[CPProt.net] Australia: Experts warn of increasing art fraud

Fri May 6 08:57:42 CEST 2005

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1361075.htm

Broadcast: 05/05/2005

Experts warn of increasing art fraud
Reporter: Natasha Johnson

KERRY O'BRIEN: The word "fake" is guaranteed to send a shiver through the
art world. A dodgy painting destroys the buyer's investment, damages a
dealer's credibility devalues an artist's market. Overseas experts suggest
fraudulent works could make up about 10 per cent of the art market and while
it's not known how widespread the problem is here, it is believed to be
growing. It's a difficult crime to stamp out. Dealers who come across a
suspect work rarely call in the police and, even if they do, it's often
extremely hard to get a conviction. So Melbourne University Private has
started Australia's first art fraud course, aimed at police, collectors,
curators and dealers. Natasha Johnson reports. 

TIM ABDALLAH, DEUTSCHER-MENZIES AUCTION HOUSE: The public loves a story
about art forgery. It's kind of a bit James Bond. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT, MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRIVATE: The assumption is that the art
world's all froth and glitter, and if people get ripped off, well, that's
pretty funny, you know, because it's only art. 

TIM ABDALLAH: There's a lot at stake. A lot of people have got a lot of
money at stake in this business. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT: When you're talking about: is this a crime or not a crime?
It's a crime. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: Australians spend an estimated $300 million a year on art.
But in this big-bucks trade lurks a hidden danger - the dreaded fake. 

TIM ABDALLAH: It's like an unexploded bomb, you know. If it does go off in
your auction house, then it's very embarrassing and it's not much fun for
anyone. There's a lot of red faces. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT: When you see people who have bought things in good faith
come in, you know, they're quite distraught. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: Robyn Sloggett is the art world's fraud detective. She
investigates about a dozen suspect works a year at Melbourne University's
Conservation Centre - examining the painting, tracking its history and even
analysing paint samples in the Physics Department's nuclear microprobe. It's
intriguing work, but she'd rather not have to do it. With most dodgy
paintings, there's an innocent buyer who's been ripped off, and
increasingly, they're ordinary people who thought art would be a good
investment for their superannuation or savings. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT: One particularly rough example was a couple who came in and
had a painting that they wanted to leave to their children, and it was
pretty devastating for them because they were not well and it required a
rethink of how they were sorting out their finances for the next generation.

NATASHA JOHNSON: Robyn Sloggett was so frustrated by the number of dubious
works turning up, she decided to start an art authentication course at
Melbourne University Private aimed at collectors, curators, dealers and
police. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT: We do want a strong cohort of people out there who are
skilled in authentication, who know how to look at provenance, who can
access the right experts in terms of art history and know the process to go
through to determine whether something's right or not. 

STEPHEN NALL, DICKERSON GALLERY: This sort of shadow line is very much
something that Dickerson would never do. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: Stephen Nall is the stepson of Australian artist Robert
Dickerson and runs the Dickerson Gallery in Melbourne. 

STEPHEN NALL: It's an awful picture that looks like a Fred Flintstone
cartoon. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: So the alarm bells rang immediately? 

STEPHEN NALL: Absolutely. I didn't have any question about it. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: These pastels sold as Dickerson's for $8,000 but they were
never the work of the 80-year-old artist. 

ROBERT DICKERSON, ARTIST: The thing that makes me really angry is that
obviously the painting's not mine or the drawing's not mine; it's a bad
drawing or it's a bad painting and why should I have my name attached to
this stupid piece of work? Perhaps if it was a good fake you wouldn't mind
so much but they're usually so atrocious. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: The Dickerson family are fierce protectors of his work,
regularly calling in the police and doing their own detective work to track
down those responsible for fakes. 

STEPHEN NALL: It actually tends to destroy an artist's market if there are
fakes around in the marketplace. The difficulty, of course, is that these
works, unless they are taken out of the game, so to speak, become sold time
and again, and therefore, potentially, the confidence of people in the
marketplace in that particular artist is destroyed time and again. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: A range of artists from Whiteley to Streeton have been
faked, and while some galleries and dealers actively pursue the culprits,
many are reluctant to play the role of policeman. When you come across a
suspect work, do you call in the police? 

TIM ABDULLAH: No. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: Tim Abdallah is from Australia's largest auction house,
Deutsche-Menzies. He says about 1 in 500 paintings he sees are what he calls
problematic. 

TIM ABDALLAH: We might call the owner and say, "Well, look, we're a bit
concerned about this aspect of your painting. "Can you give us some more
information "that might back up its authenticity?", and if the owner is able
to provide it, then that's great, but if not, then the owner might just
quietly remove the picture from sale and that's the end of it from our point
of view. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: The problem is, even if the owner bought the fake
innocently, they often want to recoup their money so the suspect work often
pops up again and usually at less scrupulous second-hand dealers. If you're
at the front line, and you obviously care about the art industry, isn't
there a responsibility on you to take a more pro-active role? 

TIM ABDALLAH: You're right, absolutely right, but that's a pretty tricky
legal situation. I mean, I don't know if I've got the guts to do that
myself, to actually say, "You are preparing fakes here." Who's gonna say
that? You've got to have some pretty good evidence and then you've got to
spend time in court and then you've got to prepare cases and all that takes
time. We haven't got time for that sort of thing. 

STEPHEN NALL: I understand why they're reluctant but I do think that it's
irresponsible in terms of their responsibility to the industry to protect
the industry and the product. 

ROBYN SLOGGETT: What you've got to prove is that someone intended to defraud
and was going to profit by it. So it's a very complicated crime to actually
get to prosecution. 

NATASHA JOHNSON: Robyn Sloggett hopes that in educating the industry and
police, her course will help stamp out art forgery. And while everyone
insists it's an isolated problem, there's a concern it's a problem that's
likely to get worse. 

STEPHEN NALL: I believe there's a chance that it will because there are more
and more students of tertiary institutions coming out of art schools, and it
is impossible for this country to absorb all the output of that talent in a
legitimate way. 

TIM ABDALLAH: I would imagine that in the current art market environment
we're gonna see more of it because there is more money coming into the
field. There's gonna be more people out there tempted to have a go at it. 

KERRY O'BRIEN: That report from Natasha Johnson.