[MSN] Russian Art Market Shaken as 800 Paintings Revealed to Be Fakes

[MSN]

Russian Art Market Shaken as 800 Paintings Revealed to Be Fakes 

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's booming art market is facing the worst crisis of confidence in the post-Soviet era as hundreds of paintings have been identified as fakes, said dealers and collectors.

About 800 works, most still in private collections, are listed in ``The Catalog of Fraudulent Art Works'' now on its fourth volume. There are ``possibly thousands more'' still to be named, its co-author Vladimir Roschin said in an interview. The 800 pictures wrongly authenticated by venerable institutions include almost 100 cleared by the State Tretyakov Gallery, its deputy director Lidia Iovleva said in a separate interview.

``Sales in Moscow of 19th-century Russian art have fallen because of the hysteria over fakes,'' said Georgy Putnikov, vice president of the Confederation of Art and Antique Dealers. The Moscow-based association claimed the catalog and its sponsors are ``destabilizing the market'' and ``destroying consumer confidence.''

Dealers and collectors said prices for more expensive works on the Russian art market have risen 20 to 30 fold over the past decade. Sotheby's, the biggest seller of Russian art, said sales in 2007 were $190.9 million, up 31-fold on 2000. Led by commodities and energy exports, Russia's economy has grown every year since 1999, creating a business and political elite eager to acquire fine art and luxury goods.

The catalog has prompted collectors to return at least 55 paintings to dealers, said Roschin. His partner is Rossvyaz Okhrankultura, a state watchdog agency for culture and the media. Roschin said the 800 fakes, if they had been genuine, would net $100 million.

More Fakes
The fourth volume of the fakes catalog appeared in mid-April. Volume five has been compiled, showing 150 more fakes, and will be published later this year. While 11 volumes were planned, the authors said that after the fifth volume any newly discovered fakes will be listed at Rossvyaz Okhrankultura's Web site, http://www.rsoc.ru.

``This whole affair is the crime of the century in the art world,'' said Roschin, who himself collects Russian art. ``These volumes contain only a small number of the fakes out there.''

The Russian State Library named the catalog Best Culture Book of 2007. Each volume has a run of 2,000, half of which are given to museums, scholars, and law-enforcement agencies, said Roschin.

The Confederation of Art and Antique Dealers said proven fakes should be removed quietly from the market by dealers. Roschin said he went public because some dishonest dealers knowingly resell fraudulent paintings to unsuspecting customers.

`Apprehensive' Buyers
``Many collectors don't want to admit they've bought fakes, and new buyers are increasingly apprehensive,'' said Roschin. ``I believe these catalogs will help to clear the air and restore confidence.''

Fraudsters target both little-known artists, and top-selling ones such as Shishkin, Aivazovsky, and Bogolyubov. Fakes are often sold for between $100,000 and $3 million, said Roschin.

Volumes two and four list fakes weeded out before resale by experts at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Volumes one and three are the most controversial, containing 300 artworks in private collections and published without the owners' consent.

These two volumes list 19th-century Western European paintings doctored by criminals to look like 19th-century Russian artworks, and which then passed authenticity evaluations by Tretyakov experts in Moscow.

Admitting Mistakes
The frauds in these volumes were compiled by one of the experts, Vladimir Petrov, who admitted in 2005 to having inadvertently authenticated 20 fraudulent paintings. He called on his colleagues to admit their mistakes.

Such errors are possible because many Russian realist painters followed European trends, said Petrov. They used the same techniques, subject matter, and sometimes had the same teachers.

``Many experts weren't prepared for such a clever form of fraud,'' said the Tretyakov's Iovleva. ``Such fraud is a result of the dramatic rise in prices for Russian artworks.''

She said the catalog is ``impressive,'' though the prevalence of fakes is ``exaggerated.'' Of about 10,000 paintings evaluated by Tretyakov experts over the past eight years, they erred only 96 times, Iovleva said.

Citing Petrov, Roschin said ``there certainly will be more fakes that had received Tretyakov authenticity.''

Dealers and collectors say 19th-century paintings are not the only period of Russian art under attack by criminals.

Postwar Fakes

``The market is overwhelmed by frauds, but this goes for all periods,'' said Emelyan Zakharov, co-owner of the Moscow contemporary art gallery, Triumph, and who supported the catalog's publishing. ``Fakes used to be mostly from the avant- garde, but now even postwar art is faked.''

Putnikov and other dealers said they feared that Triumph might be attempting to convince collectors to buy less classical and more contemporary art.

``More and more people now believe it's safer to collect art by living artists, and sales for contemporary art have been increasing,'' said Putnikov.

Zakharov adamantly denies the allegations.

``I previously dealt in classical art all my life, and even got burnt on fakes,'' said Zakharov. ``This catalog will help the market. As collectors demand better proof of authenticity, prices for genuine works will rise.''

(John Varoli writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) 

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