In 2013, the US Attorney’s Office in Newark, New Jersey, filed an action seeking the forfeiture of a 2,000-strong collection of photographs valued at more than $15m. The works had been bought by Philip Rivkin, the owner of the Houston-based company Green Diesel, who this June pleaded guilty for his role in a massive biodiesel fraud scheme. The Attorney’s Office says the photographs were bought using the proceeds of the fraud, allegedly to launder the money. The US government has now consigned the confiscated works to Christie’s, which will sell them in a series of themed auctions in New York starting 17 February 2016.
Among the works are prize examples by 19th- and 20th-century photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Josef Sudek. A highlight from the first sale is a rare 1856-57 albumen print by Gustav Le Gray, Bateaux quittant le port du Havre (navires de la flotte de Napoléon III), which shows the French emperor’s fleet leaving port. According to media reports at the time, the work set a world record for the artist in 2011 when it was bought by a Texas oil magnate for €917,000 at the auction house Rouillac in Vendôme, outside Paris. Christie’s is offering it with an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.
Christie’s auctions will start with a special live evening sale on 17 February, as well as morning and afternoon sales the next day; online-only sales will then run through the rest of the year. Each auction will be themed around a subject, such as America the Beautiful, or focus on certain photographers. Rivkin is known to have owned a number of works by Weston, for example, so another highlight of the first sale is his Shell (1927, printed around 1930), which is signed, dated and numbered “24-50”. It carries an estimate of $250,000-$350,000.
Rivkin’s company Green Diesel billed itself as a biodiesel producer, but the Attorney’s Office says it did not generate any actual fuel. It did however sell renewable energy credits (as required under the Clean Air Act) to companies such as Shell, BP, Citgo and Exxon that turned out to be invalid, resulting in losses of more than $78m. Months after agents from the Environmental Protection Agency visited the Green Diesel facility in 2011, Rivkin and his family left the US for Spain, according to court documents. Soon after, Rivkin had his art collection moved to a warehouse in New Jersey and then New York, where it was seized before it could be shipped to Spain.
In 2014, Rivkin was expelled from Guatemala, where he had fraudulently secured citizenship, authorities say. He was arrested by Secret Service agents in Houston and the government filed a 68-count indictment against him for charges including wire fraud, mail fraud and buying property derived from unlawful activity. As well as the photography collection, the government seized cash in excess of $29m, three cars (a Lamborghini, a Maserati and a Bentley), and a Canadair plane. Rivkin pleaded guilty in June; he faces 10 years in prison and will have to pay $51m in restitution.
According to a statement released by the Attorney’s Office in 2013, the collection seized by the government includes:
• Distortion No. 6, Paris by André Kertész, bought by Rivkin from Phillips de Pury for $42,500 as part of a group of photographs totalling $60,000 on 9 November 2010.
• Dunes, Oceano by Edward Weston, bought from Sotheby’s for $134,500 as part of a group of photographs totalling $424,750 on 11 November 2010.
• Death Valley by Edward Weston, bought from Sotheby’s for $16,250 as part of a group of photographs totalling $424,750 on 16 November 2010.
• Notre Dame by Eugène Atget, bought from Camera Lucida for $130,000 as part of a group of photographs totalling $1,267,000 on 8 February 2011.
• Nude Study, Miss Mabel Cramer (1907) by Clarence Hudson White, bought from Camera Lucida for $35,000 as part of a group of photographs totalling $1.3m on 8 February 2011.
• Equivalent (1930) by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Lee Gallery for $33,000 on 28 February 2011.
• Poplars, Lake George by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Joel Soroko Gallery for $51,000 on 7 March 2011.
• Vortograph 1917 by Alvin Langdon Coburn, bought from Camera Lucida for $175,000 as part of a group of photographs totalling $1.4m on 10 March 2011.
• From the Shelton, West by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Camera Lucida for $150,000 on 31 March 2011.
• Knees (fragment) by Edward Weston, bought from Camera Lucida for $165,000 as part of a group of photographs totalling $1.4m on 31 March 2011.
• The Letter Box (1894) by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Lee Gallery for $35,700 on 5 April 2011.
• Greta Garbo for Vanity Fair Hollywood by Edward Steichen, bought from Paul Hertzman Vintage Photographs for $75,000 on 11 April 2011.
• Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Camera Lucida for $675,000 on 12 April 2011.
• Equivalent (1925) by Alfred Stieglitz, bought from Bruce Silverstein Gallery for $55,000 as part of a group of photographs totalling $150,000 on 12 April 2011.