Punishment for E. Filla´s paintings thief

December 14, 2013

On 9.12.2013, the court has delivereded sentences for the theft of E. Filla´s painting from the Peruc gallery. It was an unexpectedly heavy sentence for the principal culprit. It is even heavier than some sentences determined for a murder. But probably it´s the only way to stop thievish raids. We can only hope for similar sentences to be given for far more dangerous cases of corruption. It was rather surprising to find out that criminals didn't find a buyer for the stolen pieces. This fact and the attempts to find a buyer had finally brought them to justice. This case highlights the importance of an accurate documentation of collection pieces. Doing that, the victim can later add photos of stolen objects to the police database PSEUD, where other collectors can check if the piece offered to them is stolen or not.

Read the article here.

A treasure from Munich

November 14, 2013

For several days now, the public, especially the art-loving one, is being stirred by the discovery of hundreds of paintings, mainly from the modern and avant-garde era. An extraordinary occasion no doubt. It will take many years before related questions and ownership rights of rightful and wannabe owners will be solved. Important is, that these pieces are supposed to be unaffected by the wave of falsificiations of the last decades. This is one of the reasons why the discovered and eventually returned works of art will be well marketable. But considering the age, mental condition of current owner-holder and storage of paintings, the question that has to be answered is whether this collection includes forgeries planted by those who realize, that provenience sells. It might be a neck breaking combination. The future will show.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/4/over-1b-of-nazi-treasuremasterpiecesfoundinmunichcloset.html

Forging an art market in China

February 10, 2014

The article describes situation on a Chinese art market where mostly arts and antique forgeries are beeing sold. Compared to 10 years ago, the market grew up to 900 %, which Indicates a very fast growth of this market. One of the reasons stimulating such a growth is television with 20 programmes giving advices on how to collect and identify art items and earn easy money. But the problem is that nearly one third of the deals at auction houses haven't been paid. To reduce the number of such cases some precautionary measures such as high advances from bidders and creation of black lists were taken. Those measures surely could find their place on the Czech arts market. The article further shows the massive production of forgeries in China and their distribution. More and more scandals revealed. Along with the increasing demand and price, increases the number of museum thefts, grave robbery and black market sales. We had similar situation here, in Czech republic, is 90's when auction houses placed fake offers. The Chinese government withdrew licences of 150 auction houses between 2008-2011. The reasons were different, including sales of forgeries. How many shops were closed by the Czech goverment due to selling fakes? None. It is obvious that there is still a lot we can learn from the communist government which is aware of the problem. If there won't be any serious arrangements against selling fakes, the art market will loose it's credibility and fall.

A chinese museum’s shut down

February 10, 2014

In China everything is possible. Even to shut down a museum which exhibits forgeries. It might seem a surprising method but surely it wouldn't hurt to apply this inovative appoach used by chinese authorities to Czech Republic. It is a pity that the article does not contain more information concerning ownership structures of the museum and who profited from the purchase and sale of forgeries. The attitude of a probable owner is suspiciously mindless.

The Best Offer

February 10, 2014

It is almost a must for all collectors, investors and lovers of art and romance to watch the Guiseppe Tornatore's movie „The Best Offer". Its main character, an antique and arts expert named Virgil Oldman is a prototype of a person fully immersed in the arts. And like most other people interested in arts, he too can't help thinking of forgeries. Oldman believes that every forgery has the unique style of the forger, which helps to detect the forgery. Do we have such experts nowadays able to do that? Is this method reliable? We recommend not to rely only on Virgil Oldman's opinion, but also on technical analysis and examination of item's origin. In the end Virgil learns that even love can be forged after he finds out that he became a victim of fraud because of the unique collection he owns. This example shows that its important to document all items in the collection, which can further help in investigation and proving ownership in a case of a theft. Besides, some of the scenes of „The Best Offer" were shot in Prague Old Town.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/movies/the-best-offer-from-giuseppe-tornatore.html?_r=0

A painting of František Kupka broke the record

July 29, 2013

This year in June a painting of František Kupka – The Study with the red background – was auctioned at Sotheby´s in London. It was sold for a record-breaking price of £1,65 million. As we can see, the works of František Kupka are selling well and for record high prices It is surprising thatthe  pieces with Kupka’s signature appear in strange galleries and internet auction servers. It is higly probable that they don’t have anything in common with František Kupka, except of his name. The attached article gives a couple of impulses to ponder. Certainly it would be worth to compare how high is the VAT in countries of EU and Czech Republic. The same question applies for  the author fees from the resale. Especially in the Czech Republic it would be interesting to find out if the copyright holders get appropriate sum of money from a re-sale. Another important question is, which artwork is valuable and significant enough to be declared as a cultural heritage. This status is important but it also influences the price of marketed artworks. In the case of watched Kupka’s painting The Shape of blue , some opinions  say, that it is not such an significant work that it shoud have been declared as a cultural heritage. The price or demand shouldn´t play any role when declaring an artwork as a cultural heritage. If the painting was declared as a part of a set, it would certainly be worth to find out which paintings are in the set and where they are.

Businessman with fake paintings in front of the court in Ostrava

June 10, 2013

The Regional Court in Ostrava initiated legal action against a merchant named Adamec, who is suspected of selling forgeries for tens of millions.
Although the trial started almost two years after charges were brought, the court adjourned the hearing on Adamec request. And knowing how tardy court trials in Czech Republic can be, there will be no wonder if the proceeding is not over by the end of the year. Interestingly not all of the victims have joined the criminal prosecution. They might be ashamed for their actions and would rather lose several millions than testify. Some of them might even put the painting in the basement so they do not have to see the reminder that someone had tricked them.

Read the article here.

The police seized a trio of fraudsters

June 7, 2013

The police seized three fraudsters who were offering and selling dozens of forgeries of paintings. According to the current report, the behavior of buyers was striking. As the article says: „After the professional expertise, the buyers found out - that the artwork they bought was a forgery. However they din´t inform the police in most cases. According to Mrs. Ježková they were worried about harming their reputation. It was only one antiquarian from Hradec Králové region who anounced the fraud and than the local police started the inquiry." Such a behavior allows the fraudsters to perpetuate the crime in a long term. Maybe it will be interesting to observe how many victims there were and what did they dowith those purchased forgeries. It is possible that they sent them farther. The police did a big piece of work, we will see what is the result.