Intersection

[Controversy] Solomon sues Spielberg

How a local art dealer ended up in a legal mess with the famous filmmaker over a Rockwell painting

John Katsilometes

Jack Solomon wants his painting back, is all.

“I’ll be 79 in November,” Solomon says. “I miss my painting. I’d like to put it up on my wall and look at it.”

This is no ordinary painting. It is Norman Rockwell’s 1967 work titled “Russian Schoolroom,” which is the centerpiece of two lawsuits involving Solomon, Steven Spielberg and art dealer Judy Goffman Cutler. Rockwell likely had an easier time painting the oil-on-canvas piece, which depicts several schoolkids seated in a classroom and gazing at a bust of Vladimir Lenin, than we will have in dissecting the resulting legal action. We’ll frame the events thusly:

Solomon, who today is the owner of the Las Vegas-based S2 art group, was for years Rockwell’s exclusive lithographer. Solomon purchased the oil-on-canvas from Rockwell soon after it was finished and delivered it to a gallery he owned, Circle Art Galleries in Clayton, Missouri, for an exhibition of Rockwell lithographs and originals.

On the night of June 25, 1972, two thieves smashed out the front window of the gallery and made off with the painting. The piece went underground for about 15 years before it was sold by Cutler to Spielberg, one of the country’s leading collectors of Rockwell paintings, in 1989. Spielberg has had the painting ever since.

In March, Solomon learned of its whereabouts and began negotiating with Spielberg’s attorneys to reach a resolution in the matter. That process became litigious in mid-July when Solomon filed a federal lawsuit in Las Vegas against Spielberg and the FBI. But Solomon and his Las Vegas attorney, Michael Mushkin, describe the suit as a procedural matter necessary to regain legal possession of the painting. As Solomon says, Spielberg—who discovered the painting’s history himself while researching a website of stolen paintings—has been holding the painting for safekeeping until the process plays out. Spielberg is distancing himself from any legal proceedings; his representatives say he bought the painting in good faith and had no idea it was stolen.

Meanwhile, Cutler is seeking damages against Solomon in a federal suit filed in New York for comments Solomon made in published reports, which Cutler claims indicated she was negligent in selling the painting to Spielberg. In her complaint, Cutler is seeking $25 million in damages from Solomon. And thrown onto the palette is Solomon’s threatened action against the London Times, which inaccurately reported in its story about the lawsuits that Solomon’s Circle Art Group had gone bankrupt (the company did enter into bankruptcy, but not until several years after Solomon sold it). Solomon says that inaccuracy could seriously damage his reputation in the art world and is demanding a retraction; if he doesn’t receive one to his liking, he might well file suit against the newspaper.

The painting itself has skyrocketed in value since it was stolen. On the night of the theft it was valued at $25,000. Today its estimated worth is at least $700,000. Solomon says that when all the legal wrangling has finished and he has the painting, he and his wife, Carolyn, will celebrate.

“What we’re planning is, as soon as I get the painting, we’ll have a huge party at our house. I’ll invite Oscar [Goodman] and a whole bunch of interesting people and look at this great painting.”

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