BY MARK SKERTIC
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The FBI investigation into art sold from the Cincinnati Public Schools' Museum Collection focuses on a painting by artist Dixie Selden that was sold for $1,800 in 1994 and resold soon after for about $10,000.

Sources familiar with the investigation confirmed that the sale and subsequent resale of "Low Tide, St. Ives" ignited the probe. Cincinnati police began the investigation then turned it over to the FBI earlier this year.

David Bowen, an art consultant who brokered the sale of the Selden work and seven others, confirmed Tuesday he has received a subpoena in connection with a federal grand jury investigation. Also subpoenaed were the records of longtime school board member Virginia Griffin, plus files of other school district employees.

Mr. Bowen declined to discuss specifics of the investigation, but said he got the best prices he could for the works, which he sold in 1994 and 1995. If a painting commanded a higher price later, it is because a buyer was convinced that's what the art was worth, he said Tuesday.

Mr. Bowen, who is not a member of the district's art advisory committee and was not a member of that committee at the time of the sales, said he did not profit from the subsequent resale of the Selden. "The art market ebbs and flows, just like the stock market or the economy," he said. "It's not always constant, and it doesn't increase 10 percent a year."

The items sold were among 18 identified by the Cincinnati Board of Education's art advisory committee as works in its Museum Collection that should be sold or traded. Mr. Bowen handled the sale of several of those works, eventually selling eight to various buyers for $5,700.

The sale of the Selden became the focus of the inquiry when it was spotted in a residence by someone familiar with the district's art collection. That individual contacted then-school board President John Muething, who requested an investigation.

The subpoenas, issued last month, order Mrs. Griffin, the district's treasurer and school board administrative assistant, to bring "records, reports, receipts, contracts, agreements, letters, notes and correspondence pertaining to the Art Advisory Council, the Cincinnati Public School's art collection and David Bowen."

Griffin's files taken

"I'm not going to be there, but they've cleaned out my office," Mrs. Griffin said Tuesday night.

CPS legal counsel John Concannon has said that no district employees are accused of wrongdoing and that the district is cooperating with investigators.

Mrs. Griffin, a member of the school board since 1969, is a former gallery owner who rallied support in the 1970s and '80s to save school artwork. She helped secure the grants and donations needed to preserve and conduct extensive repairs on the pieces, many of which were discovered neglected in school attics, boiler rooms or closets.

Ninety pieces constitute the district's Museum Collection, which concentrates on the works of Cincinnati artists from the early 19th through the mid-20th century. It has been appraised at more than $1 million.

In 1994, the art advisory committee recommended selling or trading some pieces that were described as overrepresentative of some artists, poor examples of their work, in poor condition or outside the collection's scope.

Several of those works sold for prices less than they had been appraised at from 1989 through 1991. For example, the Selden was appraised at $6,000 in 1989 and $7,000 two years later. A work by local artist Paul Ashbrook called "Washday in Mexico" was appraised at $1,500 in 1990, but brought $700 when sold in 1995.

Is disparity unusual?

The disparity in prices may not be unusual, said Bernard Ewell, a Colorado Springs, Colo., art appraiser who has served as a government witness in state and federal investigations into art fraud.

Three works by Selden (1870-1935) not attached to the Museum Collection brought between $1,045 and $2,310 at an auction in 1995. Regional tastes, trends and the desire to appraise art at its replacement value can affect the price attached to a work, he said. The kind of scrutiny the CPS art deals are receiving is not uncommon when public agencies are disposing of part of their collection, he said.

Mr. Bowen said the art advisory committee decided to go with private sales because they thought that would fetch the highest prices.

It might have been more prudent to hold a public auction, Mr. Ewell suggested. "It's obviously very touchy because it is a private collection, because it's owned by such a vast constituency," he said. "The best way to do it is in some very open, very competitive process."

ART COLLECTION KEPT IN HALLWAY

Previous stories

SCHOOL REDRAWS RULES ON ART SALE July 1, 1997
FBI LOOKS AT SCHOOL ART DEALS June 29, 1997