By BERNARD ORSMAN
Secrecy surrounds the insurance claim on the French masterpiece Still on Top by James Tissot, worth as much as $7.5 million before it was butchered in a daring shotgun raid.
Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines and Royal & SunAlliance are refusing to discuss negotiations about the insurance claim on one of the country's most valuable paintings.
The 1874 work by the French-born painter was insured for $2 million before it was stolen in August 1998.
Gallery staff have since put a market value of $US3 million ($7.5 million) on the work.
Mr Saines said there was no dispute that the Auckland City Council's insurers, Royal & SunAlliance, would pay the $125,000 cost of repairs to the torn canvas, which is still undergoing painstaking restoration work.
But Mr Saines would not say if the gallery was also claiming for part or all of the loss in value caused to the painting when career criminal Anthony Sannd jemmied it from its frame, rolled it up and fled on a motorcycle.
Sannd was jailed for 16 years and nine months for the daylight robbery.
"The only comment I wish to make is we are in ongoing discussions with the insurer to settle what is undoubtedly a complex matter," Mr Saines said.
"They are discussions occurring without acrimony or animosity - perfectly normal business discussions."
Mr Saines, council lawyers and representatives of Royal & SunAlliance were due to meet in August to try to resolve the claim. The meeting was postponed until next month for personal reasons.
Roy Duffy, of Royal & SunAlliance, also refused to comment on the claim, except to say it could not be completed until the painting had been fully repaired.
At Sannd's trial, the High Court at Auckland was told the damage would probably halve the painting's value.
Still on Top is a fine example of Tissot's love of painting women's costumes and witty observations of social behaviour.
For many years after his death in 1902, Tissot was considered a vulgar artist, but there has been a huge surge of interest in his work, expressed in sale-room prices of up to $10 million.
Painting claim stays a secret
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