Lawsuit Over Tiffany Lighting Fixture Stolen From Broadway Theater

Pretty crazy, and it involves Lillian Nassau in NY.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marche...e-over-belasco-lighting-fixture/#f8a6a9c4b7d2

 

I aint gonna subscribe or turn off adblock

 

Odd - I went straight to the article......no request to subscribe and I am running an adblocker

I do read Forbes occasionally, so maybe they just "know" me.................

 

The battle over Broadway’s second-most famous chandelier continues.

Last November, the Shubert Organization sued to recover a lighting fixture that might have been stolen from its Belasco Theatre 41 years ago. The pendant light resurfaced at an antiques gallery over the summer, and the theater chain sought an order and judgment to “return this piece of Broadway history to its rightful owner, for the benefit not only of Shubert but of the Broadway and theater-going community at large.”

However, the Shubert Organization might no longer be its rightful owner, even if it is determined to be the purloined property.

Fearing that he would lose his lease on another theater, producer David Belasco teamed up with campaign button salesman Meyer R. Bimberg to build the Belasco Theatre for $750,000 in 1907. It was praised as the most sophisticated theater of its time, and its interior was designed to look like a living room.

According to architectural historian Janet Adams Strong in a government report, Belasco “consciously attempted its domestication with a warm color scheme, intimate spaces and especially with light diffused through stained and leaded glass fixtures on the walls and ceiling of the auditorium.” He commissioned the famed lighting fixtures from Tiffany Studios.

But, on February 28, 1976, thieves broke into the Belasco Theatre, and swiped five of the lighting fixtures.

Shubert officials reported the theft to its insurance carrier and the New York City Police Department. None of the lighting fixtures were ever found, and the theater owners hired an expert to produce replicas of the stolen pieces.

Last June, however, the Shubert Organization received an unexpected call from Lillian Nassau, one of the leading dealers of antiques from Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios. One of its clients, Vilma Partridge, had consigned a pendant light that looked like the lighting fixtures stolen from the Belasco Theatre four decades ago.

Representatives from the Shubert Organization rushed to inspect the item, and came to the conclusion that it was one of the long-lost lighting fixtures. “[A]ll aspects of the Fixture were identical to the original Tiffany Studios lighting fixtures of equivalent size still at the theater,” said the expert who had been hired earlier to replicate the pendant lights.

The Shubert Organization urged Lillian Nassau to help arrange for the return of the lighting fixture. Since New York law is clear that thieves cannot transfer a valid legal interest in stolen items, Partridge never acquired a valid legal interest in the lighting fixture. The pendant light remains property of the Shubert Organization.

Anxious to avoid the costs of a lawsuit that it was confident of winning, the Shubert Organization offered Partridge an undisclosed amount for the lighting fixture.

David P. McCarron, an appraiser and auctioneer of fine and decorative arts, estimates that the pendant light could fetch anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 at auction, and sell for about $200,000 to $300,000 at retail.

“The real value,” he explained, “is in the set of five.” Selling the pendant light as a set with the other stolen lighting fixtures would “easily push it into the seven figures,” McCarron said.

Lillian Nassau forwarded the confidential settlement offer to Partridge. But, she immediately cancelled the consignment, forcing the antiques dealer to give her back the lighting fixture.

Partridge refused to give up the lighting fixture, insisting that she purchased it at an auction house during the late 1970’s. “The auction house had lawful title of the fixture at the time that it was purchased,” she claims, and it “conveyed such lawful title to [her] at that time.”

Unable to settle the dispute, the Shubert Organization filed a lawsuit asking the court for both an order and judgment directing Partridge to return the lighting fixture. The theater chain wants the judge to confirm that it is the rightful owner of the lighting fixture, and it is entitled to its immediate possession.

In a twist worthy of a classic stage drama, the Shubert Organization might not have a valid legal interest in the lighting fixture either. The real owner, depending upon the terms of the insurance policy, might be the insurance carrier.

When the theater chain reported the theft to its insurance carrier, it might have submitted an insurance claim, and received a payment based upon the last appraised value of the lost lighting fixtures. But, in exchange for the insurance claim payment, it might have needed to trade its title to the stolen items in the event that they were ever recovered. The insurance carrier would have “subrogated” or taken over its valid legal interest in the pendant lights.

The disputed fixture continues to generate more heat than light.

 

And once again, the insurance company makes out and the littler guy...not so much.

 

I would be surprised if the insurance company is not the legal successor in title, assuming some amount was paid at the time of the loss.

I really cannot see any little guys here. Except possibly the millions of shareholders and policy holders in the insurance company, or just the policy holders if it is a mutual insurance company.

 

I said "littler"; I don't see any real small fish in this scenario either. Anyone who could afford a Tiffany lamp, even in the 70s, has more money than they need.

 

Was disappointed to not find a picture of the light in question. A little sleuthing turned this up.....



Kind of ugly for Tiffany IMHO.

 

Not what I was picturing at all.

 

I agree - Not their best work in my opinion.........................

 

My first thought was 'What an ugly brute'

 

they stole it in 76
& it was auctioned in the late 70's......

i'm seeing a problem of receiving stolen goods.......
you would think that only a couple of years after the theft....any auctions house would not have touched it with a 10 foot ...lighting fixture..!

 

Hi,
I had a friend who purchased a large vase from an antique dealer. It belonged to the insurance company since it was stolen and they paid for the item. It was recovered three years after the robbery. The person it was stolen from sued my friend for the recovery of the vase. It went to court and the Pennsylvania court said that the insurance company owned the vase after it paid for it. My friend offered the vase to the original owner for three times what he paid for it. The original owner declined.
greg

 

Partridge's inactions in the face of an easy and financially-sound way of getting this off her back were imo, simply bird-brained.