Another fine piece about stolen baseball memorabilia from the Prime Minister

[base_ball]

The case of the purloined Ezra Sutton contract:

http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=334

Nice article tracing the chain of custody an important nineteenth century piece, regardless of the "rap sheet" of the investigative author.

I'll bet that Goldfaden--at 95--could remember many of the things he sold to Halper. It seems odd that he would have forgotten something seminal like this piece. I reckon someone who reads this board knows who might really have sold it to Halper.

[slidekellyslide]

Did anyone here personally know Barry Halper? His collection seemed to be the destination for many stolen items.

[judsonhamlin]

It does seem that, at best, he didn't ask any questions when offered an item for sale. Provenance to him might have well as been part of the south of France.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

It does seem that, at best, he didn't ask any questions when offered an item for sale. Provenance to him might have well as been part of the south of France.

Maybe he knew so he didn't ask?

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Leon

Maybe he knew so he didn't ask?

I would lean to the side that he didn't know because he was allowing himself to be photographed with some of these items.

I sure hope the FBI is taking these stolen items seriously and that they get recovered and placed back into the NYPL. It seems with the discovery of the Devlin letters in last Summer's Hunt auction that they just might be ready to follow up on this stuff.

[judsonhamlin]

I agree that it looks very suspicious - one item, fine. But this isn't the first time I've seen the link between Halper's collection and items that might have been "appropriated" from other, legitimate sources. I always did wonder how he found all his treasures.

[slidekellyslide]

I think he found all his treasures by being in the limelight. By the 1980s he was certainly the most well known memorabilia collector. It also helped that he was a minority owner of the Yankees, had droolworthy contacts, and hung out with Joe DiMaggio. He was collecting this stuff before anyone even thought about collecting it.

[bigtrain]

Based upon his previous exploits, the Prime Minister should be impeached. Still, a very informative article. Good work by Mr. Nash. I understand all his investigative work will be detailed in his new book coming out next year. Hope he profits enough to pay off Rob Lifson and the rest of his creditors.

[judsonhamlin]

I would agree that the publicity he generated and enjoyed would have given him a significant edge in accumulating items. There were, if I remember correctly, several government documents (Cartwright doc marked "Archives of Hawaii" and a Joe Jackson) that left me scratching my head as to how they might have left the government's care and custody and wound up in Halper's basement. YOU try walking out of a State's Archives with something like that...

[Exhibitman]

1. Anyone else amazed that Goldfadden is still alive?

2. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on something like this? Some of this stuff was stolen 30+ years ago and has gone through multiple hands. Does the right to retrieve it ever end?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

1. Anyone else amazed that Goldfadden is still alive?

2. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on something like this? Some of this stuff was stolen 30+ years ago and has gone through multiple hands. Does the right to retrieve it ever end?

1. I am surprised he is still around.

2. Can there ever be clear title to stolen goods, while still not in the original owners (stolen from) hands?

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Leon

2. Can there ever be clear title to stolen goods, while still not in the original owners (stolen from) hands?

I would think it's still considered stolen goods no matter how many hands something has been through. Imagine if the Mona Lisa was stolen 50 years ago and is missing all that time and gone through numerous hands...it still would belong to the Louvre.

[Leon]

Well, I am far from being a lawyer but I have to guess there is a statute of limitations for prosecution but maybe not for clean title?

I think we have all seen where the Nazi stolen Jewish art from WWII has been retrieved and returned to the rightful owners families.

[tedzan]

Regarding......"Did anyone here personally know Barry Halper?"

I met Barry at the Meadowlands, NJ Show in 1981. We both set-up our "goodies" at this show back in the early 1980's.
We hit it off, as I was an avid Yankees fan, and Barry's Paper Business was situated in my hometown of Elizabeth, NJ.
I sold Barry some rare items for his collection in the 1980's. Most significant was the complete set of the original print-
ing plates for the 1954 Bowman set....7 plates with 32 images on each [which included the Ted Williams (#66) image].

Here's an autographed photo I have of Joe DiMaggio and Radio celebrity, Bob Grant, which was snapped by Barry in one
of his memorabilia rooms in 1982. As we all know, DiMaggio was a very private person. When Joe was on the East Coast
to meet someone, he would call Barry to set up the rendezvous at Halper's home.

Barry was certainly one of the most interesting guys that I have met in this hobby.






TED Z

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

I think he found all his treasures by being in the limelight.

Wouldn't surprise me if there is a lot more to it than this.

We knew Barry Halper quite well. Through the years we made six or seven trades. Among the items we swapped were Babe Ruth' s St, Mary's yearbook, one of two known 1924 Negro League World series programs. several K Bat
team cards and an advertising piece.

Barry certainly was a legendary collector. Our sense was he bought everything he liked and never asked about provence.

A number of his uniforms were pulled from the sotheby's auction because they were not authentic.

In 37 years of collecting we have seen more than two dozen pieces that werefrom the Spalding collection. It is too bad- because, properly displayed it would be a great experience for any collector. We first visited the collection in 1976 and most recently in 2002. At least 15% of the items disappeared during that time.

Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

[oldjudge]

I heard a story years ago that a hobby expert presented him with evidence that a piece he had was stolen. According to this expert, his response was that everything has to come from somewhere. Personally, I hope he didn't know.

[mark evans]

I think Leon is right on the law, at least as a general proposition.

Hope to see all in Baltimore.

Mark

[judsonhamlin]

Got my latest SABRGraph email and Haul of Shame has another article confirming that the Cartwright letter Halper owned, and that was sold by Sotheby's in '99 with the "Archives of Hawaii" stamp was, in fact, stolen from the Archives. Not looking any better for Halper's legacy...

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

Got my latest SABRGraph email and Haul of Shame has another article confirming that the Cartwright letter Halper owned, and that was sold by Sotheby's in '99 with the "Archives of Hawaii" stamp was, in fact, stolen from the Archives. Not looking any better for Halper's legacy...

Sometimes not everything is as it may appear to be. In regard to this letter, my understanding of its provenance is that Josh Evans of Lelands acquired it directly from Anne Cartwright (widow of Cartwright's grandson) about twenty years ago. So very possibly it had been de-accessioned from the Hawaiin Archives and the tearing of the file number from the top was a crude way to evidence that. If in fact it was stolen, it seems extraordinarily brazen that it would be publicly sold three times with the Hawaiin Archives stamp so prominently displayed.

In my experience, when items are legitimately de-accessioned from institutions, not always is it apparent that that in fact took place. I have in my collection a book from 1874 entitled Record of the Boston Baseball Club that had been de-accessioned by the New York Public Library. It still bears the library stamp. I made my acquistion of the item contingent on the seller (a recognized and respected rare book dealer) using his best efforts (which ultimately proved successful) to get a letter from the NYPL acknowledging that they did in fact de-accession that item.

In the instance of the Cartwright letter, if in fact it was acquired directly from Anne Cartwright, I would think it quite possible that she legitimately reacquired it from the Archives. She was known to have serious financial problems and it would seem logical she would explore every legitmate way to acquire items of value that she could sell.

[slidekellyslide]

It seems to me that many stolen items are brazenly sold and displayed in the open.

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

It seems to me that many stolen items are brazenly sold and displayed in the open.

Perhaps true. But in this instance it was done by three very sophisticated auctions houses, the first of which purportedly was involved in the acquisition of the item.

Again, though, I'm not saying that the item wasn't stolen. I'm saying that from the information I have, there is a real possibility that it has been legitimately transacted.

[judsonhamlin]

I have (and have seen) books from University and other Public Libraries - they have stamps marking them as "de-acquisitioned" or equivalent. The trimming of the documents to hide their provenance seems to me to be an attempt to hide their true origin. If it was legitimately removed from the collection, I would think that it would be better to have the intact document with a letter from Cartwright's family to explain the history.

[benjulmag]

The information I have is that when Lelands acquired the letter from Anne Cartwright, it was in the context of a larger transaction which involved other documents (some of which were letter press copies, like the one at issue) and some photographs. I was the eventual purchaser of a number of these items, each of which was accompanied by a letter signed by Anne Cartwright attesting to its provenance. While I did not purchase the letter press we are discussing, it very well might have been accompanied by a similar letter from Anne Cartwright. My point is that assuming it was in Mrs. Cartwright's possession and it was she who sold it to Lelands, that fact alone raises a legitimate question whether the item was illegitimately removed from the Archives. Her husband was Cartwight's grandson, and it seems quite possible, if not more likely, that the family reclaimed it.