Arts firm acts to restore reputation

The Christchurch fine arts company at the centre of a row over paintings altered after they were sent in for restoration has accepted its systems failed.

Fishers Fine Arts managing director John Fisher told the Herald yesterday that a trainee restorer employed by the company botched three jobs two years ago as he had been working outside his mandate.

He had since left the company and was effectively sacked, Mr Fisher said.

In one painting, The Hunting Season, by 19th-century English painter G.D. Rowlandson, a rider's headwear was changed from a top hat to a riding cap.

An 1899 watercolour called Mt Earnslaw, Head of Lake Wakatipu, was returned with a herd of cows missing.

The owners, who are brothers, believed both paintings, which had been in their family for more than 100 years, had lost about half their monetary value.

A third painting, belonging to another owner, was reportedly returned by Fishers in a state so different that some doubted it was the same artwork.

Mr Fisher said the first two paintings had both finally been fully restored after the mistakes were discovered, and he did not believe their auction value would have fallen. The third painting could not be saved and the owner was compensated.

"We did our utmost to sort out each case."

He was upset at the mistakes made by the restorer who was training at the time and took on jobs he was not supposed to touch. "He made a mess of it and kept it quiet."

Mr Fisher accepted that reflected badly on the internal systems of his company.

He had been appalled to learn from the owner of the Mt Earnslaw painting of the botch-up.

"I then restored the painting to its former glory myself."

Compensation was paid and the gallery offered to buy the work for $25,000, which was $7000 more than the painting had been valued before the first restoration attempt.

"He hasn't accepted that. He's been asked 'what else can we do'."

The work had been independently assessed by a professional and had scored top marks.

Mr Fisher said that when a painting came in for restoration it was because work was necessary to save it, but there was always an element of risk.

"We've been in business since 1870 - 136 years - every business has its odd hiccup."

Fisher Fine Arts began in Christchurch in 1870 and now has galleries in Wellington and Auckland.

The Fisher family had emigrated from England where it used to do restoration work at Windsor Castle.

Mr Fisher said the company's restoration work was now contracted out to Auckland professionals.

He believed the recent publicity was prompted by reporter Josie McNaught's coverage on TVNZ's arts programme Frontseat about the involvement of Fishers Online in the sale of a drawing considered to have been a fake Goldie.

Mr Fisher said it had since been proven the drawing was genuine.