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Polaroid Collection: Urgent Institutional Alert 1

John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding that involves the Polaroid Collection, anounced on January 3, 2010 that he has found buyers for most of the collection. This opens the way for a poential auction for the several remaining components of the Polaroid Collection, with competitive bids due no later that 5 p.m. CST on January 20, 2011 — 10 days hence. That leaves a very brief window of opportunity for any institution or other potential purchaser to submit an offer. […]

2010: That Was The Year That Was

The year began for Photocritic International with threats of a six- to seven-figure lawsuit from three goons in expensive suits, related to my pursuit of the Polaroid Collection debacle. The goodfellas in question who tried making me an offer I couldn’t refuse: Mitchell Zuckerman, President of Sotheby’s Ventures, LLC: John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding; and George H. Singer, Esq., Stoebner’s attack poodle. The year concluded, approximately, with my call for the resignation of another thug, William “Wild Bill” Turnage, managing trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, consequent to his corruption of the Center for Creative Photography and the University of Arizona-Tucson, where that institution is based. […]

Polaroid Collection: Update 13

As a belated Christmas gift, George H. Singer, Esq., of the Minneapolis law firm Lindqvist & Vennum, legal counsel to John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding, sent me a “Notice and Demand” letter dated December 30, 2009, indicating his unhappiness, and his client’s, with some of the reportage and commentary posted here. I responded, and he replied, and I replied in turn, in a full and frank exchange of views. You’ll find our collected correspondence here. […]

Polaroid Collection: Update 11

I think it is incumbent on the Polaroid Corporation to answer some increasingly urgent questions. To wit: How does the Polaroid Corporation account for the discrepancy between the repeated estimate of 22,000-24,000 prints in the collection, given out by the Polaroid Corporation as recently as summer 2009, and the official inventory of 16,000 presented to the Minnesota court in spring 2009? Can the Polaroid Corporation verify its actual acquisition and legal ownership of all the works it claims as its outright property in the Polaroid Collection, above and beyond authorization from the courts to sell them? […]

Polaroid Collection: Update 9

In effect, if not by intent, several iterations of the corporate entity known as the Polaroid Corporation have used the bankruptcy courts of Delaware and Minnesota to launder the world-famous Polaroid Collection by legally severing it in toto from any binding, enduring contractual relationships with the picture-makers whose work it contains. In so doing, the court has endorsed the seller’s effective breach of contract in relation to thousands of artworks by hundreds of artists. As precedent, this decision will have ramifications and resonances that the court clearly has failed to envision. . . . […]