The parties in the Miró sale process continue to fail, making no headway with the decree by the Portuguese Prime Minister to dispose of the art collection.
Christie’s auction house in London has postponed the auction again as it waits for the resolution of legal and commercial issues brought about by Portugal’s inability to prepare the legal groundwork that would have enabled the sale to take place without being subject to a petition, injunctions and widespread complaints within the country's arts community.
State company Parvalorem’s president Franciso Nogueira Leite said today that there is no reason for the auction house to expect damages from the Portuguese taxpayer for the delays and the costs incurred in twice promoting the sale, and twice having to pull the rug.
"Christie's expects to reschedule the sale of the collection of 85 works of art by Joan Miró once the legal and commercial issues surrounding the collection are resolved," writes Parvalorem in a statement that naturally fails to hint at his part in this failure.
The president of Parvalorem, the company which owns the collection on behalf of the taxpayer, explained that he was still waiting for the legal issues to be resolved and could offer no auction date "It depends on a judicial decision and that is why the statement refers to legal and business issues."
The first postponement of the auction was in February following an injunction. The latest postponement by Christie's follows a third injunction to prevent the collection leaving the country as the correct administrative process was not followed by Parvalorem, a serious error and one for which no person has taken the blame and for which Nogueira Leite at least might think to apologise, and at best to resign.
Parvalorem has called for the lifting of the provisional export ban ordered by the Lisbon Administrative Court which prevented the departure of the Miró works in April - not exactly an example of the incisive management skills expected from the holder of the nation's public assets.
The government has yet to release details of the contract with Christie’s which many opposition MPs suspect is one-sided and will not lead to best value for the taxpayer. If this contract is seen also to be faulty, Nogueira Leite may be spending more time with his family sooner than he expected.
