The usually zipped-up local art world got a jolt two weeks ago when federal agents raided the Kass/Meridian Gallery at 325 W. Superior. It was a surreal scene, with a platoon of U.S. Postal Service police and the FBI lugging framed works by the likes of Chagall and Dalí out into the snowy street. The official explanation, courtesy of an FBI spokesman, is that the agents executed a search warrant as part of an ongoing investigation—there were no arrests made and no charges filed, and documents have been sealed. Kass/Meridian owners Alan and Grace Kass did not return calls; other gallery owners I talked to in the River North district, where Kass/Meridian has been around for 22 years, expressed surprise.
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One of those clients was graphic designer Gene Haring, who says he and his wife purchased a number of pieces at Kass/Meridian auctions in the 90s, including two signed Matisse drawings. Haring can’t remember exactly what he paid, but says it might have been as little as $750 each. “As Alan did with everything that he sold,” Haring says, “there were certificates of authenticity. He would always put in writing that these were as represented in the auction catalog.” But, he adds, “we were concerned about the authenticity due to some inconsistency in the signature.” A few months after the purchase, they showed the works to Bartlow, a good friend. Bartlow gave them the opinion that they were not authentic. At that point, Haring says, “we decided to take Alan up on his standing offer that he would buy back any pieces.” They asked Bartlow to handle it, and “we were given back the full purchase price and that was that.”
Bartlow says he’s known Alan Kass since 1973, when Kass sold him some prints for a gallery he had in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. He says that “Kass has consistently given people their money back if they had a complaint,” and nothing more would be heard about it. That’s human nature, Bartlow says: “When you get duped, do you want everybody to know? Or do you just want your money back?”
When she does need an outside opinion, Hindman says, Bartlow is one of the experts she turns to. He got into the gallery business while earning a degree in art history at Ohio State and worked for Samuel Stein Fine Arts here from 1979 to 1991. When Stein retired, Bartlow bought the gallery from him. It has since operated on Michigan Avenue and at 44 E. Superior, and though it’s now open only by appointment, he’s planning to reopen with regular hours in River North this spring. He says he came in contact with the federal agents working on this investigation a year and a half ago when they came to him with some alleged Picassos they wanted him to authenticate.
