Initially, my intention of this study on Art Fraud was to look at the effect of Art Fraud on the Australian market. However my research has evolved to include information on the identification and documentation of fakes, using the “theory of best fit” and the need for an art fraud database (as discussed in the paper “all that glitters” by Robyn Sloggett).
Art fraud has evolved from justifiable copying by art students to unlawful copying and infiltration into the legitimate art world.
The occurrence of deliberate fraud in the art market is born from the greed of criminals. Following the Middle Ages; in the 15th Century, art became a commercial commodity and hence fraudulent works infiltrated the market.
The progression of art fraud from workshop copies to large scale ventures involving infiltration into historical records and documentation to prove provenance is characterized by the case of John Drew and John Myatt in the Uk.
Forgers of note are Hans Van Meegeren (1889-1947), Joseph Van Der Veken (1872-1964), Icilio Federico Joni (1866-1946), Otto Wacker (1905-1976), Elmyr de Hory (1905-1976?), Tom Keating (1917-1984), Eric Hebborn (1934-19960), and more recently: John Myatt and John Drewe, and in Australia; William Blundell.
Of note in the past decade in Australia, are the revelations in early 1999 of a major Melbourne art dealer, Lauraine Diggins; that she had been “taken in” by faked paintings, she is quoted as saying that she estimated that art fraud costs buyers millions of dollars a year (Maslen and Daly, 1999: 1). Then in 1998; William Blundell’s production of “innuendos”; works by major Australian artists, such as Streeton and Whiteley, sold by Germain Curvers through small auction houses. Like Drewe in the UK who falsified provenance records and had an indepth knowledge of the art market, Curvers was an individual who both knew about the workings of the art world and had a position that allowed her to move works onto the market. The scam operated over many years, it is impossible to calculate how many fakes were successfully sold, and Blundell has claimed that a large number of his fakes were sold by the leading auction houses and have now found their way into major museum collections (Hills, 1998). The favourites for Australian forgers and fakers include Streeton, McCubbin, Gill, Heysen, Withers, Gruner, Lindsay, Rees, Drysdale, Nolan and Hart. (Simpson, 1988: 796)
Original Picasso (on Left) Forgery by John Myatt(on Right)
"Tools of the trade", as used by Drewe.
Through my research I have discovered numerous papers and documents discussing art crime, fraud, forgeries and theft; the detection of it and systems put in place to eliminate it. They look at the impact of forgeries on the International Art Market and hence on the Australian Market.
The ideal starting point for this study is to look at an overview of the history of art forgery, this can be accomplished using the website en.wilkipedia.org/wiki/Art_forgeryThe site goes through history, the forgers (the artists and dealers), methods of detection, problems with authentication, photographic forgery, famous forgeries, known art forgers and dealers of forged art, references and external links.
Of these links, one of the best and most informative sites that I have found dealing with this topic is Museum Security Network: http://www.museum-security.org/forgery1.htm
This site details: Famous art forgers with links to sites with information about each of the artists, articles about forgery (general), art fraud, authentication, copies and reproductions, encyclopedia articles, exhibitions/museums/education, forensic science, forgery by country, forgery of famous artists, Art forgery bibliography.
This is an excellent site providing direct links to numerous others and a concise list of further readings.
http://www.caslon.com.au/forgeryprofile5.htm#australia
This site is a valuable introduction into the topic of Art fraud. It details Art Fraud in Australia, noting the art crime conference, incidents of fraud, references to further readings and forgery in Australia.
Information pertinent to the Australian market was discussed in depth at the conference: Art Crime: Protecting art, protecting artists and protecting consumers, held at the Landmark Parkroyal, Sydney, in Dec. 1999 Run by the Australian Institute of Criminology. Website: http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/artcrime/
An excellent site with issues and links to papers pertaining particularly to the Australian market. This site contains links to papers by Robyn Sloggett, from the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Vic. Robyn is the Director of the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation a leading art crime investigator. Links to Law enforcement issues, theft, legal issues in art crime: Australia and International, Aboriginal art: authenticity and the Consumer, Aboriginal art: Knowledge for consumers, Crime prevention.
A different view: "The beneficial aspects of fakes" as seen by Bruno S. Frey.
http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/ecol-pool/incoll/incoll_528.pdf
In the paper Art Fakes-What fakes? Bruno S. Frey discusses the legitimacy of Art fraud. He discusses the implications that fakes have on the market in the form of economical benefits, in particular the “propagation Effect” where imitations serve to “propagate” the artwork to a wider audience and thus allow larger numbers of the artwork onto the market, in turn allowing a broader exposure for the artist and allowing him or her to sell future (original) works at higher prices. Another benefit of allowing copies he says it to raise artistic capital, by allowing training artists to copy original works by master artists, he speaks of a third benefit being to support creativity and keep the arts lively, “the smaller the barriers against imitating, the greater the scope for future artists to experiment”.
The presence of fakes on the market creates uncertainty among buyers, it is the uncertainty that imposes a greater cost on financial investors of artwork.
The aesthetic evaluation (measured by the willingness to pay) falls the more, the larger the number of reproductions. Uncertainty due to fakes creates higher costs to the market with the need to provide provenance records and authentication. Hedging against certain degrees of uncertainty provides a sort of “safety net’ to buyers who, buying from reputable sources know that the higher prices are a result of the higher certainty that the works are originals by the original creator. In response to the need of art collectors to have a reliable source to source authentic and reliable pieces of art, the niche for specialized suppliers; (ie. Serious art dealers and auction houses), is created.
Frey suggests artists use “quotations” where the source of the original is referenced; in much the same way as literature is referenced; allowing the practice of copying work for the purpose of raising artistic capital, and propagation. He suggests this would provide the beneficial aspects of fakes while allowing the original artists to benefit from the reference.