Two Manhattan antique dealers pillaged $1 million in valuable maritime artifacts — including original Titanic memorabilia — from the elderly New York historian who founded the South Street Seaport Museum, a new lawsuit charges.
Noelle Hollander, daughter of late nautical expert Frank Braynard, claims that Kerry McCaffrey and Richard Faber looted her father’s Sea Cliff, LI, home of its pricey trove of ship memorabilia while he was dying from dementia.
Hollander said that after the pair’s visits, she discovered file folders with artifacts from a slew of historic ships, including the Titanic, all empty. Among the irreplaceable items were photographs, passenger lists, menus and diaries, she said.
Braynard, who organized the historic 1976 fleet of tall ships in New York Harbor, also sold the Antonio Jacobsen painting “Servia” and other artwork for the bargain-basement price of $26,000 to the dealers, the
Manhattan Supreme Court suit says.
A gallery is now selling the painting alone for $125,000, according to court papers.
“Faber raided entire filing cabinets, focusing especially on items from high-value ships such as SS Normandie, stuffing them into boxes and shopping bags and carting them away,” the filing alleges.
Hollander, 60, says her dad “was completely unaware of the theft” because of his illness.
He died in December 2007 at age 91.
Faber said the allegations were ridiculous, noting that he was close friends with Braynard and even treated the historian and his wife to a trip on the Queen Mary II in 2005.
McCaffrey’s lawyer, Joseph Callahan, said, “It’s patently untrue” that Braynard was mentally incapacitated when he sold off his collection.
He called the value Hollander ascribes to the painting “grossly exaggerated.”