted the FBI, and had their lawyer contact a private detective. They also plan on taking legal action against the driver and the company Lyft, even going so far as to call for a boycott of the ridesharing service.
I’m not sure if the alleged negligence of a single driver (or possibly the patron) is enough to justify a total boycott. There seem to be insufficient details to get the full story, though. The information we do have, and the information we don’t, raise some significant red flags. I’m not doubting Salomon, but the more information, the better. The first red flag is how the driver sped off the moment Salomon left the car. I’ve taken my fair share of taxis and Ubers and Lyfts. None of them immediately sped off when I closed the door. If it’s a driver for a ridesharing app, they get on their phone and look for a new fare. The second red flag is why was the Murillo in the trunk of all places? It’s not your suitcase full of laundry. It’s a small painting, so even when wrapped, it could easily fit on someone’s lap, especially when it’s allegedly worth at least half a million dollars.
The third red flag is the discussion topics between Salomon and the buyer, one of which was the details of the work’s authentication. The buyer had reportedly contacted an expert from Spain to do this. This might just be the buyer taking extra precautions, but it somewhat implies that the work had not been authenticated yet. Why would you sell or buy a work that has not been properly authenticated? Why would you positively attribute it to a Spanish Baroque master like Murillo without consulting the specialists familiar with his work? I understand that not everyone who buys or sells art is a connoisseur, but these are the bare basics you must do before doing anything with a painting. It’s just basic due diligence, not only to protect the buyer should they spend enormous amounts of money on something that might be incorrectly attributed, but it also protects the seller in case any future buyer brings legal action against them.
The fourth and final red flag is this: even if it’s a genuine Murillo, an estimate range of $500K to $1 million seems rather steep. The painting is relatively small, measuring only 17 by 14 inches. Murillo works of greater size and greater aesthetic quality have sold for far less at auction. In fact, only around twenty paintings by Murillo have sold for as much as Salomon and Shchukin’s valuation. The peak of Murillo’s popularity among collectors seems to have been between the late 1980s and early 2000s. Those pieces were almost all large canvases, meant as altarpieces or full-sized portraits of saints. Unless the Madonna’s material quality is immaculate (pun intended) or there’s some famous name in the provenance, who knows if that price is entirely justified?
The alleged Murillo has since been returned after tracking down the Lyft driver. It is completely unharmed, with its packaging undisturbed. Salomon implied without any evidence that the driver wanted to keep the painting and was trying to wait out Lyft’s 30-day lost-and-found policy. Despite the painting being returned, Salomon is still talking about a possible lawsuit against Lyft for not being of any help. “A class action suit would be adequate.”