Croatia invites Charles Billich to buy back his ‘stolen’ $2m artworks

Sydney artist Charles Billich has been invited to bid for 32 paintings and artworks ‘stolen’ by local authorities in Croatia, potentially ending a 14-year standoff over the $2m-plus collection.

Sydney artist Charles Billich. Picture: John Feder

Sydney artist Charles Billich has been invited to bid for 32 paintings and artworks “stolen” by local authorities in his birthplace in Croatia, potentially ending a 14-year standoff over the $2m-plus collection.

The offer from the Municipality of Lovran has been conditionally accepted by Billich, 88, and wife Christa, who runs their gallery business and controls the rights to his pricey works.

While they have essentially been asked to buy back their own property, Ms Billich told The Weekend Australian it was welcome progress in a dispute that has dragged on since Lovran seized 87 original paintings, sketches and mixed-media illustrations by her husband as well as a cache of handmade model ships he had given to a local museum.

Until recently, the town’s council had refused to engage with the couple. “It’s positive that they are actually talking to us and not just ignoring us,” the 77-year-old businesswoman and socialite said. “We will see where it goes.”

The breakthrough came when Lovran mayor Bojan Simonic told this newspaper in September that he was open to a deal to return what remained of the confiscated collection, saying: “I personally think that the municipality has no interest in keeping them.”

An itemised list of 32 works with auction reserves was this month forwarded to Melbourne filmmaker Steve Ravic, who has made numerous trips to Croatia on the couple’s behalf.

The municipality’s senior officer for general affairs, IT support and archiving Katarina Jelacic advised they were collectively valued at 343,400 Croatian kuna – about $70,000 – a fraction of their worth on the open market, according to Ms Billich.

Ms Jelacic wrote: “We hereby invite you, if you are interested in buying any of the abovementioned works of art, to inform us so that we can announce a public tender for the sale of them.”

While major Billich paintings command prices in the tens of thousands of dollars, his wife said Lovran was now caught by the lowball valuations it had applied to minimise the worth of the seized works during the prolonged dispute.

“They have been trapped in their own hypocrisy,” she said.

Billich fled the seaside centre in western Croatia as a young man, having been jailed by the ruling communists, but returned after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991 keen to invest in a new future for his former hometown.

He sank $250,000 into restoring the tumbledown 12th-century tower housing the Fortezza maritime museum and donated the key displays on the understanding that rent and council taxes would be waived for 10 years.

This did not happen. Unbeknown to him, the debt piled up until, in 2008, he was brusquely informed the collection had been confiscated to cover an outstanding bill of HRK429,066 (about $85,000) plus accrued interest.

Nearly two-thirds of the artworks were subsequently sold, while the valuable model ships disappeared. The itemised list sent through on November 6 is the first accounting to the Billiches of what’s left.

They were still “suspicious” of what was on offer and would require the works to be inspected on their behalf to confirm the provenance, Ms Billich said.

Mr Ravic this week advised the municipality they were prepared to pay “the amounts you have stipulated” for the original oil paintings and possibly some mixed media pieces but emphasised the Billich Gallery and Ms Billich were the “actual legitimate owners of all of the listed works.