Yoed and Natasha Anise are suing the London-based Alison Jacques gallery for breach of contract after the gallery cancelled the sale of three paintings by Monica Sjöö, following objections from the Swedish artist’s estate.
The case, which is due to be heard in the Central London County Court in March 2027, centres on the Anises’ first-ever art acquisitions: three large paintings by Sjöö (1938-2005), titled Meeting the Ancestors at Avebury (1993), Forest Beings (1997) and Amazon Women of the Bronze Age (1999), which were bought on 6 October 2023 from Alison Jacques gallery for £264,000, discounted by 20% from the asking price of £330,000.
On 16 November 2023, the Anises met Sjöö’s relatives, representatives of the artist’s estate, at a dinner celebrating the opening of her retrospective at Modern Art Oxford, in which the paintings were included. Days later, the Anises’ art adviser Marie St Germain was informed by Jacques that the estate had rescinded the sale, allegedly due to remarks that Natasha Anise made at the dinner. The remarks in question, Anise tells The Art Newspaper, were that she said she had never bought art before and she might never again. The couple asserts that Jacques wrote in emails in November 2023 that the gallery had been “misled” about the Anises’ “credentials” by St Germain, and that “Mrs Anise had made representatives of the Estate ’very uncomfortable’ by oversharing things about her personal life and emotions”. Natasha Anise tells The Art Newspaper that her remarks were not serious, and she had planned to be a steward for Sjöö’s works, including loaning them to museums for exhibitions.
Monica Sjöö, Meeting the Ancestors at Avebury, 1993
© The Estate of Monica Sjöö. Photo: Albin Dahlström/Moderna Museet
According to a counterclaim filed by Jacques, Anise also said she planned to hang the works in her children’s rooms—something the gallery said was unwise due to the paintings’ fragile condition and the fact they were unprotected by glass. “The claimants neither desired nor intended to promote appreciation for Monica Sjöö and for the artworks among a wider public, including by loaning the artworks to museums but, rather, only intended to use the artworks for decorating their children’s bedrooms,” the counterclaim states.
The gallery’s rebuttal also alleges that St Germain misled a gallery employee with whom she was in contact, by stating the Anises were “beginning to collect and have the potential to be very important supporters for this artist” ahead of the sale. Jacques argues that “beginning to collect” differs considerably from “never bought art”.
During a phone call on 22 November 2023, the counterclaim asserts, St Germain told Jacques that she “wished she had not allowed the claimants to attend the opening in Oxford and to have direct contact with the estate as she had been worried that allowing them direct contact ‘would not be a good idea’ and that she should have ‘kept them separate from the estate’”. The counterclaim alleges that St Germain also spoke of her “regret” at “allowing anyone involved to meet them” and said Natasha Anise had cancelled a proposed dinner on 14 November 2023 with Jacques and St Germain over concerns she “would screw it up”.
The Anises, who live between Austin, Texas, and Stockholm, operate a tech company within the alcohol industry. Natasha Anise befriended St Germain, who previously worked for Galerie d’Orsay in Boston and Heather James Fine Art in Austin, eight years ago at a mothers’ group in Texas. St Germain discussed collecting as an investment with Yoed Anise, but he was not compelled to buy anything until he and Natasha visited Sjöö’s retrospective at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in September 2023, after which the couple asked St Germain to source some of the artist’s works.
St Germain contacted Alison Jacques, which began representing Sjöö’s estate in May 2023. “Marie told us a lot of times, for new collectors, they’ll just sell you one,” Yoed tells The Art Newspaper. “To our surprise, they were willing to do two, even three, and they were able to give us a discount.”
The Anises paid for the paintings on 6 October 2023, though they did not have immediate possession as the works were still on loan to Modern Art Oxford and were promised to Moderna Museet Malmö for the museum’s presentation of the Sjöö retrospective in 2024.
Alison Jacques’s gallery in London
© Rundell Associates
The Art Newspaper has reviewed emails exchanged between Jacques, St Germain and Yoed Anise between November 2023 and March 2024. On 22 November 2023, the day Jacques called St Germain about the rescission, the adviser argued that, according to their contract—which stated “ownership will be transferred to the buyer upon receipt of funds”—the Anises already owned the paintings.
“If the wording of the invoice is not clear then I apologise,” Jacques responded the next day, explaining that the contract actually meant title only passed once the gallery paid Sjöö’s estate.
The Anises’ contract stipulated the paintings were “confirmed” for exhibition at Modern Art Oxford and Moderna Museet Malmö as Sjöö’s retrospective travelled until September 2024. The museums would credit the loans to “The Anise Family” and insure the works. But, after the Anises’ lawyers told Modern Art Oxford of the dispute in February 2024, the museum sent the contested paintings to Alison Jacques gallery, where they remain in storage.
Alison Jacques’s counterclaim concedes the paintings indeed belonged to the Anises upon payment, and that Jacques had been “incorrect” in claiming otherwise. On 1 December 2023 the gallery tried to return the Anises’ funds, but they were not transferred due to a banking error. On 28 February 2024, Jacques emailed the Anises saying the estate had agreed to either honour the contract and release the works, or rescind it and return their funds with interest—both in full and final settlement.
Full refund
But the Anises refuse to accept either. They are now seeking a full refund for the works (£264,000) plus the 20% discount (£66,000), which they claim would reflect the works’ market value, and St Germain’s fee of $31,944 (or £26,400, 10% of the purchase price). “I offered to return the commission,” St Germain tells The Art Newspaper, but the Anises declined, “acknowledging there was no fault on my part”.
The Anises are also claiming travel expenses of £9,091 for their trip to the UK in November 2023, legal costs and a provisional £26,400 in damages for the loss of “pleasure, amenity, prestige and heritage value”. The exhibiting of the works in museums, publicly credited to the Anise Family, “were an important part of this”.
In its counterclaim, Alison Jacques gallery denies any breach of contract and claims: “For around ten months the claimants refused either to take possession of the artworks or treat the sale as rescinded and accept a refund, and demanded various monies (eg compensation for the claimants’ hurt feelings, that the defendant pay the cost of a holiday the claimants had taken).” The attempts to recoup such damages, the gallery’s counterclaim alleges, “are misconceived and are denied. Either the contract has been rescinded and the claimants’ only entitlement is the return of their monies, or the contract is still in effect and the claimants’ entitlement is, essentially, to take possession of their artworks.”
Regarding the alleged damages incurred by the paintings’ omission from the museum shows, a representative for the gallery says this is beside the point: “The purpose of the contract was to effect a sale of tangible goods.”
Traditionally, such disputes between galleries and collectors are settled privately, with both parties preferring to maintain their privacy. But Yoed Anise tells The Art Newspaper: “If this prevents me from other people thinking that I’m a credible collector, then so be it. I would prefer artists who want to work with me.”
A legal representative for Alison Jacques told The Art Newspaper in a letter that the gallery’s “position is unchanged from what has been set out in its statement of case”.
