Examination of Witnesses (Questions 540
- 546)
TUESDAY 23 MAY 2000
MR EDWARD
DOLMAN, MR
SIMON TAYLOR,
MR CHRISTOPHER
ELWES AND
MR PAUL
WHITFIELD
540. That is what I ask you.
(Mr Dolman) There are cases in divorce
where one or other party would demand to know who was selling
this particular item for sale, and we would follow that through
ourselves to check whether or not it was correct, in that instance,
to do anything about that sale, but we would not immediately,
if someone came to us saying, "Is my husband selling that?",
answer the question.
541. So, in fact, the request would have to
be well-founded before you dealt with it, despite what you are
saying?
(Mr Taylor) I think that Mr Dolman has done a very
good job in answering the question, but every case—
542. I think he has done a very good job in
dodging the question.
(Mr Taylor) Every case is taken on its own merits,
so there cannot be any hard and fast rules. Again, to repeat,
we have no interest in selling stolen or smuggled art, so any
request that alerts us to the fact that an item may be stolen
or smuggled will make us double our efforts internally to check
the provenance, go back to the owner and, perhaps, ask more questions,
without necessarily immediately passing on information to whoever
asked that question. It will stimulate internal Due Diligence.
543. It will stimulate it?
(Mr Taylor) It certainly will.
(Mr Dolman) Certainly, as we said earlier, if the
police, or the tax authorities, or a court ask for our records,
we produce them immediately.
544. If it is an authority that asks to look
at your records, it is done immediately. Is that what "well-founded
request" means?
(Mr Taylor) Neither of us are company lawyers. If
you would like a legal response we can certainly provide a written
submission afterwards.
(Mr Dolman) I can assure you that if an individual
expressed concerns about the good title of what we were selling,
we would internally follow that up, because it would not be in
our interest to go ahead with a sale that could potentially expose
us to underhand activity or trading in stolen objects.
Ms Ward
545. Can I just clarify something on that? Do
you mean an individual or an agency in this country, or do you
mean internationally?
(Mr Dolman) I think internationally we will respond
to it as well, as we did in Hong Kong recently.
546. Including Italian authorities or police
who would show an interest, perhaps, or some suspicion of an object?
(Mr Dolman) Absolutely. When General Conforti contacts
Christie's, we take it very seriously indeed.
Chairman: Gentlemen, thank you very much.
We have had a very illuminating morning. Thank you.
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