The Grand Palais in Paris had recently been promoting an art exhibition where they were hoping to display a painting by the famed Haitian painter; Herve Telemaque. His 1964 painting ‘Escale’ was used to promote the exhibition on the gallery’s posters that were displayed prominently around Paris. However, attendees at the art gallery were shocked to find that the painting was in fact nowhere to be seen.

What was the reason for this? The owner of the painting had promised the work to the Grand Palais for their exhibition, however the painting is currently residing within the vaults at Christies Auction House. The reason being that the buyer, despite purchasing the painting in December 2007, has yet to pay for the work.

As a result, Christies have refused to let the painting out of their possession.

The painting sold for 180,250 Euros at auction in December, and until the debt with the auction house is settled, the owner of the painting cannot claim his work, nor can he ‘loan’ the painting to the Grand Palais, even though they merely want to exhibit the painting for the art lovers of Paris.

A spokesman for the Grand Palais said:

There was a setback with the art collector and we only found out about it a week before the opening.

We spent a lot of money to advertise this exhibition with the promotion centred on Telemaque’s painting.

The exhibition is scheduled to run until July 13th, even if the debacle over the Telemaque painting isn’t resolved.

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