The FBI has seized more than 100 works of the Michèle Vasarely Foundation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which houses works by the late artist Victor Vasarely and his son Jean-Pierre, also known as Yvaral. The center was founded by Yvaral’s second wife, Michèle Taburno-Vasarely, whose ownership of the two artists’ work was bitterly disputed by Pierre Vasarely – Victor’s grandson and Yvaral’s son from his first marriage. .
Victor Vasarely (1906–1997) was a Hungarian-born painter best known for his abstract paintings and sculptures associated with the Op Art movement. He spent most of his life in France, where his grandson Pierre led the Vasarely Foundation since 2009. The organization was created in 1976 and Vasarely served as honorary president. His son Yvaral created similar kinetic works and became a successful artist in his own right.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed Hyperallergic that the order to search the San Juan area comes from the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris.
The seizure is just the latest in a long and bitter saga. THE website because Michèle Taburno-Vasarely’s foundation is even digging at the Vasarely Foundation in France, which was embroiled in an embezzlement scheme in the 1990s.
“Unfortunately, the Aix-en-Provence institution in which its founder had invested so much energy and hope is inexorably declining due to its persistent association with the legal world as well as with the political arena, both universe being totally antithetical to art,” says a statement on the Puerto Rican foundation’s website.
Taburno-Vasarely was stopped in 2008 after she was accused of stealing paintings from a dealer’s warehouse in Chicago, claiming that Vasarely’s works belonged to her and that she feared they might be taken. She said a court affirmed his rights to the work, but a French court awarded the rights to Pierre in 2012. Taburno-Vasarely moved to Puerto Rico that year. She left France in 2004.
In 2013, a French court order that all of Vasarely’s works must be returned to France and that the proceeds of past sales must be divided among the heirs, but the decision was not immediately implemented. In December, Peter accused a London gallery selling works by Vasarely which he claimed belonged by right to his foundation. These works were loaned by the Puerto Rican organization of Taburno-Vasarely.
Neither of the two foundations responded Hyperallergic‘s requests for comments.
