Edward H. Merrin Gallery

Edward H. Merrin Gallery in New York, NY (currently known as the Merrin Gallery) provided a Provenance list for the amphora, stating that they purchased the amphora from the private collection. There is no date or location given for the private collection, making the Merrin Gallery's purchase of the amphora very vague. The amphora caught the attention of the Wheaton College Art and Classics departments, which resulted in an epistle dialogue between Edward Merrin and Roberta Olson, Assistant Professor of Art History. At the request of Olson, Merrin allowed Dietrich von Bothmer to authenticate the vase via pictures before purchase.

The Merrin Gallery sold the amphora to Wheaton College's Watson Gallery March 3, 1981. It was weeks after the purchase that Edward Merrin sent Roberta Olson a Provenance list of the ex collections on March 24, 1981. The list is mistyped, dateless, locationless, and lacking the full names of the former collectors.

On March 2, 2005, the Merrin Gallery was charged with a ten-year fraud scheme by the U.S. Attorney's office. The indictment was filed in as a "result of an investigation conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service." The Merring Gallery faced charges of "conspiracy and wire fraud charges arising from a ten-year scheme to defraud major customers out of millions of dollars paid to purchase art." In the 2010s, the Gallery has faced accusation of purchasing and selling artifacts the Gallery knew were stolen, from the 1980s through the 1990s.

Text Sources:

Felch, Jason. "Red Flags in Paris: Half of Sotheby's Barbier-Mueller Pre-Columbian Sale Lacks Provenance." Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities in the World's Museums, March 19, 2013, http://chasingaphrodite.com/2013/03/19/red-flags-in-paris-half-of-sothebys-barbier-muller-pre-colombian-sale-lacks-provenance/ (Accessed March 17, 2014).

Merrin, Edward. Edward Merrin to Roberta Olson, New York, NY, March 24, 1981.

Merrin, Edward. Edward Merrin to Watson Gallery, Norton, MA, March 3, 1981.

Olson, Roberta. Roberta Olson to Dietrich von Bothmer, New York, NY, February 18, 1981.

Olson, Roberta. Roberta Olson to Edward Merrin, New York, NY, February 18, 1981.

Olson, Roberta. Roberta Olson to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hirschland, New York, NY, February 23, 1981.

U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Charges Art Dealers with Participating in a Ten-Year Fraud Scheme. By Herbert Hadad & Megan Gaffney. New York: U.S. Attorney Southern District of New York, 2005.

Image Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_Fifth_Avenue_from_the_Metropolitan%E2%80%94New_York_City.jpg, Accessed April 20, 2014.