Curiousness in Reading
July 11 2014
Video: BBC, via YouTube. Pictures from getreading.co.uk and bbc.co.uk
I think this ranks amongst the most optimistic attribution 'heists' I've yet seen: a man from Reading claiming to own a Van Gogh 'unveiled' the picture in a local cafe, and got the local news in to film the event. Cue headlines, 'Van Gogh painting worth millions hung in Reading cafe'. The picture's owner, one Markus Lawrence (below), claimed (according to the BBC) that the picture had been in his family's possession since being bought for 300 francs in Paris in the 1920s:
Mr Lawrence, from Reading, inherited the work and the collection, started by his family 200 years ago, when he turned 18.
His grandfather Vivian Wetten, an architect, died in 1980, and left them to his daughter's eldest son who turned out to be Mr Lawrence.
Other artists in his family collection, which is in storage, include Rembrandt, Picasso, Degas, Cezanne, Henry Moore and Dali.
As you can see on the video above, it appears bodyguards were posted outside the door to protect the painting, and as the BBC's reporter, Dave Gilyeat, said:
There's a great buzz with people laughing at how outrageous it is that a painting worth millions is adorning the wall.
Then, one by one, each punter breathlessly approaches it to take in its glory up close.
Some customers actually need it pointing out to them. One man responds with a "Crikey!" before remarking that it's a risky venture putting such a prized artwork in such a vulnerable position.
On the local news site, getreading.co.uk, we were given more information:
The collection was left to Mr Lawrence, 27, in his grandfather's will, with the condition that he would not sell any of the work, or take finance out against it.
It has been kept in high-security storage but he is now hoping to share it with Reading by creating a community gallery.
Mr Lawrence, who works as a professional art collector and is also a charity trustee for Support U, says: "My grandfather was a big art collector but the first members of my family who collected art were back in 1763.
Mr Lawrence has a website for his collection, which he calls the RG, or the 'Reading Gallery - Bringing art to Reading'. The collection claimed to own works by the ikes of Picasso and Rembrandt, and even a possible 5th version of Munch's Scream. Because Mr Lawrence said he wanted to share his collection with the people of Reading, but didn't have the funds to do this himself, he started a Kickstarter page seeking £50,000 in donations from members of the public to help him create a public art gallery in Reading. Mr Lawrence was nominated for a 'Pride of Reading' award, and the scheme even got the backing of Reading Borough Council:
Councillor Sarah Hacker, who is chair of the Reading Arts Forum, said: "I think it is amazing to bring art like this to Reading.
"Reading has an excellent arts culture, there's so much going on, but can you imagine if we had a Van Gogh in the town? Can you imagine how many people would be inspired to take on a bit of art?".
But alas, as you can see from the high-res photos on the getreading site here (and below), the pictures are duds. The Van Gogh is just a copy (as Van Gogh specialist David Brooks pointed out to the BBC). And of course you can't build much of a museum these days for £50,000.
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So inevitably the wheels started to fall off Mr Lawrence's very curious claims and ambitions. The old black and white photos on his RG website of what were claimed to be earlier generations of his family turned out to be stock images lifted from the web, according to getreading's follow up piece, and have since been taken off the RG site. The Kickstarter page has also been deleted (see the cached page here), though not before some folk had already pledged £6,960. And as the BBC investigated further, it transpired that the 'Van Gogh' had actually been bought by Mr Lawrence (whose name has changed in the interim to simply 'Mark Lawrence) himself for £1,500 'about two years ago'.
Getreading spoke to Mr Lawrence after the whole affair was exposed:
He told getreading: “I very stupidly didn’t correct the [initial] statement after it had been published.
“I didn’t have much confidence in myself in finding pieces and anyone taking it seriously. I made a mistake.
“And I didn’t want the [BBC] person who recorded it to get into trouble.”
He added: “I wanted to be honest about the mistake and they’ve turned that against me. In my belief it’s by him [van Gogh].” [...]
“When it was on display I never said it was 100 per cent authentic, I hadn’t said it had been authenticated; we would be working with the Van Gogh Museum,” he said.
“They even said I wouldn’t comment on how much it was worth. They [BBC] just wanted the ‘£million van Gogh in the cafe’ story.
“They are destroying my character. I’ve dedicated hundreds of hours of my life to charity work and I’ve worked my a*** off to build this gallery and they’re turning everyone against me.”
Mr Lawrence says he didn't set out to deceive anyone. We're not told exactly what he had intended to do with his £50,000, had he raised it.
Update - a reader alerts me to one of Mr Lawrence's previous acquisitions.
Update II - the Reading Gallery website has been taken down, and replaced with this message:
We are currently updating the website to represent only pieces which have been authenticated by art bodies and are currently cataloging the collection. We will relaunch the website with only pieces which have been authenticated by independent third party recognised bodies. We thank you for your patience.
Might be a while.
