[MSN] Frank Collection: Questions arise over artwork’s ownership

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Frank Collection: Questions arise over artwork’s ownership

By ANNE CONSTABLE | The New Mexican
April 26, 2007

Carvings allegedly disappeared from church after 1969

An Arroyo Hondo man has identified two Cristos in the collection of 
Spanish colonial religious art owned by Larry Frank as pieces that 
disappeared from Our Lady of Sorrows church.

The state appropriated $3 million during the last legislative session to 
buy the 263-piece collection and is currently assessing its contents.

Larry Herrera said two large carvings by Juan Miguel Herrera vanished 
from the church north of Taos sometime after 1969. Many parishioners, 
like Herrera, believed they were in the Frank collection.

In Holy Trinity Church in nearby Arroyo Seco there is a photograph of 
the sacristy room of Our Lady of Sorrows. Herrera pointed out that on 
the back of the framed picture an unidentified person has written, “El 
Señor Jesus Nazareno is missing — either sold unlawfully or — stolen!”

Last week, Herrera met with Frank’s widow, Lycee, who directed him to 
the two pieces, saying, “These are the ones you want to look at.”

One is a crucified Christ in a loin cloth and the second is a standing 
Christ dressed in red. Both are about 5 feet tall.

Lycee Frank said the couple purchased both pieces from Marcos Ortiz and 
Narcisso Arellano, both now deceased, for an undisclosed amount. She 
also confirmed that Marcos’ brother, Manuel, 94, sold the Franks the 
morada that became their home and where the collection is currently located.

Herrera said Arellano was the last member of the Roman Catholic 
brotherhood associated with the morada.

The carver, Juan Miguel Herrera, was born in Arroyo Hondo in 1835 and 
died in 1903. He produced most of his work from the 1870s to the 1890s. 
The Franks owned a number of his Cristos that were valued between $6,400 
and $40,000 in a 2005 appraisal. That document estimated the entire 
collection was worth $4.8 million.

According to Herrera, the sellers did not have the authority to dispose 
of them. “These were made for the churches; they were never intended for 
the hermanos,” Herrera said, referring to the Brotherhood of the Penitentes.

He said he told Lycee Frank that both pieces should be returned to the 
church in Arroyo Hondo, but she said it was “too late for that.”

In an interview Wednesday, Lycee Frank said there have been no 
discussions with the state about “repatriating” the pieces. The sale of 
the collection is “all over” she said, and questioning the provenance of 
pieces in it is a “lot of nonsense.”

“The less in paper about this the better I like it,” she added.

But Herrera wrote in a column in The New Mexican earlier this month that 
the provenance of the pieces is “relevant to those of us who are 
descendants of the hermanos, creators of the santos and builders of the 
moradas. A culture and its intrinsic parts do not belong in the market 
place.”

Herrera said Lycee Frank also showed him two retablos previously 
associated with San Francisco de Asis in Ranchos de Taos.

Herrera said he got interested in the missing pieces while working on a 
restoration at Our Lady of Sorrows.

The state recently hired Joan Caballero to appraise the collection as 
part of its plan for assessing and purchasing the artworks. Various 
groups of experts have recently visited the Frank morada, including 
representatives from the Department of Cultural Affairs, santero and 
author Charles Carrillo, and José Archuleta, the hermano mayor of the 
Morada de Chamita who has also been looking into missing devotionals.

The next scheduled visit is May 17, and that group includes the state 
historian, a Spanish Market artist and members of the Museum of New 
Mexico Board of Regents.

The board is the group that must ultimately decide to accept the 
collection, and its thinking is not clear. In private and in public 
meetings, some members have expressed concerns about the purchase.

One worry in the museum world is that potential donors might in the 
future ask the state to buy their artworks in lieu of making a bequest.

Contact Anne Constable at 995-3845  or aconstable at sfnewmexican.com.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com