Art and Intestate Estate of Estate of William M. V. Kingsland

Dan Berry, Pieces of Art Collection Were Someone Else’s, NY Times, Oct. 25, 2006, explains the fascinating case of William M. V. Kingsland who “died in early spring in his one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side [of New York City], surrounded by the hundreds of portraits, paintings and miniatures.”

It turns out the Mr. Kingsland was really Melvyn Kohn and that some of the art work was stolen.

Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation is digging into the nature of his collection, two auction houses are cleaning up the artistic mess he left behind, and the Office of the Public Administrator for Manhattan is trying to sort out the increasingly muddy Estate of William M. V. Kingsland — ne Melvyn Kohn.

A central question for everyone, of course, is Mr. Kingsland’s role in all this. Was he a thief, a fence, or just an innocent collector of pretty things that happened to be hot?

Mr. Kingsland died without a will, at the age of either 58 or 62.

Special thanks to Prof. Joel C. Dobris of the University of California-Davis for bringing this article to my attention.