A 1739 Montagnana that was owned by American cellist
Stephen Kates is the focus of legal action in New York. Violin
expert and appraiser David Bonsey filed suit against Kates’s widow
in Manhattan federal court in April, claiming she owes him $600,000
in commission after hiring him to sell the Montagnana (pictured)
after her husband died in 2003.
Soon after Stephen Kates’s death, Bonsey sold a French cello and a
collection of bows belonging to the cellist through Skinner
Auctioneers in Boston, where he was head of the musical instrument
department until April of this year. According to the suit, he also
began working with Mary Louise Kates to show the Montagnana
cello to potential buyers with a view to a private sale. The cello
was subsequently loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
where, says the suit, supervised trials were allowed.
The suit claims that Kates ‘orally agreed’ in an August 2010 phone
call that Bonsey would act as her exclusive agent for showing and
selling the cello and would receive a ten per cent
sales commission. According to the suit, Kates did not sign a
written exclusivity agreement, but Bonsey continued to act as her
exclusive agent, sourcing potential purchasers, and eventually
receiving a firm approach in April 2011 from a London dealer
on behalf of a client. The suit alleges that Kates then, unbeknown
to Bonsey, sold the Montagnana to the London dealer’s client for
$6m. Bonsey claims that ‘despite his repeated demands’, Kates has
‘failed and refused to pay’ his commission.
Bonsey’s suit includes claims for breach of contract, and unjust
enrichment or quantum meruit – payment of the reasonable value of
services rendered. The suit also demands that a jury trial
settle the matter. Neither party’s lawyer could be reached
for comment.
photo: Stewart Pollens
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