Saving the Art Market - artmarketblog.com Are you aware that it is estimated that between 10% and 40% (depending on who you talk to) of artworks on the market are fakes or forgeries?
be aware of is that the definition of a fake or forged work is not just a work of art that has been created by someone with the intention of deceive people into believing it is by someone that it is not. The market will sometimes consider a work that is altered (repaired, touched up, completed etc.) beyond what is reasonable and acceptable (in terms of maintaining the artist’s original intention of what the work should look like) to be no longer by that artist and as such, if still attributed to that artist, to be a forgery or fake.
Because the problem of art fraud is such a massive problem the severity of which is severely underestimated, I am going to continue to report on this issue in the future with the hope of encouraging collectors, dealers, investors, gallerists, auctioneers etc. to be more vigilant when dealing with works of art. Just because a problem is not widely publicised doesn’t mean that it isn’t having a major impact. If something is not done about this problem very soon I believe the ramifications will be most severe.
[1]In the World of Forgery, No Work is Sacred - art and collectible forgeries and how to recognize them
Art Business News, Oct, 2000 by Barden Prisant
Image: Time magazine cover with image of painting by famous art forger Emlyr de Hory
**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.
