Fakes and forgeries

Sotheby’s is taking legal action to recover its losses over the sale of a ‘fake’ Italian Old Master.

The Van Gogh Museum has issued an extraordinary public rebuttal to the release of ‘Vincent van Gogh: The Lost Arles Sketchbook’, criticising the authors for their “excessively easy going attitude… towards questions of authenticity”.

Sotheby’s has bought scientific research specialist Orion Analytical to "help to make the art market a safer place".

The Princely Collections of Liechtenstein has released a document to counter claims that 'Venus', a painting attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder, is a forgery.

The buyer of a major Old Master painting at the centre of a potential ‘fakes’ scandal has strongly defended its authenticity as a row threatens to erupt over its attribution.

Lawyers representing the Frenchman Giulano Ruffini have defended his role in handling paintings at the centre of a ‘fakes scandal’ besetting the Old Masters market.

A series of Old Master paintings has come under the spotlight as further details emerge about a potentially major fakes scandal.

Earlier this year, authorities in France seized a painting attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) which was being exhibited in the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix-en-Provence.

Kraemer Gallery and Didier Aaron & Cie, the two leading members of the Paris trade embroiled in a faking scandal, are expected to be excluded from the forthcoming Biennale des Antiquaires, a source close to the French trade has told ATG.

Two barons of the Paris antiques trade have been questioned in connection with the so-called Affaire Jean Lupu, a growing scandal surrounding fakes.

Expert witnesses were called to give evidence during legal proceedings between Domenico De Sole, chairman of Sotheby’s, and Ann Freedman, the former president of Knoedler gallery, over the sale of a fake Rothko painting.

Michigan art dealer Eric Spoutz was arrested on February 3 on a federal charge of selling forged artworks.

Fake works purporting to be Damien Hirst studio paintings are circulating on the UK regional art and antiques market.

A retired academic and art lecturer has been handed a six-month suspended sentence after admitting to forging a number of Grosvenor School linocut prints and attempting to pass them off as genuine through various auction houses.

“There are 12 symbols in the Chinese language for the word fake – and each means something slightly different”.

An antiques dealer who forged signatures of famous people such as Winston Churchill and Robert Louis Stevenson has been told he will have to sell his house to pay back more than £33,000 he took in through the scam.

The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office want to help more UK provincial auctioneers spot fakes by inviting them to their Fakes and Forgeries seminars at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London.

Recent reports suggest the number of copied Lowry prints in circulation is increasing.

The trade have strongly backed our comment last week calling into question the reliability of claims that 40% of antiques on the UK market are fakes or forgeries.

Recent publicity for the new TV series ‘Treasure Detectives’ prompted a number of articles claiming that 40% of all antiques on the UK market are fakes.