By Erin Alberty

| The Salt Lake Tribune

A prominent dealer of Mormon art is suing the LDS Church, claiming the Church History Museum staff has gone behind his back to buy artwork they found in his gallery, depriving him of more than $100,000 in commission fees.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Thomas Alder, owner of Williams Fine Art, also claims that church museum staff — together with one of Alder’s clients — produced bogus documents to convince him to release a $350,000 painting to the church.

	Join the Discussion
	Post a Comment

The lawsuit focuses on a particular painting: Minerva Teichert’s "The Law on the Plates of Brass." Alder claims he received the oil painting in 2009 from owner Kyle Powell, of Orem. Powell agreed to sell the painting through the gallery at an asking price of $350,000, with a 30 percent commission.

The painting went on display in April 2010, the suit states. In 2010, a buyer began negotiations but could not reach an agreement with Powell. In 2011, Powell agreed to lower his selling price, and the gallery invited curators of the LDS Church History Museum to view the painting for possible purchase.

In April 2011, after multiple exchanges about the painting’s sale, two men who claimed to work for the museum went to Williams Fine Art gallery and produced documents of an agreement between Powell and the Church History Museum, the suit states. The agreement "purported to represent only a temporary ‘loan’ of the painting" to the museum until June 8, according to the lawsuit, so Alder released it to the men.

However, the curators later told Alder a member of the museum’s acquisition committee had bought the painting outright from Powell, the lawsuit states.

While the lawsuit does not state whether the painting was returned, church art conservator Scott Haskins wrote about its restoration in a Dec. 19 post on the blog Mormonartconservation.org.

"It has been previously worked on by someone who knew just enough to be dangerous," Haskins wrote.

According to a description on the website of Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art, the painting depicts a scene from the Book of Mormon in which Nephi and a servant, Zoram, carry the Plates of Brass — a relic inscribed with accounts of Jewish history — away from a city gate. Teichert, who died in 1976, gained fame for her depictions of religious and pioneer scenes, said Salt Lake City art collector Jon Dibble.

Dibble said a Teichert original "would be a big deal" among Utah art collectors.

"I would guess there’s a lot of interest," Dibble said. "Her works would sell in the LDS community for a high price."

The lawsuit claims that a representative of Powell, Andi Pitcher, approached the church about buying Powell’s Teichert painting. But the suit further claims that church representatives have gone to the gallery, 200 East S. Temple, to identify other pieces to purchase without a gallery commission.

"The LDS Church ... directly contacted artists and painting owners" to buy their artwork despite consignment contracts with the gallery.

The lawsuit states that the gallery depends on those contracts, which honor the gallery’s investment of "substantial resources in identifying and developing its reputation for specializing in the sale of ... works especially sought after by collectors of Western Pioneer scenes and religious [scenes]."

Alder also accuses Pitcher of making defamatory comments about him and about the gallery.

The lawsuit names Powell and his daughter Ambria Powell; the LDS Church; Church History Museum curators and staff members Robert Davis, Rita Wright and Brad Westwood; and Pitcher.

LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter declined to comment on pending litigation against the church. Alder referred The Tribune to his attorney for comment; Alder’s attorney could not be reached Monday.