Art fraud is a contemporary issue that continues to grow more problematic and controversial due to an industry mindset in which money and reputation are favoured more highly than art authenticity. It is important to stress that this is an underlying industry attitude, rather than that of individuals, and it is the actions of the art market as a whole that dictate the ways that art crime must be addressed.
It is also imperative to bear in mind that art fraud is such an enormous problem right around the world because of the possibly devastating implications that come about as a result of an accusation that a gallery or dealership has sold a fake work of art. Art crime can therefore be thought of as a “hidden crime”, due to the lack of full reportage of incidents and the continued dissemination of forged artworks throughout the art market.
As an issue that is firmly located within contemporary frames of reference, it is appropriate that the Internet provides an excellent gateway to a wealth of resources on this topic. A Google search on “Art forgery” brings up over 50,000 hits, but once this search is refined to one particular aspect of the topic - in this case the role and value of forged artworks - a great amount of highly useful information is revealed.
The Caslon Analytics profile on forgery and authenticity was the most useful site found during the research process, providing a succinct summary of the topic as well as links to many other valuable resources. The Museum Security Network site was also relatively useful, however many of the links from this site were broken or out of date. Artcult was another site that fitted into this category, simply because of the briefness of its ‘articles’, which covered a range of issues, but only very fleetingly.
Amongst the most informative resources found on the Internet were the transcripts of a number of key papers that were delivered at the Australian Institute of Criminology Conference, ‘Art crime: protecting art, protecting artists and protecting consumers’, which took place on 2-3 December 1999. The papers produced for this conference considered the various aspects of the topic including law enforcement issues and the legal issues associated with art crime. Particularly useful was the paper, ‘Who Wins and Who Loses When Art is Stolen or Forged?’
Another key resource were the transcripts of numerous radio and television programs on the topic, including those from the 7.30 Report and 4 Corners television programs, as well as a number of newspaper articles that dealt with more controversial aspects of the topic. These included an article about the infamous ‘innuendo’ artist Will Blundell, and a more recent article that deals with the National Gallery of Victoria’s rejection of claims that their $25 million Vincent Van Gogh is a fake.
The disputed work by Vincent Van Gogh
These programs and articles are particularly valuable resources as they deal with practical examples of the loss of reputation and business that is associated with the accusation, or the revelation, that a gallery has sold a fake. The implications of this crying ‘fake’ are further addressed through the case of a 14th-century Madonna and Child hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Unsurprisingly, one point of view that is missing in the wealth of information available on the Internet is that of the forgers themselves. Aside from a few brief quotations in the articles already mentioned, this voice cannot ever truly be heard.
“One of the biggest problems with the art fraud market is the extremely low rate of official reporting on fraudulent activity.”* The cultural significance and intangible value of art is being eroded by this fraudulent activity, and art fraud is an area that will continue to be highly controversial and problematic until authorities find ways to properly address these issues.
*Quoted from Fighting art’s fraud freeway