In September 1995, EH described his version of events, chiefly biased against his wife, in an interview published in Der Orientteppich magazine. Damages suffered by third parties were simply ignored. In retrospect some people thought that EH's dramatic move to Switzerland had been prepared a long time beforehand.
Exactly one year after EH's disappearance with all those carpets, we interviewed the main victim, that is Rippon Boswell, so as to learn the current whereabouts of the Rippon Boswell carpets worth DM 1.2 million (about $830,000). The following will disclose a number of facts that were previously unknown. We shall leave their evaluation to the reader. The events discussed here are more than a mere legal dispute between two litigants; they have had, and still have, a significant impact on the market for antique collectors' carpets.
Rippon Boswell's Detlef (DeM) and Christa Maltzahn (ChM) were interviewed by Herbert J. Exner in Wiesbaden on 12th December 1995.
ORR: How did the 1995 auction year go for you?
DeM: We consider this financial year a positive one; in May and November we had some good auctions. The March and September sales (held without a catalogue) also produced the usual results. Considering that the carpet business in general is not exactly flourishing, and that several people have withdrawn from the business entirely, 1995 was highly successful. In short, despite the generally recessive trends at auctions, we sustained hardly any losses. We have a clear concept that we adhere to, and we have a good base of regular customers.
ORR: Which fields and which buyer groups showed most activity?
DeM: We noted that Turkoman carpets sold best; one could almost talk about a Turkoman revival. Sotheby's sale of the Thompson collection has given a strong boost to the market. The Turkoman rugs we offered in large numbers in November have sold very well in spite of the fact that our most important customer in this field is no longer allowed to buy from us. Caucasian carpets were only saleable if they were of exceptional quality; medium-quality Caucasian products are not much in demand at the moment. This might be due to the fact that the market has been flooded with mediocre goods ever since the borders opened. In addition buyers have become unsure because of the increasing number of reproductions that have also found their way into auctions. Persian workshop carpets have always been hard to sell at our end, while nomad carpets have been in demand. Antique Turkish carpets are crises-resistant collectors' items. However, antique Turkish carpets by themselves do not provide the basis for an auction since last year we encountered just 10 examples, at most, of the significance that we require.
As regards the buyers' groups: dealers have again shown great reticence during 1995 while collectors' purchasing patterns remain unchanged.
ORR: You mentioned a certain dealer who no longer buys from you. Have you been able to compensate for this?
ChM: We have more than compensated for it. New customers have emerged who seem to have previously bought in Munich, but they now visit auctions and take the opportunity of buying their own pieces. Added to this is our great contingent of private customers. They are making the most of a favorable situation and are currently buying at very low prices. Our sales figures towards the end of this year have not been negatively affected.
ORR: We are meeting on this day, exactly one year after EH's departure from his Munich gallery. Did this not affect Rippon Boswell in 1995?
ChM: Since overcoming the great shock -- on 12 December, 1994, we stood before an empty shop in Munich and needed to take immediate legal steps to protect the interests of our consignors -- the event has followed us like a dark shadow during 1995. This was felt most keenly in the first two quarters; later a kind of habituation effect set in. We are still suffering a detrimental effect, but this affects us psychologically rather than in business terms. The whole thing takes up much of our time.
ORR: For Rippon Boswell the EH drama did not begin in December 1994 but a month earlier, at your autumn sale. What has become of the carpets, and how have your liabilities in that respect developed?
ChM: It all began on 12th November 1994 when, to the keen interest of those present at the auction, EH bought 34 carpets and five books worth DM 1.2 million total. According to the usual practices, the carpets were handed over to him the following day. The business practices shown by the Eberhart Herrmann company had never given the slightest reason to even consider their solvency. They adhered to all terms of payment we agreed. Pieces bought at auction had been handed over to EH before payment for 15 years. Until then there had never been any payment problems.
ORR: Do you know if other auctioneers followed the same practice?
ChM: Both before the event and at our specific enquiry later, colleagues working for other auctioneers repeatedly confirmed that goods were handed over to EH before payment. Compared to Anglo-Saxon law we have a peculiarity in Germany; here a buyer immediately gains possession of an item that he has bought and that has been handed over to him, but he does not gain title of the ownership. Our bills of sale provide detention of property until such time as payment has been made in full. This detention of property is what allows us to hand over the goods before they have been paid since they belong to us, or the consignors, until payment has been made in full.
ORR: From your point of view and concerning yourselves, what happened immediately before and after EH's departure from Munich?
DeM: Immediately after the auction, there was an initial period of silence. Various attempts at contacting Mr. Herrmann by telephone, to discuss follow-on and provisional sales, failed. His wife always said, "My husband is travelling, he is working on his book, you cannot contact him now."
ChM: Contact was only re-established in late November. The subject discussed was the sale of another carpet which had nothing to do with the auction. On 8th December, that is four days before EH's gallery was closed, we had a telephone call from Mr. Herrmann which he opened with these words, "Good morning. I have got myself to safety. I have taken flight; I am in an eagle's eyrie." I asked him what this was supposed to mean. EH: "They are trying to do me out of my property, they are trying to put me into an institution. A Munich professor has pronounced my death sentence by producing a psychiatric report saying that I am incurably ill; my wife wants to have me certified. I am now in an eagle's eyrie; I have got to safety with the help of friends. There have been attempts on my life." This conversation lasted about three-quarters of an hour and was finally abruptly cut off by Mr. Herrmann.
We were shocked by what we heard. The next day, Friday, the telephone never stopped ringing. Fellow dealers from all over the world called us, reporting similar calls by EH, and asked us what on earth had happened in Munich. We maintained a cautious response to these calls so as not to provide more fuel for the rumor. We also received a call by a British company who advised us that Mrs. Herrmann had asked for information on purchases made by her husband, saying that he had removed all files from his offices the previous day. The large number of telephone calls received on Friday alarmed us and led to our becoming extremely worried about our carpets. On Saturday morning, 10th December, 1994, we therefore called Herrmann's home number. The telephone was answered by Mrs. Herrmann. We asked her what was the matter, since we had heard the most unbelievable stories both from and about her husband. Initially she fobbed us off by saying, "Well, nothing at all. What should be the matter? Everything is all right. Why are you asking such questions in the first place?" I told her about the telephone conversation on Thursday. She interrupted me and said, "Just a minute, all that is pure fiction, it is completely unfounded." When I asked her about our carpets, Mrs. Herrmann replied, "Your carpets are still on the trolley they arrived on, in our strongroom. I haven't even looked at them yet." I pointed out to Mrs. Herrmann that according to our agreement the first installment was due on Monday, 12th December, to which she replied immediately, "We will be unable to pay that." At a later point in the conversation I suggested to her that it would probably be better if we collected the carpets the following week and held them until such time as the payment situation was clarified. Mrs. Herrmann responded with relief, replying, "You are very welcome to do so; in fact, I would prefer it."
DeM: Mrs. Herrmann's statement, "We will be unable to pay that," was all the more alarming as through the years we had been convinced that Herrmann had sufficient means at his disposal. He had dominated all the auctions, and he also seemed able to sell his goods on; how else would he have been able to refinance himself?
ORR: What happened next?
DeM: A few minutes after my wife concluded her telephone conversation with Mrs. Herrmann, EH called to announce the following: "The carpets I bought from you and which I will pay for are in a safe place. However the deal will only go through smoothly if, at noon on Monday, 12th December, at Zurich free port you will hand over to me the prayer rug you showed me in Wiesbaden. The prayer rug will be paid in cash, and payment for all the other carpets will then go as agreed. Should you not be there, I will exert the most extreme pressure on you."
ORR: What was so special about this prayer rug?
DeM: It is a valuable, classical 16th century prayer rug that had been submitted to us with the stipulation that a buyer was to be found outside the auction, or that it was to be sold at one of the subsequent auctions. EH had come to my office on the Sunday following the November auction (13th November) to collect his goods and asked me, "Do you have anything else in your stockroom that might be of interest to me? My book isn't finished yet; it will be the best book I ever wrote. If you have anything really outstanding, I could still accommodate it in the book." I said that we did have something, a classical prayer rug, but that it would probably not be of any interest to him. He replied, "Why not show it to me? I want to see it." So I showed him the prayer rug. EH pounced on it and wanted to take it with him there and then. I explained to him that he couldn't have the rug since another interested person had already acquired an option on it until 30th November. I had only shown him the carpet in case the first potential buyer did not choose to use that option. However, EH did not let up, insisting on taking the carpet with him immediately. This resulted in a heated argument in which I firmly maintained my position.
The telephone conversation with EH on 10th December marked the first culmination of events for us as EH presented us with his ultimatum: take the prayer rug to Zurich on 12th December, and only then will payment of the auction carpets be made. We had already told him, in late November, that the other buyer had used his option and the rug had definitely been sold. However, EH refused to accept this both at the time and on 10th December. He claimed that he was the buyer and that the other buyer had to withdraw since only he -- EH -- knew the true significance of the rug. Thus he had to have it now; if not, he would "exert the most extreme pressure" on us.
ORR: How did this thriller continue on Saturday, 11th December?
DeM: We were out of town from lunchtime on Saturday, however we had ensured that our business and home telephone numbers were answered at all times. Having returned on Sunday night, we received a call around 8 p.m. by someone who knows EH very well. That person is also a friend of our company. He asked us if we had received payment for the rugs yet. We replied that the first installment was due the next day, 12th December. He expressed doubts about our getting our money and advised us to go to Munich immediately to collect the carpets. Perhaps it was already too late.
On Monday, 12th December, we travelled to Munich with a friend, arriving at the locked Theatinerstrasse shop at 11 a.m. Seeing the empty gallery was a further shock to us. Using the back entrance, we reached the offices on the first floor where we were received by Mrs. Herrmann who seemed petrified: "You can see for yourselves what is going on here. He took everything away last night -- including your goods." Our attorney, whom we consulted immediately, said: "You have no choice. You must go to the criminal investigation department and institute legal proceedings because of suspected misappropriation of your goods so as to protect the rights of your consignors." This we did.
On Tuesday, 13th December, EH called us at home in the morning. He was incensed, declaring that he knew we had started criminal investigation proceedings against him but that he was not a criminal. "You must withdraw these proceedings!" My wife replied, "Of course we will, but first you must return the goods to us and pay the first installment which was due yesterday." EH angrily refused to do this. There was a similar call the next day. On Thursday, 15th December, we had a sarcastic call around 10 a.m.: "Congratulations, now you have finally achieved what you set out to do. Thanks to your kind help I am now in detention in Stadelheim." Again he urged us, demanded of us: "Withdraw proceedings immediately!"
ChM: I was again the one lucky enough to talk to him. I replied that we would withdraw proceedings immediately if he told us where the goods were and if he paid the first installment. EH then said, yes, he had ensured that we would have the money; someone we knew had agreed to pay on his behalf. I replied that that was not enough; we also needed to know where the goods where. EH: "One part of it is with R., a Munich specialist; the other part is with the F. Company in Munich, both of whom you know well." Acting on his urgent plea, I then rang the Munich criminal investigation department and told them that we now knew where the carpets were and wished to withdraw proceedings against EH. Rather indignant, the officer demanded, "You will tell me immediately where and with whom the carpets are." As we were still reluctant to incriminate EH further, the officer made himself clear. "If you wish to be uncooperative, I will send my Wiesbaden colleagues who will put you in coercive detention until such time as you tell us the names and places." Not much later I told the Munich officer the names and places. The police called R., a Munich dealer, ordering him to keep the carpets safe until they were collected the next day. The following day the carpets arrived at the prosecuting attorney's office in Munich, to be placed in the room where court exhibits are kept.
The next day we received two checks made out by a third party covering the first installment; we withdrew proceedings. However, the Munich district attorney in charge did not perceive the matter to be concluded so quickly as, by then, EH's Munich bank and his family had also instituted proceedings against him.
ORR: What happened to your carpets afterwards?
ChM: On 24th December, EH telephoned to say that he was a free man again and would contact us soon; this he did on 4th January 1995. He summoned us to Munich for a second time as the goods would be handed back to him by the court, and he wished us to be present when this happened. We were supposed to take the carpets back to Wiesbaden and store them for him.
On Thursday, 5th January 1995, we thus travelled to Munich again where the goods were delivered to EH in our presence. He intended to hand them back to us at a friend's house later. On that day, for the first time, he asked us for minutes of the events that took place on 11th December in which we were supposed to denounce the collector, our customer, who had warned us. EH wished to have something on that collector, who was also an important customer of his, so as to be able to start legal proceedings against him. However, we refused to draw up such minutes. This made EH change his mind, and he was no longer prepared to hand the carpets back to us. He announced he would go to Hanover the following weekend for the Domotex fair, and that he would go via Wiesbaden to deliver the carpets personally.
EH did not arrive, however; instead he called on Saturday morning and, in a whining voice, he told us that he was feeling unwell, that he was in Hanover now and needed to recover from his detention at the home of some friends, and that he would not arrive until early next week. We waited in vain until the middle of that week, then we inquired of him with his Munich friend. Astonished, that friend explained that EH had taken the goods to Hanover in the boot of his car, and that he was supposed to have delivered them to us long before.
ORR: In his interview, EH claimed that his car had been parked in by two other cars in the fair car park and that "he realized immediately that detention was looming," for which reason he ran away and had the car picked up by an attorney.
DeM: Naturally we were greatly worried to hear EH was travelling all over Germany carrying our carpets worth DM 1.2 million in his boot.
ChM: The next day we received a call from another collector who told us: "Your goods are with me. Mr. Herrmann arrived last night feeling persecuted, and he obliged me to store the carpets for him."
DeM: Before that, however, there was a call from EH on 12th January, the day that the second installment would have been due. He declared: "Mr. Maltzahn, I am back in Switzerland now and I will not visit you in Wiesbaden, but you will visit me tomorrow -- with that prayer rug. If you do so, everything will be all right. If you fail to do so, I shall put your company into liquidation. Then I will have the goods shipped to Switzerland."
ChM: Did he actually say "liquidation?"
DeM: Those were his words. Later on he also called one of our members of staff and told her, "I shall break your company into tiny pieces and dissect it, and it shall be a great pleasure to me. You better go and find yourself a new job now." I refused EH's idea, declaring that he had to come to Wiesbaden and either deliver the carpets or pay for them. They constituted a "bring-in debt." Upon hearing that, he became insulting and the conversation was finished. Shortly afterwards EH called my wife to insult her as well. Our attorney then called the collector and friend where EH had left the carpets in order to have them handed back to us. However, that gentleman felt so pressured from both sides that he decided to deposit all the carpets with the court until such time as the litigants reached an agreement.
At first we considered this development a great step forward as it meant that EH would be unable to carry out his threat of taking the carpets to Switzerland. There they would have been completely beyond our control -- Switzerland is not a member of the European Union. Naturally we had no idea that their release would involve endless complications.
ChM: Since then, all negotiations have been through attorneys. The main problem for us is in getting the carpets out of court custody. According to the deposit procedures, both parties must jointly agree to a release. As things stand, however, EH's agreement is impossible to obtain.
ORR: So in the whole of 1995 no progress has been made regarding the release of the carpets. What are the reasons for the delay?
ChM: The provincial court in charge did not wish to make a decision on the question of releasing the goods but advised us to take legal action against EH. Legally, there are now two things involved: first, obtaining agreement from EH to have the carpets released from the court deposit, and secondly, receiving compensation for the damages incurred.
DeM: EH's strategy apparently consists of delaying the whole issue for as long as possible to ensure that we will run into difficulties with our consignors. He wishes to emerge from the affair at no personal cost, and does not even shrink from declaring himself non compos mentis.
ChM: The psychiatric certificate, the implications of which he fled before, is now suddenly supposed to serve as proof of the fact that he was non compos mentis at the auction.
ORR: That is a fantastic somersault indeed. In his interview with the Munich magazine, Der Orienttepich, which was published in September 1995 and chiefly accused his wife, EH justified his flight to Switzerland by pointing to that very psychiatric certificate. As regards Rippon Boswell, what facts did that interview misrepresent or conceal?
DeM: A short initial interview with EH, which I will not need to go into here, appeared in Munchner Abendzeitung. In the Orientteppich interview EH said he had "collected the carpets bought at the Rippon Boswell auction from my office and took them to Alfred Ruppenstein, a Munich specialist, who was to pass them on to the auctioneers." This is a blatant lie. Mr. Ruppenstein had been strictly instructed not to tell anyone that he was looking after the carpets. EH gave the specialist completely false information about being the rightful owner of the carpets. The interview leaves uninformed readers with the impression that there are no problems between EH and Rippon Boswell.
ORR: The whole thing does not seem to be a payment problem of EH's. At the October auction of Sotheby's, London, he bid for numerous carpets from the Ritman Collection, winning the bidding for some pieces, for example an Azerbaijan silk embroidery, Lot 17, which went for £38,000, far above the estimate.
DeM: We do have the impression that EH could quite easily pay our bill but does not wish to do so. We offered an amicable settlement, such as an extension of credit, at an early stage, albeit on condition that the carpets, which actually belong to the consignors, be delivered back to Wiesbaden. He never took any notice. If he no longer wanted the carpets, he had the option of reselling them at the 1995 May or autumn auctions. He would then have only been liable for any differences in the selling price and any losses in commission resulting from such differences. EH is clearly not interested in getting the whole thing over and done with, as he has said on several occasions: "I will sit this out. I will wait until it is over." What he wishes to achieve is that we have more and more trouble with our consignors -- although most of them have been very understanding -- and eventually give in while he gets off scot-free, without losing a penny through the whole affair that he instigated. Perhaps he will even emerge triumphantly while we fall by the wayside. That way he would have achieved his declared intention of "annihilating" our company.
ORR: In the course of the requests for delivery of the carpets and preparations for the lawsuit, Mr. Herrmann has surely learned the names of the consignors. Are you not concerned that there might be a "short-circuit" between EH and the consignors?
DeM: Unfortunately, there are already indications of that.
ORR: What is the current state of the lawsuit?
ChM: With the well-known overload of the German courts, we will need a lot of staying power. The first court hearing has been scheduled for early next year.
ORR: Thank you for this conversation.