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Mar. 2--Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art and the estate of bankrupt commodities and futures brokerage Refco Inc. have settled their dispute over ownership of a prized photographic print, with the MCA to receive 10 percent of the total proceeds from an auction of the work.
In New York, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the Refco case on Tuesday approved the planned sale of Refco's stellar contemporary photography collection by the Christie's auction house in New York.
A Christie's spokesman said the sale of the more than 500 photographs will be spread over three dates--April 25, and May 5 and 10--and is expected to fetch more than $5 million.
The MCA had claimed a 10 percent interest in a supersize print of Andreas Gursky's "Avenue of the Americas." As previously reported, the print was sold to Refco in 2002 at a below-market price of about $150,000 on the condition that Refco immediately give the museum a 10 percent interest in the work and then donate the remaining stake by Dec. 31, 2007.
Christie's described the print as a highlight of the collection and estimated its value at $250,000 to $350,000, not including the buyer's commission.
MCA director Robert Fitzpatrick said Wednesday that he would have preferred that the museum's right to the print had been established, but the cost of continuing a legal fight was prohibitive.
He said he is still hopeful the work will enter the collection. With financial help from a museum trustee he declined to identify, the MCA will bid for the print at Christie's.
Should the print go to another buyer, the MCA would receive 10 percent of its total sale proceeds. That total would include the final bid price and the 6 percent consignment fee paid by Christie's to the Refco estate.
Refco was a trading powerhouse before its spectacular collapse last October. The collection had been divided between offices in Chicago, the firm's original home, and its current headquarters in New York.
The collection is heavily weighted toward conceptual works. Most of the major names in contemporary photography are represented. Among them are Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, Chris Burden, John Baldessari and Gregory Crewdson.
cstorch@tribune.com
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