Robbery slashes painting's value

By Tony Wall and Tony Stickley

The masterpiece Still On Top by James Tissot could have fetched at least three times its $2 million insured value on an international market crying out for works by the French-born painter.

Instead the 124-year-old canvas - taken in a daring shotgun raid last August - sits battered and torn in a storage area while the Auckland Art Gallery and its insurance company debate its value and the cost of restoration.

The High Court at Auckland was told that the painting, stolen and damaged by Anthony Sannd, was insured for $2 million.

But Still On Top could have fetched $6 million at auction overseas.

Detective Constable Craig Irons of the Auckland police said gallery staff had valued the painting at $US3 million ($6 million) after extensive research.

The estimated cost of repairs to the torn canvas, including replacing missing pieces, was $125,000. The damage would probably halve the picture's value.

The Mayer International Auction Records show that 55 paintings by Tissot have fetched almost $56 million since 1990. One, Le banc de jardin, went for a record $9.6 million in New York in 1994.

The director of the Auckland Art Gallery, Chris Saines, confirmed that Still On Top was worth more than $2 million, but would not estimate its value.

He said a related work, Preparing for the Gala, sold at auction in the United States in 1996 for considerably more than $2 million.

He denied that there was any dispute with Royal SunAlliance over the insurance claim, but confirmed that restoration could not begin until the matter was settled.

"We're working through things cautiously and carefully ... It's an expensive and complex case - they want to get it right, and so do we."

He hoped to have Still On Top back on display next year.

"There will be certain parts of the picture which clearly can never be original because there are missing pieces of canvas. But what we will be able to do is bring the work back to a point where it will be of high display quality."

Roy Duffy, of Royal SunAlliance, said the company had accepted the claim on the Tissot, and the only thing left to decide was how much would be paid out. The company is understood to have paid out all or part of a $50,000 reward it offered for the painting's return.