The big painting fraud: real art exposed as a fake!

The big painting fraud: real art exposed as a fake!

misjudgments in the art company can lead to real works of art not be recognized as such. In the past, experts and collectors have repeatedly made mistakes that have had serious financial consequences. A particularly revealing case concerns the works of the British painter William Turner, whose art has been valued for centuries. As FAZ , however, it happens that even the most experienced connoisseurs of the matter are wrong.

The sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies from Wales collected works by Turners from 1908 and bequeathed a collection of the National Museum Cardiff in 1951, the seven paintings.
1963, including "Margate Jetty", "Off Margate" and "The Beacon Light", due to doubts. It was only 57 years later that incoming analyzes showed that these were actually originals from Turner. Experts from the Turner authentication service find that there could be several reasons why not all works by the artist were discovered: Turner was extremely productive and often painted on trips that are only sparsely documented. His works achieve high prices for auctions, which also makes authentication complicated.

Current developments and authentication techniques

Another example is an oil painting that was auctioned by an online auction house in Vienna in 2024. It was originally recognized as a "Rubens and workshop" and sold for 3000 euros. After confirming the authenticity by experts from the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp, the work was finally sold for over 50,000 euros and was recorded in the Catalog Raisonné. On the other hand, a painting by Giorgio de Chirico, which was referred to in 1972 by the artist himself, was to be regarded as real. In 2008, the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico confirmed the authenticity and the painting was auctioned at Christie’s for over eleven million euros in 2009 before reaching the Musée National D’Art Moderne in the Center Pompidou.

The authentication of works of art has significantly improved in recent years through advanced forensic techniques such as paper analysis and X -ray photography. Turner Experts shows how important the use of original materials and multilingual expertise are important. The team speaks fluently French, Italian and German, which facilitates access to international archives and libraries.

The history of art fakes

art fakes are a phenomenon that goes back to ancient times. In every age there were artists who imitated the talent of their masters. Kunst-Online reports of famous counterfeits such as the "Lysippus forgery" or the "Flaget Madonna", which have long been seen as real works, but later turned out to be fake. In the 19th century, the counterfeits experienced a heyday that was favored by the high demand for original works of art.

Modern counterfeiters like Wolfgang Beltracchi use complex techniques to fake painted works and even their provenance, which leads to enormous media attention. In such cases, evidence is a central topic, since the identification of counterfeits is a real challenge even for experts. With the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, the authentication will be revolutionized in the future, which gives hope to contain the trade in counterfeits and to protect the art market.