EXCLUSIVE: MAN USES INTERNET TO EXPOSE ART 'THEFT'

 By Robert "Rob" Redding  Jr.

Publisher

July 30, 2007, 12:01 a.m. - A former Washington, D.C. attorney is taking his fight against the Smithsonian and a prominent New York museum to the Internet.

Attorney Melvin E. Gibbs says the two museums committed fraud, racketeering and conspiracy to steal the work of a renowned Depression-era black artist.

Gibbs is asking YouTube users to help him in his fight to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate whether the Smithsonian, the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and others took the art work of William H. Johnson. Johnson's artwork is now worth millions of dollars.

Johnson's family never received a large shipment of his work after he fell ill and was committed to a Long Island mental institution in 1947. Gibbs said the shipment of Johnson's work was "stolen" before being delivered to his mother in Florence, S.C. just before his death in 1970.

More than 1,000 of Johnson's paintings were eventually donated to the Smithsonian in 1967 by a foundation. A few paintings were given to black universities. Many of those works also are missing, Gibbs said.

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Many of those involved have denied Gibbs' allegations. "There is no dispute," said Michael Rosenfeld, who is accused by Gibbs of owning a Johnson painting he said is supposed to belong to Tuskegee University in Alabama.

"Tuskegee told me not to be concerned about it," said Rosenfeld, who would not disclose the present whereabouts of the painting entitled "Sarah."

"That's not relevant," he said.

Tuskegee has refused to comment.
 
Since taking the case 10 years ago, Gibbs has been unsuccessful in including the Smithsonian in the fraud, racketeering and conspiracy suit. He wants compensation for Johnson's family, the copyrights and proceeds made from numerous items sold by the Smithsonian returned to the family.

Gibbs makes his allegations in an amateurish video.

He said he also has an internal memo that proves the Smithsonian knowingly violated copyright laws by reproducing Johnson's artwork.

Laura Baptiste, a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian, would only say that the paintings were a "gift" from a foundation in 1967.  

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