Update on SH Contemporary fall out

May 21st, 2010 | By Chris | Category: Published work, Random Shanghai stuff...

Here is a short piece on the Pierre Huber/SH Contemporary bust up
for The Art Newspaper

shanghai. A recent court decision in Milan has ruled in favour of controversial dealer Pierre Huber, against the fair organiser BolognaFiere.
The first edition of ShContemp­orary art fair, held in Shanghai in 2007, led to a widely publicised fallout between the organisers—Huber, Lorenzo Rudolf and BolognaFiere—which has been processing through international courts.
According to the 300-page legal document, the court decided that BolognaFiere and Rudolf breached their contract with Huber, who is claiming for loss of earnings from the conclusion of the 2007 fair. Huber’s legal team told The Art Newspaper they are in the process of seizing E6m of assets attached to BolognaFiere.
BolognaFiere issued a statement saying: “BolognaFiere is preparing to appeal against this decision, which it regards as blatantly unjustified and unfair, and, on the basis of the information in its possession, is expecting a substantially different judgement at appeal.” Huber said that he will not be pursuing a separate case against Rudolf.
In a related dispute the Paris-based gallerist and dealer Enrico Navarra is suing BolognaFiere over conflicts of interest at the first edition of ShContemporary. Navarra told The Art Newspaper that Huber used his position as art fair organiser “to do business”.
Navarra has a separate dispute with Huber, partly relating to the building of a $20m collection for Christophe Laurent.
Huber told The Art Newspaper he denies any wrong doing at ShContemp­orary. He believes the ruling is the first step in clearing his name.
BolognaFiere’s statement said that the judgement “does not in any way affect the event ShContemporary, which is entirely managed by BolognaFiere SpA and which will take place again as usual in late summer in Shanghai.”

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