There’s plenty going on in the world of classic art these days, with a few stories making headlines around the world.
A few weeks ago we covered the story of two Vincent van Gogh paintings rescued from the Italian mafia (HERE), with the artworks in question described as ‘priceless’.
In this story there is a price, although it’s not one auctioneer giants Sotheby’s will be happy seeing splashed across papers and news sites the world over.
What’s worse is that the $10 million figure might just be the tip of the iceberg. We’ll head to the Daily Beast for a few key points:
[Sotheby’s] was forced into a humiliating admission that it is at the center [sic] of a multimillion-pound forgery scandal, involving what could be tens of millions of dollars worth of bogus Old Master paintings.
Specifically, a painting authenticated by Sotheby’s as the work of Dutch artist Frans Hals [an example of Hals’ work below] —and sold on that basis for almost $10 million—has now been “reassessed” by the auction house and declared a fake.
Sotheby’s released a statement saying that a new “technical analysis” had revealed that the work was a “forgery.” The sale was annulled and the client—believed to be an American collector based in Seattle—was reimbursed, Sotheby’s said.
In other words, the gallery was comprehensively hoodwinked. Even worse, however, is that now the authenticity of up to $200 million-worth of other Old Masters which allegedly appeared across European galleries from the same source—a little known French collector—is under question.
There will be plenty of employees sweating profusely as this one continues to spiral out of control, but one chap in particular might bear the brunt of his company’s frustrations:
Mark Weiss, a London dealer who is integral to the story, having bought two of the paintings…(including the recently declared fake Hals) told the Financial Times that he was “yet to be convinced” that the Hals was not genuine and declined to comment further.
It is believed Sotheby’s is now going after him to reimburse them for the money they lost on the forged Hals.
As a final nail in the coffin, let’s unpack why the distinction between ‘forgeries’ and ‘fakes’ matters so much in the art world:
Fakes can also be copies of a work done at the same time or in the same era as the original, which are very hard to identify, as the canvas, paint, and even the technique are all of the correct period…
Forgeries, on the other hand, are what most of us are thinking of when we imagine art crime—bogus works made by accomplished modern-day artists deliberately to resemble the real thing.
The revelation that Sotheby’s has been the victim of a sophisticated forgery comes at an inconvenient moment for the firm.
Although rather few visitors to Frieze would be specifically interested in Old Masters, Sotheby’s uses the Frieze fairs to counteract the idea that it is a fuddy-duddy old fashioned auction house, and push its contemporary offering with several specially curated sales.
There’s no ‘good’ time to be caught up in a forgery scandal, but given that Sotheby’s are set to auction some incredibly expensive artwork in the coming weeks the news will do little to aid buyer confidence.
You can read the very detailed analysis of the Sotheby’s mess HERE.
[source:dailybeast]
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