Fraud: the crime of obtaining money or some other benefit by deliberate deception.
Art Forgery is most often an attempt by an artist to create and sell works of art that are falsely attributed to be the work of another, for financial or cultural gain.
The monetary and cultural value of an artwork stems from the uniqueness of the piece, and the attribution to the artist. In order to authenticate the originality and thus the value of a particular artwork, there are numerous ‘points of identification’ that are used to enable a theory of ‘best fit’ to be devised, hence providing authentication to the work.
The aim of authentication, should not be to prove that a work is by a particular artist, but to attempt to disprove that it is.
Points of identification to help determine the theory of best fit include study of the art historical, the provenance and the materials and techniques.
In a well authenticated work there should be little dysfunction between these three.
In the case of restorative works or improvement to an original artwork, it is often not the intent of the restorative artist to forge, but to improve on the original to increase the salability and price.
In these cases it is not the issue of authorship but that of one that the work represents a certain value (financial or cultural).
"Portrait of a Woman, 18th-19th centuries. Oil on canvas, 62.23 cm. x 48.26 cm. Fogg Art Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, 1943."
In 1954, X-ray images were taken of the painting, conservators found an earlier portrait of a different woman beneath the surface.
In the paper “All that Glitters”, Robyn Sloggett, discusses Art Fraud using Context, Verification, databases and scientific analysis to authenticate works and prove provenance.
The paper discusses art forgery in context, looking at legitimate art forgeries, to restorative techniques, to ‘improving’ art works to increase saleability and price achievements.
The behaviour of fraud in context: Intentional deception, or intentional copies (as in the case of the “Fabulous Fakes” exhibition); or legitimate works of art.
Her discussion highlights the need for an Australian register / database of works which have insecure or false provenance or those works which have been deemed to be fakes. The Ian Potter Arts Conservation Centre is endeavoring to compile such a database using information collected from experts, connoisseurs, auction houses and dealers. This database with the information collected will aid in the tracking and identifying possible fakes in the Australian Market to help in the determination of authenticity of Australian Art.
The Ian Potter Arts Conservation Centre website has failed to provide any information regarding the authentication database.
Links from this site go to the Art Crime seminar held in Dec 2-3, 1999:
Protecting Art, Protecting Artists and Protecting Consumers Conference convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
This seminar has numerous papers and presentations discussing Art Crime within Australia. An essential reference in the research of art crime activity.
URL's:
http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/artcrime/sloggeta.pdf
Robyn Sloggett paper. "All That Glitter's"
http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/artcrime/index.html
Art Crime Conference, Protecting Art, Protecting Artists and Protecting Consumers Conference convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology. Held in Dec 2-3, 1999