Case Study: Cavendish v Downham
| Author | Peter Lyons |
| Pages | 223-247 |
1
224 Advocacy: A Practical Guide
On behalf of: Claimant
Name: R F Cavendish Statement: First Exhibits: ‘RFC1’
Date: 14 May
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
Claim No: HC186752
B E T W E E N:
ROBERT CAVENDISH & CO LIMITED
Claimant
- and - DOWNHAM GALLERY LIMITED
Defendant
___________________________________________
WITNESS STATEMENT OF ROBERT FENWICK CAVENDISH ___________________________________________
I, Robert Fenwick Cavendish of 8 Ingleby Lane, Parson’s Green, London, say as follows:
1 I am the sole director and shareholder of Robert Cavendish & Co
Limited, the claimant in this action. The company trades under the name of Lindum Ancient and Islamic Art in Pottergate, Maida Vale. The business has an established reputation for handling early Middle Eastern antiquities. I have been running it for 20 years and it is regarded by my peers as very successful.
2 On the morning of the last Tuesday in November, I received a call from Mrs Chantelle Downham. She is the owner of the defendant company and she has a dubious reputation in the industry. She said an art world contact had advised her of my reputation as a dealer in Mesopotamian artwork. She said she had just come by an excellent bas-relief. She said ‘It’s from the lost palace of Sennacherib’. I knew the palace was at Nineveh in northern Iraq. She said ‘It’s of a soldier
and two horses, circa 681–669’ or words to that effect. I only wrote down the words ‘bas-relief 681–669’ but I have lost the note.
3 I had heard of Sennacherib, which was rediscovered in the mid-19th century. It is famous for its enormous bas-reliefs and clay tablets. I had not however previously handled any specimens from the site. My main interest lies in the Babylonian cities of Nippur, Larsa and Ur, in southern modern-day Iraq. However, I was interested in the relief because I knew of a wealthy American buyer who collects Assyrian works of art.
4 Assyrian antiquities are becoming increasingly sought after, partly due to their rarity but also because the recent conflicts in Iraq and the Middle East have re-ignited awareness in the West of the region’s importance to art history and the wider development of human culture. Ironically, the wars that have brought these artefacts to greater prominence have also been responsible for destroying many fine and irreplaceable ancient works. People have a particular interest in Assyrian tableaux of this type because they demonstrate the development of the written form, from early pictorial representations to more simplified and abstract script. There is also excitement that many more sites remain to be discovered.
5 Mrs Downham told me I was welcome to see the carving at any time. It just so happened that I had a meeting of the Classical Art Dealers’ Association the next day so I asked her if I could call by and see the relief before lunch. She said, ‘Someone will be here’.
6 I think I arrived at Downham Gallery at about 10:30am. Mrs Downham was there with a young woman who appeared to be her assistant. I must emphasise that Mrs Downham is not a particularly likeable woman. She is slim and tall and tries to sound well-bred, but when she becomes excited she lapses into a broad South London accent.
7 She welcomed me and said ‘Wait till you see the sculpture’. She led me straight to the bas-relief which was lying down on a layer of bubble wrap on the counter. She lifted it carefully and leant it up against the wall next to the counter. Just then a man came into the shop. He was attended to by Mrs Downham’s assistant. The shop telephone was ringing constantly and was answered by the assistant.
8 On first impressions the relief appeared to be damaged and I was not impressed. The stone also seemed a little too yellow. I was unenthusiastic but Downham worked hard to convince me. She spoke of the archaeological sites at Nineveh and the great excavations of the 19th century by Layard and Smith. She pointed to the late Assyrian
226 Advocacy: A Practical Guide
cuneiform script, one of the earliest known forms of written expression. She pointed to the quality of the carving and the attention to detail in the harnesses worn by the horses. I remember Mrs Downham commenting on the artistic plasticity and freedom of hand of the sculptor. She also drew attention to the soft limestone from which the relief had been carved, which she said was typical of the stone quarried from the mountains on the borders of the Assyrian Empire.
9 She said she had done a lot of research into Assyrian sculpture, and had concluded there was less variety of style in Assyrian than in Babylonian sculpture. She said there seems to have been only one school, one technique, one style, but that it was possible to distinguish at least two periods of production; one from the beginning up to the reign of Sargon, the other from Sennacherib to the fall of Nineveh. She said a similar bas-relief had sold in Paris recently for €890,000. It was quite clear to me that Mrs Downham knew a lot about her subject. She showed me a copy of the auction catalogue, a copy of which is exhibited at ‘RFC1’.
10 She told me the asking price was £850,000 but that I could have it for £820,000. I thought it was a reasonable price in the circumstances so made her an offer. She accepted, saying that she would arrange to have the tablet delivered when the money was in Downham’s account.
11 At no time did I say I was an expert on the late Assyrian period or the excavated sites at Nineveh. In fact during the whole episode she appeared to be at pains to show just how much she knew about cuneiform script and the style of carving from the period.
12 The relief was delivered to my gallery about three days later. As I anticipated, a regular American customer of mine, Mr John Arnoldson Jnr, expressed some interest in buying the piece. However, he said that first he wanted it to be checked out by a Mr Worthington who is a trade specialist and expert in the field. As far as I am concerned he is just a gun for hire.
13 Mr Worthington came to my gallery and spent three hours examining the relief. He had magnifying glasses and chemicals. He said it hadn’t come from Nineveh at all. He said it was most likely a 19th-century copy. I rang Mrs Downham and demanded my money back but she said it had been a fair deal and I had been given ample opportunity to have the carving checked out. According to Mr Worthington, the relief sold to me by Downham cannot be worth more than £3,000, although I think I could sell it for a bit more.
14 About six weeks after Mr Worthington visited, a cleaner accidentally dropped the bas-relief and it smashed into little pieces. It was not insured because the insurance company and I were arguing over its value.
Dated: 14 May
I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
Robert Cavendish………………………………………….
Robert Cavendish
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EXHIBIT ‘RFC1’
EXTRACT FROM CATALOGUE
Clifton Barrett
Auctioneers since 1876
LOT NUMBER 263
ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF
Late Assyrian, 681–669 BC.
95 x 81 cm
Soldier and two horses
Neo-Assyrian cuneiform lettering
Model for larger relief at Palace of Sennacherib, Nineveh
Excavated by the renowned British archaeologist
A H Layard circa 1846
Case Study 229
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