Wednesday, January 20, 1999
Dealer pleads guilty in art case
He kept money belonging to city schools
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Terrace Park art dealer David Bowen admitted Tuesday he pocketed about $9,900 from the sale of paintings originally purchased with pennies and nickels donated by Cincin nati schoolchildren.
His guilty plea to one count of mail fraud — for mailing the diminished proceeds to the school board — came in U.S. District Court.
After Tuesday's appearance, neither Mr. Bowen nor attorney John L. O'Shea would comment.
Mr. Bowen said that would have to wait until after Judge Herman J. Weber sentences him April 16.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mr. Bowen, 57, will be eligible for probation. Meanwhile, he is free on his promise to return to court.
In the early 1990s, Cincinnati Public Schools had an extensive Museum Collection, managed by an advisory board, which at times included Mr. Bowen.
He works from his home, specializing in 19th- and 20th-century artists with Cincinnati ties.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John DiPuccio said the advisory board authorized Mr. Bowen to sell certain paintings, but he was not to receive the traditional dealer's commission.
In 1994, Mr. Bowen sold eight paintings and mailed a $5,700 check to Cincinnati School Board President Vir ginia Griffin.
Sales were indisputably higher, but the actual amount is in dispute, Mr. DiPuccio said.
So are Mr. Bowen's assertions that he was not on the advisory board when he sold the paintings and that he used some of the money he held back to repair works in the collection.
Regardless of the truth of those claims, Mr. DiPuccio said, “there never was an agreement to pay him any money.”
Both sides had reason to pursue Tuesday's plea bargain:
• Mr. DiPuccio saved taxpayers the expense of a trial, but won a guilty plea to the charge with the harshest potential sentence.
• Mr. Bowen won the government's promise to drop three remaining charges in the indictment and to calculate the loss to enhance his chances of probation.
Initially, Mr. Bowen was suspected of keeping more than $25,000.
However, about half of that amount involved the resale of one painting, “Low Tide, St. Ives” by Dixie Selden.
The original buyer told Mr. Bowen he didn't like it, and it was sold again. Whether proceeds — and commission — from that later sale belonged to the schools or to the initial buyer was unclear, Mr. DiPuccio said.
The case began in 1994 after another local art dealer saw the Selden painting in a Cincinnati home and notified school officials. They called police, who brought their suspicions to the FBI.
Regardless of Mr. Bowen's sentence, Judge Weber can order restitution to the school board.
The paintings largely were purchased with students' money. Eventually, the Museum Collection was valued at more than $1 million and housed at the Museum Center at Union Terminal.
The eight paintings Mr. Bowen sold for the board remain the property of their buyers.
Of the remaining 92 paintings, 32 are exhibited in a hallway at the Museum Center and 60 are stored in a nearby room.
“We have conducted an inventory of the collection, and all the works we are supposed to have are here,” Museum Center spokeswoman Meg Olberding said.
Mrs. Griffin, still on the school board and crusading for the collection's preservation, said a permanent home is being sought for the paintings and prints.
“We're working on a plan that we hope to announce soon,” she said.
Enquirer reporter Owen Findsen contributed to this report.
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