Action of Deception by KRG (Part IV)

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~ Provenance/Authenticity Issues

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"Norval Morrisseau: The Development of the Woodland School of Art" © Maslak McLeod Gallery, Toronto, Ontario --


>>> The following is a statement from the art collectors Tammy and John MacDougall, from Hamden, Connecticut directed to Mr. Joseph McLeod of Maslak Mcleod Gallery. In this statement it is clear that Mr. Donald Robinson of Kinsman Robinson Galleries brings up the issue of having a strict provenance traceable back to the artist as a central feature of his argument. Without this as per Mr. Robinson's words: "the piece had virtually no value". Mr. Robinson even stated that many pieces from the 1970's were 'fakes' and he further supports this ideal by mentioning the fact that Norval Morrisseau has provided several signed affidavits* to this effect.
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It is ironic that one of these 1970's they would label as a 'fake' have a provenance leading to their gallery (click HERE) and they even tried to deceive the public by fabricating the provenance to one of their Morrisseau paintings (click HERE). Also, Mr. Robinson purchased many of these 1970's paintings at Kahn Auctions, later 'Randy Potter Estate Auction' in Port Hope, Ontario (click HERE). It is funny that this same auction house where Mr. Robinson purchased his Morrisseaus now calling them 'fakes' were appraised and authenticated by his own gallery as being 'authentic' (click HERE).
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* - These signed Norval Morrisseau affidavits will be addressed on the NORVAL MORRISSEAU BLOG soon.
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"Joseph McLeod
Curator, Maslak McLeod Gallery
118 Scollard Stt
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5R 1G2
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Dear JoeIt was so very nice meeting you and thank you for your time. We really enjoyed talking to you and learned a great deal about the Woodlands art style, particularly about Norval Morrisseau.

We are not only writing to you to thank you for your time, but also to recount to you our experience at the Kinsman-Robinson Gallery regarding alleged fraudulent paintings of Norval Morrisseau. Below is a description of our experience at the Kinsman-Robinson Gallery in addition to an itemized list of pieces of art that have been alleged to be fraudulent that also appear in your exhibition catalogue "Norval Morrisseau: The Development of the Woodland School of Art"
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We arrived at the Kinsman-Robinson Gallery at about 1:30 pm on Tuesday September 22, and proceeded to browse through the Gallery. We went to the second level of the Gallery where an older gentleman greeted us. We engaged in conversation about Norval Morrisseau's art. We had indicated to this gentleman that we owned a couple of paintings by Norval Morrisseau. He asked us from what time period these pieces were. We had told him they were from the early to mid nineteen seventies. He immediately responded with trepidation, saying to us, "I don't like the sound of this." With this he proceeded to tell us that many pieces from the 1970s were fakes, indicating that there were probably thousands of pieces from the 1970s were fakes. We then indicated to him that we were very confident in the authenticity of the two pieces we owned because we had purchased them from the Maslak-McLeod Gallery. He indicated to us that unless there was documentation linking the piece to the artist we had no provenance behind the piece and thus the pieces had virtually no value.
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This gentleman then proceeded to retrieve a rather large file (about 1.5 inches thick; labeled Morrisseau Fakes) with assorted documents and images of alleged Norval Morrisseau fake paintings. The first set of images, about 6, was also accompanied by images of the signatures, titles and dates on the reverse of the paintings. We recognized a couple of these images and signatures from personal research we had done (we typically save images of Norval Morrisseau's work when it comes up for auction, for instance on eBay or elsewhere. We have a collection of approximately 600 images of Norval Morrisseau's work that we have accumulated for personal reference through online sources). We were then handed another set of images, which were without accompanying signature images. We immediately recognized images of the works by Norval Morrisseau that appear in the Maslak-McLeod catalogue indicated above and in the Maslak-McLeod Gallery. Needless to say we were a bit shocked at this allegation, seeing as we had seen some of these original works of art only hours earlier that day in the Maslak-McLeod Gallery.
We briefly looked through the images, recognizing many. While we were looking through this set of images this gentleman also indicated to us that Kinsman-Robinson had signed affidavits directly from Norval Morrisseau indicating that he did not paint any of the pieces of art represented by the images in this file. Our estimate was that there were approximately 20 images in total in this second set. Again we did not see a similar collection of companion signature images, as was the case with the previous set. After finishing to look through the images, we proceeded to return the sets of images to this gentleman. At this point we asked this gentleman if there was any way we could obtain copies of these images. He said he would not share copies of any of these images. After we received this reply that he would not share these images, we left the Kinsman-Robinson Gallery and proceeded back to Maslak-McLeod Gallery at which time we informed you of what we had experienced. Attached to this letter is a list of images, indicated by title and page number from the Maslak-McLeod catalogue, of which we are certain we had seen in this set of alleged fakes.

We have written this letter to you as we feel it is important, as clients of yours, that you are made aware of our experience with the Kinsman-Robinson Gallery. You may share this letter with whomever you feel necessary. If there is anything else we can, do, please don't hesitate in asking.
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Sincerely
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SIGNED
-Tammy and John MacDougall
117 Russell St.
Hamden, Connecticut
06517
U.S.A."-
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* Click HERE to view an original letter sent to Mr. Joseph McLeod by Mr. & Mrs. MacDougall on September 24, 2003.
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CLOSING STATEMENT:
The reason why I started this blog more than two years ago was due to false statements made by Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Coghlan Art Studio & Gallery and individuals* (a List of Individuals presented at the end of this paragraph) closely associated with Norval Morrisseau regarding paintings in question. I felt the need to create a platform that will speak for Norval when this priviledge to speak for himself was put in the hands of others that were only interested in their personal financial gain by putting the Legacy of Norval Morrisseau aside.

I am dissapointed that Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society is not honouring their mission statement which states:

"The Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society was established at the request of Norval Morrisseau to research, document and preserve his artistic achievement and protect the integrity of his art. It seeks to achieve this mission by establishing and maintaining a registry of his works, publishing and updating a catalogue raisonne of his artistic output and providing the necessary expertise to authenticate his art."
Why are they silent? Is their silence approval for what has been presented on www.morrisseau.com? If they truly care in "protecting the integrity of Norval Morrisseau's art" they would need to speak up. Their silence is hurting the legacy of the man they are supposed to protect and the longer they wait to publish a public statement regarding this matter presented herein, the longer the legacy of Norval Morrisseau will suffer.
This website www.morrisseau.com is a disservice to Norval Morrisseau, his legacy and the people of Canada. It is full of lies put forth by the people who have little or no expertise to judge the authenticity of Norval Morrisseau's and who are acting only for greed of others using false histories as their methods of deception.
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I am a strong believer that Norval Morrisseau's Legacy belongs to his people "the Great Ojibway" and to family that bears his name - Morrisseau Family.

"May the truth be told and known to all"-

Miigwetch

Ugo Matulić a.k.a. Spirit Walker
/spiritwalker2008@gmail.com /  > For the purposes of this blog I would like to be referred to as Spirit Walker. Miigwetch!

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-* - Donald (Don) Robinson of the Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Bryant Ross of the Coghlan Art Studio & Gallery & Gabor (Gabe) Vadas, who for the last 20 years of Norval Morrisseau's life functioned as Mr. Morrisseau's guardian, business manager and 'adopted' (although not legally so) son.--
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>>> Reference posts:
- Action of Deception by KRG (Part I),
- Action of Deception by KRG (Part II),
- Action of Deception by KRG (Part III),
- Deceptions of the main 'Norval Morrisseau Conspirators': Gabor Vadas, Bryant Ross, Donald Robinson & Ritchie 'Stardreamer' Sinclair (Part I),- David Voss about Donald Robinson,
- Weekend of Awakening,
- Will the real SpiritWalker please stand up?,
- The real Spirit Walker is standing up!,
- Morrisseau History Detective Stories (Part IV),
- Understanding Art of Norval Morrisseau (Part I).
- Where in the KRG World is Ritchie "Stardreamer" Sinclair?,
- "Morrisseau Signature Identification Article 101" (Part I),
- "The Writing On The Wall... Norval Morrisseau Conspiracy Exposed",
- Norval Morrisseau Conspiracy & Art Market Competition,
- www_NorvalMorrisseauLegalDefenceFund_com,
- >>> www.NorvalMorrisseauLegalDefenceFund.com (Part V) &
- >>> www.NorvalMorrisseauLegalDefenceFund.com (Part VI).
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