Art Forgery: an Organized Crime?
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Art Forgery: An Organized Crime? Caroline Scarola Criminal acts against works of art occur more often than one may think—works looted during wars and forgotten, dug up for profit, laundered in the art market, and forged with malintent. The art market will attract criminals because there will always be a market for art (Shortland 157– 58). In 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation created the first American task force to focus on art crime; yet, European countries have had task forces since the late 1960s.1 Art crime as a category consists of looting and trafficking, theft, forgeries and fakes, vandalism or iconoclasm, and smuggling (Durney and Proulx 116–17). Forgery is seen as “a less objectionable crime, because it affects only the direct victim and perhaps the reputations of those fooled,” while theft and looting are often avenues for terrorist groups to fund their organizations (Charney, The Art of Forgery 149). Because forgery is “almost always perpetrated by one or two people,” it cannot qualify “as organized crime, and its profits do not fuel other types of crime in which criminal groups might be involved” (Charney 149). However, art forgery is more serious than people realize. It is a universal issue that affects cultural property and society. By comparing art forgery to nine key characteristics of organized crime, this paper seeks to reclassify art crime as a more serious issue.2 1 To learn more about the task forces that investigate art crimes, see “Specialized Police Forces.” 2 To learn more about these nine characteristics, see “Organized Crime.” Scarola 2 I. The Overall Goal: Money and Profit The overall goal of organized crime groups is profit (“Organized Crime”). A recent study concluded that criminals, on average, earn more than $900 a week (Fortuna). There are several incentives for forgery: revenge, pride, fame, power, and money. Most art forgers feel rejected from the art world and consider it “a private club” for the elite. As a result, forgers seek revenge and derive pride from being able to “trick” the elite by passing-off their work as someone else’s, landing them in the “exclusive club” (Charney, “The Provenance Trap”). Once a forger realizes the excessive profit to be gained from forging, he longs for more. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes believes that a “man’s existence is defined by greed” (Brassey 1). Their desire to feel included in the art world morphs into profit-driven incentivization, money becoming the “the main rationale for a forger to continue forging” (Charney, The Art of Forgery, 190). Fig. 1. Geert Jan Jansen [Van Gogh Studio]. Forgers know that copying a work or imitating the style of a well-known artist leads to great profits due to the high demand of the works of a “master.” On average, a well-known artist’s work can sell for a few million dollars (Del Valle). Geert Jan Jansen (fig. 1) is one of many who Scarola 3 was driven by money. The skilled Dutch forger began his career copying paintings as a means to improve his own technique. However, failing to keep his gallery afloat, he turned to passing his works as originals in order to make a profit. When arrested, he was found in a “spectacular, white-walled castle in the Dutch countryside decorated with scores of authentic masterpieces” (Charney, The Art of Forgery, 190). He lived the life of a luxurious aristocrat, thus continuing to forge to support his lifestyle.3 The same goes for French forger Guy Ribes4 (fig. 2), who grew up in a poor neighborhood and was raised by prostitutes after his parents were sentenced to prison. He worked in the style of “geniuses” such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and others, which he sold for upwards of a million dollars. His hubris led to him to eventually become involved in a million-dollar scam. Art forgers are “not out there to prove a point, but to make a profit” (Charney 190). Therefore, art forgery possesses the profit-making motive which parallels those in organized crime who seek to maintain a lavish life. Fig. 2. Hubert Fanthomme, Guy Ribes in his studio, 24 February 2015. [“Former Art Forger Guy Ribes”] 3 For more information about Geert Jan Jansen, see Van Gogh Studio. 4 For more information about Guy Ribes watch Jean-Luc Léon’s film A Genuine Forger. Scarola 4 II. Threat to National Security Since art forgery poses an indirect threat to national security, I will take a different approach and consider who is affected by art forgery. Forgers “cause considerable damage to society and culture, as well as to the individual and the entire economic life of the community” (Wurtenberger 83). Thomas Hoving, the ex-director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, claimed that around forty percent of the works he examined were fake, and overall, it is estimated that twenty percent of works in all museums are forged (Avrich). Fig. 3. A drawing by Victor Juhasz of the defense team for the Knoedler Gallery forgery trial, with ex- Knoedler president Ann Freedman on the right. (Photo: Illustratedcourtroom.blogspot.com.). The reputation of the individual who purchases fake art—especially in the case of a connoisseur—is damaged. Once a renowned art dealer, Anne Freedman’s career was destroyed when she was blamed for an $80-million art scandal (fig. 3). Some experts declared her as “downright stupid” for falling for the trick in the first place (Avrich). The Getty Museum in Scarola 5 California also has a tarnished reputation for its Getty Kouros scandal (fig. 4). They bought what they believed to be an authentic sixth-century BCE Greek statue; however, the origins of the Kouros are controversial, and no consensus has been reached. Such confusion not only damages experts’ reputations but results in patrons’ distrust in institutions and “a considerable loss of prestige” (Wurtenberger 88). If experts cannot tell real work from a fake, how can we be certain that what we see in museums is real? Fig. 4. Kouros, Greek, c. 530 BCE, or modern forgery. Marble. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. [J. Paul Getty Museum] Although some forgers possess impeccable skills, copying works precisely, artists unconsciously have their own style, which is often how connoisseurs can identify a forged piece. Not only is the work of art “the expression of its creator’s individuality, but it also exemplifies Scarola 6 the requirements of art of his time” (Wurtenberger 86). Thus, a forged work attempts to simulate the style of its original period, but fails to capture “an essential part of its aesthetic value” and its original sense of time and place (Wurtenberger 86). One can therefore say that the artwork itself suffers from the practice of forgery. Forgery also damages the study of art and can cause an “often unnoticed damage of ideal as well as of material kind to aesthetics” (Wurtenberger 87). When a forger, unable to access the original materials, ends up using different ones, scholars can be misled in their analysis. The forger misguides their own “generation by pretending to show the work of art of a great artist of the past since they want to ascribe it to past periods of art, while it actually does not belong to the creations of that time” (Wurtenberger 86). This confuses our understanding of historic styles and techniques. Additionally, the original artist’s reputation is tarnished as a fraudulent copy “invariably clouds the integrity of the original and poses a threat to the entire production of the true artist” (Wurtenberger 86). A forger cannot fully comprehend the true intent behind an individual’s work and so for artists forgery is “an offense to their ‘good nature’ and their honor” (Wurtenberger 87). Forgeries are dishonest appropriations of authorship, which inflict damage to the values of art, culture, society, and national identity. Although organized crime can be more dangerous and threaten national security, the consequences of art forgery to the world of art and to art history should be taken seriously. III. Compromising Economies There is an alarming amount of money circulating in the illicit economy of transnational organized crime. A 2017 study estimated that there is $1.6 to $2.2 trillion annually made through Scarola 7 these illegal businesses, and has likely risen in more recent years (Clough). The global art market is a $67 billion-a-year enterprise (Thornton). Where there is money, there is art and crime. Fig. 5. Title of the New York Times article by Peltier and Codrea-Rado. Many museums have been involved in art forgery scandals. In 2018, a French museum dedicated to artist Étienne Terrus (fig. 5) concluded that more than half of the works in their collection were forged works—82 out of the 140 paintings (Fox). The museum invested $170,000 over twenty years on these fake drawings and paintings, yet the perpetrator was never found, leaving this case unsolved (Peltier and Codrea-Rado). The Getty Kouros (fig. 4) was acquired in the mid- 1980s for between $9 and $12 million. There has been much debate over its authenticity (Kaplan), although many experts have declared the Getty Kouros a fake; the Getty still labels the sculpture as potentially authentic (fig. 6), listing it as either from about 530 BCE or a modern forgery. The amount of money institutions spend to acquire these works only further proves how much they are affected when the work’s integrity is questioned. Fig. 6. Object details for the Getty Kouros, museum website [J. Paul Getty]. Scarola 8 Fig. 7. Glafira Rosales (center). [Bowley] The New York City art gallery, Knoedler & Company, was forced to close after a major scandal.