Knoedler fakes 'biggest art scam in US history'
June 2 2016
Video: CBS/YouTube
There's a good CBS '60 Minutes' on the Knoedler fake scandal, presented by Anderson Cooper. You can watch it above on You Tube at 15m10s in, or in better quality here (with ads) on the CBS site. It only lasts about 12 minutes, but even in that short time you are left wondering 'how the hell did the Knoedler Gallery not know these pictures were fake'?
We learn, for example, that the technical specialist James Martin of Orion Analytical was able to discern 'within an hour' that one of the Rothkos he examined was a fake, simply by noticing a white ground layer that Rothko would never have used at the date the painting was supposed to have been made. He also discovered that tea had been used to age some of the pictures, and an electric sanding machine had been applied to the paint layers to wear them down.
Also, an art historian who first rumbled the sale of fake Motherwells by Knoedler, Jack Flam, was able to find 'within a week' through the use of a private detective that Glafira Rosales was not the top-flight international art dealer who Freedman said she was, and that her boyfriend, Carlos Bergantinos-Diaz, had been accused of selling forgeries in Spain. (Seperately - reports Artnet news - a Spanish court has this week prevented Bergantinos-Diaz's extradition to the US on grounds of ill health.)
All of this is basic stuff the Knoedler gallery and its director Anne Freedman should have done, but say they didn't - or didn't know. In all, some 63 fakes were sold, totalling $80m - it's being called 'the biggest art scam in US history'. It's a reminder that for all we worry about authenticity in the Old Master art world (and rightly so) it's an even bigger issue in the modern and contemporary world.
There's also a line from Anne Freedman's attorney to the effect that the buyers of these pictures should have been wary of the fact that there was little provenance or paperwork, and if they weren't comfortable with that 'they shouldn't have bought them'. Which is a shameful defence for any reputable art dealer to use. I'm astonished to see that she has set up a new gallery in New York. Caveat emptor.
'Feminine Beauty' at the Bowes Museum
June 2 2016
Picture: Bowes Museum
A new exhibition at the Bowes Museum, 'English Rose - Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent' opens on May 14th. The show is partly a response to their recent acquisition of a portrait of Olivia Porter by Van Dyck. More here.
Oligarch buys expensive art (ctd.)
June 2 2016
Picture: AMM
The legal wranglings between a Russian oligarch and his sometime art agent continue, this time with wider ramifications for the art market. Dmitry Rybolovlev (above) bought a large number of artworks through Yves Bouvier, whose main business was running art 'freeports' around the world. Mr Rybolovlev says that Mr. Bouvier overcharged him and took more commission than they agreed, and to that effect has apparently secured from Sotheby's agreement that they will provide information on some of the works sourced through them, which included the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo.
I presume this means the figures involved will also be revealed, so the scale of Mr. Bouvier's margins can be discovered. A side effect might be to also shed light on the commissions charged by the big auction houses in such transactions - which generally are structured in a very different way to auctions, where all the commissions and charges are listed clearly in sale contracts and catalogues. Part of the attraction of private treaty sales through auction houses is the fact that prices and transactions remain confidential - so having that information made public might not be a happy precedent for some.
More here on Art Market Monitor. For greater background on the case see here.
Update - AHN has kindly been contacted to say that the:
[...] hearing that took place this past Tuesday in New York only granted discovery from Sotheby’s pertaining to two Picassos – “Femme se Coiffant” and “Espagnole à l’Éventail.” The decision regarding further discovery has been delayed and Sotheby’s will only produce documents as ordered by the court.
Lely self-portrait for sale
June 2 2016
Pictures: Sotheby's
A rare self-portrait drawing by Sir Peter Lely is to be sold by Sotheby’s this summer in London. the estimate is £600k-£800k. The drawing has until recently been on long-term loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. In the same collection is a drawing of Lely’s son (80k-£120k (below) and his wife Ursula (of whom no image is provided by Sotheby's, but the estimate is £6k-£8k - perhaps a reminder that portrait valuation can be somewhat subjective).
New Director for the Wallace Collection
June 2 2016
Picture: Art Fund
Excellent news that Xavier Bray is to be the next Director of the Wallace Collection in London. Xavier has most recently been Chief Curator at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and before that has been at the National Gallery. He has been responsible for a series of highly successful and innovative exhibitions, such as The Sacred Made Real. More on the announcement here.
I spent some time with him a while ago, and found him to be a very Good Thing, a deep thinker on all matters art historical. There’s an interesting interview with him here on the Art Fund website. He will bring new energy and dedication to the Wallace, which, while undoubtedly a jewel in the British museum crown, seems to me to be somewhat in need of a fresh purpose, or at least outlook.
I know that anyone running the Wallace is constrained by the unusual strictures of the collection’s bequest (no loans out and nothing new) but perhaps it’s time to think the unthinkable and break free from the conditions of Lady Wallace’s 1897 bequest. I may be in a minority, but I think collections need to be be ‘alive’ in some respects, and borrowing, sharing, and buying works is an essential part of that.
The Bowes Museum is a good example of how a collection built and bequeathed by an individual can put on exhibitions and buy new, relevant works, without diminishing the original collection’s ethos and feel - in fact, such an approach enhances it. At the Wallace, there is a token, very small exhibition room in the basement, but that’s about it. And it’s not as if the Wallace’s interior, the actual layout and fabric of the building, is preserved as a glimpse into the world of the Wallaces’ London of the late 19thC. The building has changed - why not the collection too?
Update - I omitted to mention of course that Xavier curated the recent and superb Goya Portraits exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
Update II - Apollo Magazine also discusses some of the points above, here.
Apologies...
May 31 2016
Sorry everyone, I've been away in London for 'Art Detectives'. Hope to be back on the blog later today.
Will virtual reality 'break museums'?
May 25 2016
Picture: Medium, crowds around the Rosetta stone at the British Museum
No, because the whole point of museums is to see the original object. But Adrian Hon, who is the CEO of a tech company (games, I think) says he's fed up with museum overcrowding, and would rather tour them in virtual reality:
[...] to answer the inevitable question, “Why would you want to look at ancient objects in virtual reality when you could see them in real life for free?” I say, “Because even in the best museums in the world, I can’t see shit.” Compared to that very imperfect reality, virtual reality is an improvement. [...]
Hon makes some interesting points about how VR could potentially provide exciting new context for museum objects, but I think his conclusion is a little over-stated:
Anything you can do in a museum — which doesn’t include touching or smelling—VR can do better.
I'd add looking to the list, at least for fine art.
More here.
Did I pass muster?
May 25 2016
Picture: Dulwich Picture Gallery
I recently gave a lecture at Dulwich Picture Gallery on Van Dyck's self-portraits. I thought it went well enough, though I was amused to hear recently that the Gallery had hired a market research company to ask the audience how they rated the evening. 'Was Dr Grosvenor interesting/amusing?', that sort of thing. I haven't yet heard anything about the audience's conclusion - good, I hope. But I'm not sure how objective the report will be, since I heard about all this from one of my most loyal followers, my mother, who gave me a glowing review. Or so she says.
£50m Courtauld revamp
May 25 2016
Picture: Courtauld
The Courtauld Institute in London has announced plans for a £50m revamp. Galleries will be renovated and visitor centres built, but the thing that most caught my eye was the pledge to create this:
An online archive of 1.1m images from The Courtauld’s extensive image collection with a crowd-sourcing programme involving 10,000 people
Does this mean at long last that the Witt and Conway Libraries (above) will be digitised? These libraries are invaluable resources for those of us who try to trace the attribution, identity and provenance of paintings, containing as it does photographs from exhibition catalogues, auctions and house surveys since the early 20th Century. Some years back, the Courtauld axed the library's permanent staff (and thus ended its collection of images) and threatened to close the place entirely. But a hoo-ha saved the day, and you can still visit the library. A review by Sir Nicholas Goodison - to which yours truly contributed - recommended digitisation. So hurrah to the Courtauld if they're going to now do this.
Update - a reader kindly informs me that more information has been posted on the Courtauld website. The British School is to be digitised first, and it should be all up and running by December. Amazing.
Generous support from a private individual has allowed us to embark upon a one-year pilot project to scan, catalogue and display online approximately 250,000 images from the British School.
How have the images for this project been chosen?
Calculations based on random sampling show that the whole British School contains approximately 525,400 images. Images for this pilot project have been selected by the date of birth of the artist. By starting with the earliest artists and moving forwards in time, a selection of 250,000 images will cover the works of artists born up to and including 1780, possibly extending as far as 1799. The final cut off point will reflect our estimates of the average number of images and folders per box, and the way in which the Witt collection rises and falls over time.
How many artists and boxes will this project include?
Approximately 2,600 Witt boxes, containing the work over 2,100 British artists.
How will the collection be presented online and to what level will the images be catalogued?
We will scan each entire mount in high resolution and include a scan of the back if information is present. We will also display a photograph depicting the shelf and stack in which the box sits in order to preserve as many of the physical qualities of the library as possible.
For this pilot project the British School will be broken down by artists’ surnames, and then by genre/subject matter (as with the current folders). Each image will have a unique identifier. Data from sources such as the Getty’s Union List of Artist Names will be added to the electronic records in order to offer a greater number of avenues for searching. Any text on the mounts that can be detected by OCR will form part of their catalogue records.
When will the images be removed for digitisation, and how long will it take?
We plan to remove the 2600 boxes from the British School selected for digitisation in early July 2016. Digitisation and cataloguing will take place off site, with the expectation that they will be returned to the Library by the end of September 2016.
The provisional launch date for the pilot project website is December 2016.
If you were the mystery donor, thanks!
Update II - a reader writes:
regarding the digitisation of the Courtald and Witt records; hallelujah! I too find this a long waited for sigh of relief as it is also handy for me when tracing my artistic ancestors. Let's hope they eventually manage to do all dates and artists. I wish them well with their project.
But a former Courtauld member of staff warns us:
that the long-term plan is to put the mounts themselves into deep storage once they have been digitised, with the aim of freeing up the (admittedly considerable) space taken up by the Witt and Conway for other uses. Having worked in the Library both as a scholar and member of staff, I feel strongly that the physical mounts are important aids to research.
I agree. Release the mounts!
Extending Rembrandt's 'senses'
May 25 2016
Picture: Getty
There's a good piece on the Getty website about Rembrandt's early 'Senses' series (one of which, above, was discovered recently in a small aution house in the US) and how they were extended in the 18th Century. We don't know who the artist was who had the chutzpah to add to Rembrandt's original, but thanks to the Getty's technical analysis we know exactly how they did it. More here.
Voltaire in pastel
May 25 2016
Picture: Neil Jeffares
King of all this pastel Neil Jeffares has an interesting piece on his blog about pastel portraits of Voltaire. Well worth a click.
£16m Elizabeth I 'Armada' portrait for sale
May 25 2016
Video: Art Fund
Royal Museums Greenwich has launched an appeal to buy a version of the 'Armada portrait' of Elizabeth I. The appeal to raise £10m is being led by the Art Fund, which has generously contributed an initial £1m. The headline price of the painting is £16m, but after tax concessions - due one assumes to death duties - the cash price is £10m (so the largest donation so far has come from the taxpayer).
This portrait type of Elizabeth is known as 'the Armada' because each of the three best surviving versions shows a depiction of Sir Francis Drake's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 in the background. The portrait on offer to Greenwich (above) is being sold by Drake's descendants, and is believed to have been commissioned by him. It's painted in oil on panel.
What is generally believed to be the 'prime' version of the Armada portrait belongs to the Dukes of Bedford, and hangs at Woburn Abbey (above). It's been a while since I've seen it, and nor have I seen the Drake picture in the flesh. Nevertheless, I think probably the Woburn portrait did indeed come before the Drake portrait in the production line. It also seems evident from the video above that the ships in the Drake portrait are later additions, for the manner of their painting is entirely 17th Century and very different from those seen in the Woburn painting. Perhaps they are painted over an original Tudor maritime scene more like that seen in the Woburn picture.
A third version belongs to the National Portrait Gallery, and although this has been cut down at some point to make a much smaller picture, we can still see the remains of a 16th Century maritime scene in the background to the left, which again is very different from that we see in the Drake portrait. I don't know if any technical analysis has been done to compare all three portraits. Another version of the portrait, this time without any ships but with the hand in a different position, was sold some years ago by Philip Mould and currently hangs in the House of Lords. I was there when Philip bought it, and worked on the research.
The name of George Gower - Elizabeth I's 'serjeant painter' - has been traditionally attached to the Armada portraits. Attribution is always difficult in these Tudor portraits, but actually for Gower we do have a small but secure body of works by which we can judge his style, such as these examples in Tate Britain. Generally, I'd say Gower was a little 'better' than the artist we see in the Armada portraits, but that's just a personal view based mainly on images - always a dangerous thing. It's possible that such large royal portraits were in any case collaborative workshop productions, overseen by someone like Gower.
What's interesting about the Greenwich and Art Fund campaign is that this time there's no immediate threat of export over the painting. It has evidently been offered privately by the Drake family, but still the appeal is being framed as one of 'saving' the painting. And it needs to be saved from the market, according to Art Fund director Stephan Deuchar, who says the Guardian:
We are very anxious that it shouldn’t go out on the open market which will inevitably happen, I’m afraid, if we fail to raise this sum.”
My instinct, as a sometime purveyor of Tudor portraits, is that the price on the 'open market' would be a little less than £16m, and I bet the trustees at Woburn will be hurriedly updating their insurance valuation. But art valuation is a difficult thing, and there's no denying the importance, from both a historical and artistic point of view, of the Drake portrait. Greenwich, where Elizabeth I was born, would be a fitting home for this important painting. The Guardian tells us that the campaign hopes to raise the money in two months, and donations are being accepted here.
Apologies...
May 24 2016
Sorry for the radio silence- been on the road with both 'Art Detectives' and 'Fake or Fortune?' Should be back tomorrow.
Rothko 'suicide socks' for sale
May 20 2016
Picture: artsandclothes.com
There's a website called artsandclothes.com which is, or at least was, selling 'Rothko Socks', described as:
a replica of the pair the great American painter Mark Rothko was wearing at the time of his suicide. Such a tragic event affirms a palette of colours which characterise the artist’s profound existential preoccupations.
Also available are 'non-objective bibs' for EUR 25. The site says:
Arts&Clothes produces clothing accessories based on iconic artists from the 20th century. It explores the myth of the artist by reconsidering processes of production, valuation, distribution and consumption of the art object.
It appears not to be a joke. Though these days you can never tell.
This is not Shakespeare (ctd.)
May 20 2016
Video: Harvey Nichols
A reader alerts me to the above video from the fashion store Harvey Nichols. It uses the Cobbe Portrait (which, in my opinion, does not show Shakespeare) to make a point about fashion and brains. 'Great men deserve great style' is the message, and certainly the nattily dressed sitter looks very stylish with his gold embroidered waistcoat.
It's more evidence of the way we, today, use whichever historical portrait we like to suit the message we mant to convey, irrespective of historical accuracy. I'm not trying to huff or puff about it, just making an observation. Harvey Nichols would hardly be able to use the Chandos portrait (above, which does show Shakespeare) to make their video. Shakespeare looks plain and portly, and is dressed like a Tudor accountant. In reality, one could deduce, great men don't necessarily dress in great style.
The theory works in the other direction. On the BBC at the moment there's a new comedy about Shakespeare called 'Upstart Crow', written by Ben Elton and starring David Mitchell (above). Mitchell is one of the funniest Brits alive, but he's no looker. His portrayal of Shakespeare for laughs (with gags about receding hairlines) only works because it is based on the Chandos image of Shakespeare.
'Art Detectives' are go!
May 20 2016
Picture: BBC
I'm very pleased to tell you that the new TV series I've been working on has been announced by the BBC. It's to be called 'Art Detectives', and you can find more details here. My co-presenter is Jacky Klein, the author and art historian who has been a curator at the Courtauld and Tate, and is currently publishing editor at Tate. There will be three, one hour programmes, and the series is scheduled to go out in the autumn. This is the main pitch:
In The Art Detectives, historian and art dealer Dr Bendor Grosvenor and art historian Jacky Klein track down lost and hidden public paintings from local museums and galleries across Britain.
Scouring public museums and great houses across the country, the duo will delve deep into vaults and storerooms to reveal secret stashes of forgotten art - and perhaps even some sleeping masterpieces. A specialist conservation team will use cutting-edge technology to decode and restore the pieces while providing clues for Bendor and Jacky to identify the pictures. Criss-crossing the country, the team will solve the provenance of the artworks before they are valued and hung back in their museums, in pride of place, for the nation to enjoy.
We had our first filming day last week, though the ground work started some months ago. Needless to say, the pressure is on Jacky and I to come up with the art historical goods. Expect many more plugs for this on AHN!
New Francis Towne catalogue raisonné
May 20 2016
Picture: Paul Mellon Centre, 'Old Walton Bridge', 1785. Francis Towne, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art
The Paul Mellon Centre has published another excellent online catalogue raisonné, this time on the British artist Francis Towne. Their most recent one was on Richard Wilson. The Towne catalogue was written by Richard Stephens, who will be known to AHN readers through his invaluable database on the Art World in Britain from 1660-1735. Says the PMC website:
The catalogue identifies 1080 works by Towne and his circle, doubling previously-described totals. Based on the author’s PhD thesis, it makes extensive use of the papers of Paul Oppé (1878-1957) whose pioneering researches established the artist’s reputation in the 1920s, after a century of neglect. Oppé had discovered the contents of Towne's own studio in the possession of the Merivale family of Barton Place near Exeter. Using the archives of Thomas Agnew & Sons, the Fine Art Society, Colnaghi and elsewhere, Stephens gives detailed provenances for hundreds of the Merivales' Townes that have circulated on the London art market. Towne's biography is established in greater detail than before, using much original research. Resources published alongside the catalogue include an edition of Towne's correspondence and a transcription of Oppé's Barton Place catalogue.
More than 800 works are illustrated with high-quality images, much of it specially commissioned by the Paul Mellon Centre. Towne's sketching tours in Wales, Italy, Switzerland, Savoy, the Lake District and around England are reconstructed with new clarity and detail.
New home for the Museum of London
May 20 2016
Picture: Guardian
The Museum of London has a great and fascinating collection, but it ain't half difficult to get to, marooned in the middle of a roundabout in the Barbican. I'm sure to London's planners of the 1970s (the museum opened in 1976) it seemed like a good idea at the time. The collections inside are well displayed, and in 2010 the museum benefited from a £20m refit.
But now the museum is to relocate, to the wonderful Smithfield General Market (above) which has been empty for 30 years. Plans to demolish it were recently defeated by heritage campaigners. The new museum will open in 2021, at a cost of about £150m-£200m. More here.
Antoon arrives in Birmingham
May 19 2016
Picture: Birmingham Museums
The National Portrait Gallery's Van Dyck self-portrait has arrived in Birmingham for the latest leg of its national tour. It's been good to see Birmingham Museums make such a big deal of the arrival on social media, with pictures like the above. I think people really like this sort of behind-the-scenes information. It might even help make museums seem less formal and intimidating to those who find them so.
Some years ago I had the privilege of opening a crate similar to the above when the self-portrait was delivered from Sotheby's to the Philip Mould gallery in London, where I used to work.
The exhibition around the Van Dyck loan is called 'Turning to see', and is curated by the artist John Stezaker. It runs until 4th September, when, according to my Van Dyck tour t-shirt, the picture heads back to London.
Gang jailed for disrupting art exhibitions (ctd.)
May 19 2016
Video: You Tube / RT
Further to my post below about the silly but not criminal (in my opinion) You Tubers staging a hoax art theft at Tate, today we had Greenpeace scaling the front of the British Museum and closing the site for four hours. Doubtless these protesters - amongst whom I could not see any black youths - will not face 20 weeks of jail, even though the disruption to the public was, in closing London's busiest museum for four hours, arguably more substantial than to the visitors at the Tate.
I cannot imagine that no damage was done to the BM's listed facade as the columns were scaled.
