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National Gallery of Victoria buys a Van Gogh…err a Rubens? Wait is it a Gavin Turk?

Christopher — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:34:23 +0000

Head of a Man is the name given to a $5 million Vincent Van Gogh portrait that was purchased in 1940. Only thing is now no one belives it is a Van Gogh. The Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum performed a 10-month investigation by scholars and has found the portrait was probably painted by a fellow student of Van Gogh in Antwerp or Paris in the mid 1880s. They are absolutely sure though that it is not a forgery since the work makes no attempt to directly mimic or pass itself off in a documented or established way as a Van Gogh.

Germaine Greer, a writer for the Guardian Unlimited has a theory that the work is a Rubens which I would think she is joking since Rubens is widely know for doing portraiture with almost no hard edges and voluminous features. Either way the work is now valued at a fraction of a fraction of it’s previous value and is being relabeled to reflect it’s now unknown creator.

I would like to personally throw my hat in the ring and say that I believe the portrait to be the product of Gavin Turk. After having seen his Warhol riffed “Piss Paintings” at the Armory I believe that his mimicking of past Masters has no limits and this is a 1800′s portrait of Turk with a rocking beard and a decade (for him) of hair growth.

That’s just my thought it could be a Thomas Kinkade for all I know.

Source: Paul Klein’s Art Letter

Ebay Art Scam Broken Up In Chicago

Christopher — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:53:29 +0000

Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Andy Warhol were among artists whose works were counterfeited by seven people indicted for two art-fraud schemes that reaped a combined $5 million.

Those charged include three Europeans and residents of New York, Florida and Illinois, Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said today in a statement. They sold thousands of fake prints in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe, he alleged.

“Most of us have never owned a work of art signed by Picasso,” Fitzgerald said today at a press conference. Some people who believed they did, he added, “bought fakes.”

Some of the prints in the scam were sold on EBay Inc., the world’s largest online auctioneer, Fitzgerald alleged. Others were funneled through two art dealers in Northbrook, Illinois, prosecutors claimed.

The counterfeiting included the reproduction of actual works by the artists as well as the sale of fakes executed in each one’s particular style, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Miller, one of the prosecutors assigned to the case.

Fitzgerald urged art buyers to be wary. “Proceed with caution and seek guidance,” he said.

Some of the forgeries were made in Spain and Italy, Fitzgerald said. Others were created by one of the defendants, Leon Amiel Jr. of New York.

Amiel was indicted with art dealer James Kennedy of Northbrook, Illinois. Amiel allegedly distributed 2,500 counterfeit prints of work by Chagall and Calder. Kennedy is accused of traveling the country selling fakes as genuine limited-edition prints. The duo face nine counts of fraud and a demand to forfeit $1 million.

Kennedy’s lawyer, Michael B. Mann of Maywood, Illinois, declined to comment on the allegations.

In the larger of two cases, five people face 10 counts of fraud for their roles in importing forgeries from Europe and selling them through another Northbrook art dealer, Michael Zabrin. Prosecutors seek to recover $4 million from these defendants, Fitzgerald said.

Art Institute of Chicago’s Gauguin sculpture declared a fake

Christopher — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:32:47 +0000

The Art Institute of Chicago announced yesterday that the Gauguin ceramic sculpture “The Faun” which has been on display for about a decade is infact a forgery by Shaun Greenhalgh who is part of a larger family of forgers that has been under investigation by Scotland Yard for some time.

The Museum purchased the sculpture form a private dealer in London, who in turn bought it from a Sotheby’s auction in 1994.

Shaun Greenhalgh received a prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months last month. His mother, Olive, 83, was given a 12-month suspended sentence. The father, George, 84, broker of all the forged objects, had a deferred sentence pending medical reports.

For 17 years, the family carried on one of the most sophisticated forgery operations in modern history, faking scores of objects including antiquities, watercolors, paintings and modern sculpture, authorities said. Many of the pieces were copies of ancient objects or artworks thought to be lost.

UPDATE The Art Newspaper has published that the purchase price of the sculpture that the Art Institute would not like to declare was $125,000. The London dealer that sold it to the Institute bought the piece in 1994 for £20,700 or $42,382. Making a profit of $82,618 on the transaction.

Bad at Sports » Forgery

National Gallery of Victoria buys a Van Gogh…err a Rubens? Wait is it a Gavin Turk?

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