ARRS, a studio for research and restoration of paintings, claims € 38,260.63 from an owner of three portrait paintings by Caspar Netscher. This amount would be due according to a contract for the restoration of the paintings and its custody.
Recently, the District Court of Amsterdam ruled that the restoration activities had already been completed, however a storage fee of €1 a day per painting was still owed for safekeeping the artworks, based on the Dutch civil code.
According to the Court, the storage took place in a conditioned room where the objects were also insured. “Since it concerns the storage of potentially valuable art objects, the defendant could not assume that this would be free of charge.” The fact that ARRS mediated in the sale of the portraits does not alter this: “the fact that ARRS thus had an interest in storing the portraits under its own management, as the defendant argued, does not release the defendant from its obligation to pay the storage fee.”
Read the full judgment here.
Bergh Stoop & Sanders Advocaten specialises in art law and has extensive experience with disputes concerning the restoration, appraisal, sale, auction and restitution of works of art. For questions and more information, please contact Gert-Jan van den Bergh, Martha Visser en Auke van Hoek.
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