– Secrets of the Balthus Fund loan revealed
We were able to browse the document which regulates the provision of the Balthus Fund by the widow and daughter of the artist to the MCBA. Account of a supervised consultation.
Published today at 7:28 a.m.
It was after Balthus’ death that the Polaroids were found in his studio.
Arnold Burgherr
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Invoking the law on transparency (LInfo), we asked to know the terms of the loan contract which binds the Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne (MCBA) to the lenders of the Balthus Fund, Setsuko and Harumi Klossowska de Rola.
The director of the MCBA, Juri Steiner, did not want to grant our request, on the grounds that disclosing such a document could discourage people or private institutions wishing to lend works. “The lenders consider that the transmission of these documents would be an attack on their private sphere (in particular with regard to any question relating to the valuation of their assets, which an analysis of the documents would allow), he added in his response. They could, however, agree to show them to you […]»
Redacted values
Setsuko and Harumi Klossowska from Rola agreed to let us view the contract, under certain conditions. Please note: that only the undersigned journalist browses the document in the MCBA library, that she does not make any copies or captures, and that a person present ensures that this instruction is respected. Finally, all insurance values of the paintings, sketches and drawings of the Balthus Fund have been redacted beforehand.
Consultation of the contract shows that the Balthus Fund is active. Pieces are added, others leave and end up on the art market after taking advantage of museum conditions of conservation and valorization.
The contract further stipulates that the museum “undertakes to preserve, develop and analyze, as well as to make known and allow access to researchers of all works, archives and documents […]”. The State also undertakes to “make available the financing necessary to carry out the commitments provided for in this contract”, “to dedicate a temporary exhibition to the Balthus Fund during the first years of activity on the Plateforme 10 site” and to insure “the works and archives at its own expense”.
The contract states that in exchange, Countess Klossowska de Rola “undertakes to invite Balthus’ first two children to also deposit the artist’s works of which they are owners at the MCBA” and will do the same with “all other owners that she might have to meet.
In 2019, new pieces were added, including polaroids. The following year, in 2020, new disparate elements were still added to the Balthus Fund. The list is long: magazines, press articles, letters from admirers, bank documents, medical files, contracts, correspondence (notably with Jacques Chirac), photo albums.
Polaroid Removal
In 2020, an amendment to the 2016 contract is signed by the lenders and the borrower. In article 7 of this document, it is added that depositors “may at any time (subject to public exhibitions) withdraw one or more pieces for the purposes of sale or donation, by announcing it two working days in advance. In the initial contract, this clarification did not exist. This clause notably facilitates the sale of pieces from the Balthus Fund.
In a letter accompanying the 2021 contract, Setsuko Klossowska de Rola indicates that she has had a work by Balthus removed. “We entrusted this painting to the Gagosian gallery for a year,” writes the widow. The painting in question is called “Study for the Last Painting II.” It was produced between 2000 and 2001, from polaroids of Anna and her doubles. It was part of unfinished paintings presented in 2018 on the MCBA construction site during the “Balthus Unfinished” exhibition.
Finally, a final amendment to the contract shows that the lenders took, in 2022, around twenty pieces, 20 Polaroids of Anna from the 90s. It is not specified for what purposes these images were withdrawn from the Balthus Fund.
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