Fakes in the art world - The mystery conman | DW Documentary

$69 million gentleman here 699 71 million auction houses generally only care about what is sold over the counter, what makes money and both genuine and fake products are sold over the counter, there is no difference, they throw away their ethical principles for overboard as long as you sell to anyone here 93 minutes last chance Nick B at95 M these bronze heads are from auction houses Galleries and art dealers all have one thing in common Archaeologist Stefan Lemman considers his forgeries to be the work of a mysterious super forger known in German art circles as the Spanish Master who no one knows who he is but Lemon is on his trail Spanish Master the Spanish Master is an improvised name no one knows exactly what it is supposed to mean or where it comes from I have heard the expression used in the general art trade I recently met an archaeologist who claimed to have coined the expression because he knows a forger from Spain when I asked him his name he said oh I can't think of that now Layman attributes these portraits of ancient rulers to the forger Augustus Caesar Alexander the Great all sculptures have a common attribute an emotional facial expression that is not actually typical of classical antiquity they are always bronze heads that are in especially high demand among art collectors this one was auctioned at Bonhams this is one of the heads that were offered in New York by Robin Sims at the December auction This was conventionally purchased over the counter in a New York antique shop This was auctioned in Munich This has been sold several times It already has quite a history today It is in the possession of a foundation in Geneva in a museum, as far as I know, this one is also in Geneva lemman is a professor at Martin Luther University in Hal from his office the expert born in bin investigates the art market and finds so many heads that he considers dubious that he has to shake his gaze , this one is still on sale about 250 ad Price on request of course n price is CL the price well it starts at about a million as an art dealer for 40 years Kristoff leyon sold many important pieces of ancient art to museums international. made a decision that is unusual for an art dealer wants to talk about his observations in the ancient art trade shows us the catalog of an international auction house that sold a collection only a few pieces are genuine, let's review them quickly this one is so fake that it stinks, look, it's so blurry that a sculptor in ancient times would never have done it that you can forget it no ancient sculpture ever looked like this with these eyes these big bulging eyes this is ridiculous you can tell by the hair the hair always gives the game away the vases are fine we won't waste time on them this is so fake it stinks this one is impossible it's all rubbish this here two none of them are Antiques here's another one with a male member bulging through the fabric that was never made in ancient times all The few genuine works and all the

fakes

were sold $47,000 $83,000 59,000 that's a lot of money everyone keeps their mouths shut and doesn't say anything no one goes and says be careful my friend what you have here is a disaster, you wasted your money says León up to 50% of all antiques sold at auction are

fakes

is an incredible figure high above Manhattan experienced American archaeologist Oscar White Muscarella observes the art trade worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a curator for many years and is a renowned expert who is consider the good conscience of archeology because it doesn't beat around the bush you could say it's a kind of whistleblower by one of my mentors here charlock Holmes I have learned that both dealers and collectors send things to auction houses because they are fakes.

I talked. They made a deal on this one time and he smiled and what they're doing, you see, instead of selling it to a customer of their own store, they don't want to sell it for Wes, we don't want to sell it for wedges and a lot of the dealers don't They want, they don't want to sell for wedges, they put it up for auction with a false name or they will say it is an old collection when they say the origin of an old family collection or an old collection or Missure X and these are merchants who sell the Forgan auction and they are not personally involved in who buys it.

It is seen in the United States because it has so many museums, it is a main target for the sale of fakes. Yes, New York may seem very far away, but the international market. The trade also reached the province of East Germany, as Stefan Layman personally experienced this bronze bust of Alexander the Great which was presented in 2000 at the Vinman Museum in Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt. It was later revealed that the bust had belonged to the London art dealer. Robin Sims Stefan Lemman attributes the bust to the Spanish master whose style recognizes in it the special appearance of the edges where supposedly a uniformly spread patina was broken in ancient times the face completely preserved as if by magic Lemman made public the news that the museum It exposed the bust without clear details of its Provence.

I was there and I looked at it and it was screaming at me that it was a fake. I was quite amazed, so I bought the catalog and found it even less convincing. I mean there are a lot of fakes and even the best of us can fall for a fake, there is nothing more to say, so I published the lecture I gave here in Hal in the form of a museum pamphlet and expressed my own opinion that, in In my opinion, there is no doubt that the piece under consideration is from the ancient

world

, whether it is a bronze bust of Alexander the Great or a well-made forgery by international AR distributor Mafia. 10 years ago, this sculpture was considered a sensation displayed in the Velman Museum supposedly on loan from a private collector, but accusations that it is fake go back a long time.

I still have the same opinion, as stated in an academic publication, that we are dealing with a forgery here, the Vinland Society, however, accused him of Lial and sued him, was this simply? an academic dispute or an archaeological scandal to avoid a long trial a mediator was hired but in the meantime the reported bronze sensation has disappeared since the exhibition 10 years ago to follow the legal route in suei which was a new starting point, I must to say and in a way it is a form of violence, that was also the intention. The plaintiff's attorney told me that the goal was to remove me from office.

In the end the trial ended in the Berlin Regional Court with a settlement the details of which both parties agreed upon. keep secret, but instead of silencing Layman, the trial prompted him to conduct more investigations. Forgeries are an unpopular topic in archaeological circles. Lemman is one of the few archaeologists to address the issue publicly and today word has spread that he is investigating a new case. A Swiss collector who wishes to remain anonymous bought a bronze head in New York, but then began to have doubts about whether it was genuine. The layman looks for bronze heads at art fairs and museums.

Galleries and auction catalogues, now for the first time a possible work of The Spanish master is on his own desk is a portrait of Augustus Caesar is a stroke of luck for Lemman and his colleague Henrik Lur who is also an archaeologist the Swiss collector says that Lemman You could have sold the head and now you risk losing a good million euros impressive piece if the head turns out to be a fake it will immediately become worthless certainly very impressive you look at it and the first thing you say is It's a wonderful head it's also spectacular because there are very few bronze heads of Augustus which also increases in value the prices of works of ancient art have increased rapidly in recent years many people looking for a safe investment buy works of art Stefan Layman believes that stock markets and trade of antiques are related, of course, it's something that can easily be explained with the New Age after 1989, when there was a whole new market of billionaires, oil billionaires, the stock markets went crazy, people were making money fast and Now there are many people with almost inconceivable amounts of money and one of the investments recommended by banks are paintings and ancient works. of ancient art the Spanish master and his circle tried to help by getting to know the market man with fakes that explains why fakes are made you see and fores are sold everywhere you see uh and because there is a market for that because museums and collectors but we are talking of money, money, money, is the underlined factor and the reason why this is done because only the rich have the money to pay for it, and these rich people get more advantages by donating it, taking a tax deduction and gaining prestige.

Look, and this goes on and on as we sit here, it exists at this very moment, so the antiques trade is obviously a mix of fakes, according to Oscar Muscarella. Surprisingly, many experts in German museums and universities also know this, but it is frowned upon to write expert opinions for the art trade due to concerns that, in addition to fakes, there are many looted works of art on the market. Marcos Hilgard, director of one of the sections of the Pamon Museum in Berlin, has prohibited his staff from writing expert opinions on antiquities. In the art trade, on the one hand, there are those who say that we have to document illegal exports of works for the Academy so that knowledge is not lost and, on the other hand, there are those who say that writing expert opinions increases the value of art. a work of art and make it even more profitable and that is also my personal opinion I decided that we could not and should not write more evaluations because the experts are the ones who value an item and give it its value with their evaluation Kristoff Leon was an art dealer for many years and has a doctorate in archaeology.

We accompany him on his way to France. In a museum there, several heads of dubious origin are supposedly exhibited, including some works attributable to the Spanish master. León has known the archaeologist Stefan Lemman from Hala for many years. Every time works from Antiquity appear that seem suspicious, they exchange opinions and information. León says that the fake market has been booming for several years as an art dealer he personally experienced developments on the art market over 40 years I spent four years at Baron University until 1970 and then Barowski, one of the biggest antiques dealers of the time, asked me to join him in Basel.

We worked together for a year and a half and then I started my own business. Since then I have been an art dealer. but I never left the Academy over the years. I always tried to stay within certain rules of the game. I didn't do all the things that people around me did back then because I knew that sooner or later it would backfire. I'm not a saint. but I set limits from the beginning because I come from a different side. I come from the academy meanwhile in Hal Stevan lman continues to examine the bronze head of the New York Art Market his research has also exposed the market strategies adopted by the alleged forgery first the Workshop of Masters of Forgery of Spain naturally thinks about the images that can produce for the market in the ranking of archaeological objects bronze sculptures are number one there is something very special and we can expect them to attract a lot of attention has a moody expression instead of the The ideal we imagine for Augustus.

You can tell that the artist plays a little with emotions, but it is a fantastic piece. Fant Stefan Lemman also heads the university's archaeological museum in Hal. His warehouses contain a collection of original plastic molds. works of art from classical antiquity correspond exactly to genuine ancient portraits, whenever Lemman examines a suspected forgery, he always compares it with an original, as in the case of this portrait of Augustus Caesar, archaeologists call this method stylistic analysis, is a centuries-old approach used to identify genuineness. works of art simply by looking at them takes years of experience, a great deal of knowledge and intuition.

You can see here what an official portrait of Augustus looks like. These eyes are not very arched, they just have a slight curve and there is the long nose and the mouth that is oriented towards the vertical axis, then this calm facial expression, this very calm expression with slightly raised contours, just a very light modeling that conveys a very calm and timeless face and then we have the serrated edge at the bottom, hardly prohibited at all, but supposedly torn off with great force when you look at the details you have doubts whether it is really fake it is perfectly done masterfully so to speak Stefan lemman He really believes that the head is fake but to make sure the verdict is correct he has to get the head examined again by scientific means.

The Frenhofer Institute in F specializes in testing materials. Normally the scientists here test industrial products and prototypes ofinvestigation an alleged forgery of the Spanish master is the first time for them art evaluator Haral Müller wants to scan the bronze head is the The first time anyone has tried to analyze a suspicious sculpture head in this way, we have already carried out a series of tests and lastly, we would like to do a CT scan of the inside of your head, exactly what you are hoping to see. With a CT scan you can detect casting defects, repair marks and what I'm really looking for are the holes left by the spacers.

Müller hopes to see the inside of the head, the material it is made of, to discover the method used to produce it. I think it's fine and stable. Augustus is prepared for the CT scan of him. Miller and the Frenhofer Institute physicist are ready to examine the head. Müller is a materials scientist and evaluates works of art made of metal, porcelain or fabrics. The bronze is supposedly from ancient times. The first image appears on the screen. There you have your spacer. It looks pretty fun. That's good too, but there seems to be a serious problem.

This is very strong radiation, we can barely recognize any sharp material structures, you get the feeling that there are definitely some cavities in the material, but you can't precisely define how deep they are, we just didn't have strong enough radiation energy to penetrate this head properly, so Augustus The head will have to be re-examined in Hala Stefan Lemman has new news: an academic colleague has brought to his attention a series of suspicious bronze sculptures in France in relation to the heads in the southern museum of France, in a private museum belonging to an Englishman who made a lot of money and loved art, collected and then built a museum of antiquity in the south of France and suddenly, and this really surprised me, several bronze heads of ancient Romans appeared here, one of them has long hair, which is very suspicious. then there is this head with short hair that was unknown to me, yes it is very strange, then we have a head that is certainly supposed to have been part of a bust or statue, as you can see by the broken edge, the person is wearing a beard full and striking mustache so suddenly we have one known plus two three four five of these life-size or slightly larger than life-size bronze heads that are obviously supposed to come from statues while Kristoff Leon has arrived in southern France, he himself wants to take a look at the Museum that Stefan Layman told him about.

In his opinion, what some of his counterparts in the art trade do is up to them, but when supposed works of antiquity that academics consider very suspicious find their way into museums, that goes too far, yes, hi mom, ya You can identify the problem areas of the museum on the Internet because the exhibits are very well represented, well photographed, well presented, but there is a golden rule in archaeology, the key is forensic science, in other words, you have to examine things yourself . and then when you look at a piece and determine that it's genuine, you have to be honest enough to admit that you did it right.

We have to start fighting to keep museums free of fakes. Museums are standard works. Imagine if suddenly the history of art was studied. based on fakes, he is taking a look at the heads in the museum, he wants to make a decision first before making his evaluation known, so this is completely wrong, very out of place, these strands of hair like snakes, no , it is very possible that This is a forgery of the Spanish master. I definitely examine it with that in mind and then I might be convinced, but as I said, one of the characteristics of the Spanish master is that he tries to create ancient heads, but in the end he never succeeds. portray a different view essence a different spirit you can see it no hair was portrayed like that in ancient times it did not happen this head is also strange I do not trust it it is not an ancient style to portray someone like that there is no such thing an ancient face with blank eyes and They finally sold him things that had already adorned the warehouses of several antique dealers for years and then things appeared so it's definitely fake, a head like that is not from Antiquity.

I have my doubts. about this too and things come and you get carried away and you want to have them but that is obviously what happens when you put together a large collection under pressure and there are many objects here the museum is full as I said all museums have mistakes buying in their basements many of them for this museum too, but they should review them and display only the real ones. Stefan Lemman is writing a book about the works of art he attributes to the Spanish master. He has photographs of 32 bronze sculptures on his desk.

It says that the oldest articles date back to 197 the Spanish Master's Workshop divides the work I suppose but I could be wrong there could be more but I suspect there are one or two three people who think what are we going to do next this here is an exceptional piece a portrait in bronze of a black African woman do we even have the idea of ​​doing something like that now they have to make the molds cast the metal and then ruin everything make damage marks create a patina make it look antique all of which requires a lot of skill here we have two bronze sculptures one is the head of a lady dating from the late Hellenistic period or the 2nd century depending on academic opinion and this is a supposed goddess a bust that was placed on a round shield a ton like what is it called, they are all part from the Basel ancient art collection and are exhibited there.

The Museum of Ancient Art in Basel is the only museum in Switzerland that exclusively exhibits classical antiquities. Here the two sculptures that Stefan Layman considers very suspicious were considered. stars of the exhibition The museum director, Andrea binasa, sent one of them to the workshop for the conservators to examine it again. The museum received the sculptures as part of a private Legacy gift from the Lut Collection in aen Stefan Layman believes the sculpture is the work. from the Spanish Master come, I have to say that all this surprised me, we did not know that Layman was conducting such research and that he had included our two bronze sculptures from the ludvic collection, their former owners Peta and enina lutvi collected art and acquired this bronze. sculpture in the Art Market, but the museum has no information about where exactly it comes from the idea that classical works with no known origin or provenance reach public museums through the Art Market is something that Stefan Lemman deplores Layman is class Arco Here Layman is a classical archaeologist, he is a professor at a university, he is a curator at the archaeological museum, but he is not a specialist in Bron statues, although he seems to think that what I don't like in this case is this broadside towards me personally in the museum towards my colleagues. so far there is no proof, so I stick with the version that these objects are original classical works of art.

Yes, of course, museums never have fun, obviously, when important artifacts displayed in their main chamber are called into question, it is always done immediately. As for personal differences, this is normal, it cannot be completely avoided, but I think that the question of whether these are original sculptures or modern fakes is so important that we have to be above these trifles. Preparations for a second scan are already underway at the F. Frenhofer Institute. of the Swiss collector's Augustus, after the failure of the first attempt to obtain a CT scanner, the scientist Harold Müller once again x-rayed the bronze head in the most powerful linear accelerator in Europe, until now no museum collector was willing to deliver an alleged forgery.

For such an examination, so that no work attributed to the teacher has been proven false by these scientific methods, the scientists have to leave the room due to the extremely high radiation of the linear accelerator, so the examination function focuses on the alloy metal in the bronze sculpture Is it really from a nest? Does it have the same characteristics as a bronze statue made 2000 years ago? One suspicion is that counterfeiters melt down old coins to mold new heads. A smart approach. What device is this Perin Elma? It's a Perkin Elma detector. with a pixel size of 200 micrometers, we believe that due to a variety of material characteristics that correspond to Antiquity, this sculpture is made of genuine ancient material, there is ancient material available for things like this and it would not be a completely new idea to use it or have used it. old material for fakes in this era the process works Mulla looks at the cross-sectional images of the head and notices that the patina on the head is only on the outer surface, which is strange, you can see that this material has a different density than the of the material around it that has a different alloy composition, we have carried out metallographic tests, that is, on a cross section of the material and the outer shell and we have determined, on the one hand, that corrosion, which looks very bad At first glance, it is only on the surface.

That leads us to the conclusion that this artifact was created in modern times and designed to look very ancient. Scientific methods have proven that the bronze sculpture of Augustus is a. I think the authorities are reluctant to regulate the art market because there is a strong art market. It is considered to be in the interest of the German economy, perhaps without knowing exactly what is happening today. I think we have learned a lot in recent months, for starters, that this trade, because it is so profitable, attracts those who try to make a profit from counterfeit artifacts, so we have to be on our guard, especially when we take note of how inaccurately They describe many objects when they are put up for sale.

If you want to import Ukrainian sausages into the EU, you need an import license certification. A list of ingredients and chemical analysis cultural artifacts archaeological artifacts can be imported just like that, without documentation or certification, so we must assume that there is a corresponding proportion of fakes on the market of between 40 and 50% of what can be suppose an archaeologist from the Stefan Lemman University takes advantage of his academic freedom to evaluate art objects. Today you have reasons to be satisfied. Your new book on suspicious and forged bronze heads has been published with the results of new tests at the Frenhofer Institute giving you confidence, ladies and gentlemen. dear students, I am pleased to welcome you here at our book presentation at Martin Luther University in H.

In my opinion, scholarship must respond clearly and effectively to these challenges. Only then can we defend the basis of our subject against this attack of money grabbing and this Thus presents the results of his latest research on the museum in France in mu in muang, a small town near which Picasso spent his retirement. A British billionaire has created a private museum housing several heads that he acquired and exhibited, but which in my opinion can hardly be described as classical works of art, but as Stefan Lemman presents the results of his research, another bronze head that he describes in his book as very suspicious appears in the US, it is presented as a loan from an anonymous. private collector and it is this bronze head of Alexander the Great that Layman attributes to the Spanish master's workshop it is not an isolated case archaeologist Oscar muscarella has observed that museums in the US have often exhibited dubious works of art uh yes a pret collector decides to make a donation to a museum 99% of the time and maybe 100 but I'll be generous 99% of the time the curator and director will accept it ifof Factor why because they want this collector to give more stuff and also make financial contributions in very few cases, and if a curator recognizes that one or two counterfeit objects will be kept in the basement, in a very few rare cases, it is kept in the basement, in most cases it is on display in the basement. collection of donated S and S. and the donor's family gets the prestige from this situation and has this throughout the United States.

The bronze sculpture is displayed without any details of provenance. Kristoff Leon, a veteran in the art trade, also concludes that the head is the work of the Spanish master and is now displayed in the metropolitan where it is exhibited as a loan displayed there certainly will not be bad for its market value I hope that the head will appear again at an auction in the not too distant future. In the future it will surely appear again and what about the identity of the Spanish master and his whereabouts? We still don't know anything about them. Stefan Layman suspects that what he has discovered so far is just the tip of the iceberg and that there are many fakes on display in museums around the

world

.