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By Cristina Carlisle
NY Times, October 6, 1998
Ramón Cernuda, a Miami-based publisher and passionate collector of
modern Cuban painting, recalls his first encounter with the shadowy world of art
forgery. But there was nothing murky about the setting: it was the mid-80's, in
an elegant Miami home whose owner was a private dealer from one of Cuba's most
patrician expatriate families. Therefore, he had no reason to doubt that the
painting by Wilfredo Lam (1902-82) being offered to him for $200,000 was
anything but an original by the acclaimed Cuban artist.
But even as he was negotiating the purchase, he sent a photograph of the
work to the artist's widow, Lou Lam, to have it authenticated. The work turned
out to be a copy, and Cernuda learned that the dealer had tried to force Lam
into accepting money in exchange for her endorsement. He was outraged.
Over the years, however, Cernuda's anger continued to mount as he saw fake
paintings inundate the Latin American market. Despite the traditional secrecy
with which most collectors like to shield themselves, Cernuda decided to speak
out, and he has become one of the leading crusaders against forgery.
"In the 80's the fake market was restricted to the occasional imitation
of works by Lam, but now there is a veritable epidemic of fake paintings by
Cuban masters from the 20's through the 60's," Cernuda said. "Unfortunately,
extortion and bribery are very much a part of this universe."
Indeed, many collectors, dealers and museum curators agree that the recent
boom in prices for Latin works has created a parallel fake market, particularly
for modern Cuban masters. Mary-Anne Martin, a Manhattan dealer who founded
Sotheby's Latin American department in 1977 and was its head until 1982, said
that a growing demand from affluent Cuban-American families in Florida for
modern Cuban paintings was accounting for their dramatic rise in value. "As
soon as art starts to get valuable, the fake market begins," she said.
But it's not just Cuban art. Martin said she had detected a number of
forgeries of Mexican works. There is some Mexican art so obviously fake that she
is identifying the different hands of specific forgers, she said. "I am
offered at least one false Frida Kahlo a month, and I have more copies of Diego
Rivera in my files than real ones," she said.
The forgers are apparently getting bolder: even the sloppiest imitations
find their way at times into auction houses in Spain and the United States, and
across Latin America. Last November, for example, Christie's opened an evening
sale of Latin American art in New York by announcing the withdrawal of six lots,
all by Cuban modern masters, because there were doubts about their authenticity.
The questioned works involved two paintings by Mario Carreño, two by René
Portocarrero and two by Esteban Chartrand.
"One of the forged works was dated four years after the artist's death,"
lamented Cernuda.
"Another carried a false authentification certificate."
Christie's had previously been embarrassed, in 1993, by having to print a
new catalogue after its cover turned out to be a picture of a copy of a painting
by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero, rather than the original. Botero
insisted on having the copy destroyed, and a videotape was made of the artist
and Martin taking a knife to it at a lawyer's office in New York.
Many Boteros are said to be copied in Asia. Martin said a friend traveling
through Saigon had come across a workshop where skilled craftsmen were
reproducing Boteros from photographs.
"We try to investigate as thoroughly as possible," said Fernando
Gutiérrez, director of the Latin American department at Christie's. "But
sometimes we receive information after the works are published in the catalogue.
This is regrettable but can happen at any auction house."
Both Christie's and Sotheby's withdrew works by Antonio Berni, an Argentine
artist, from their November 1996 catalogues when they proved to be false. Since
Berni works are reaching the $1 million figure, Ruth Benzacar, the Buenos Aires
dealer who handles his estate, has just established an authentification
committee.
Some experts point to Cuba as the origin of many of the forgeries detected
in the market. El País, the Spanish daily, recently reported that the
Guardia Civil had broken up a ring of con men last December who were smuggling
forged paintings into Spain from Cuba. Four are under arrest. Among the 22
paintings uncovered by the police were works, deemed fake by experts, that were
supposedly by Picasso and Miró and Cuban masters like Pelaez, Víctor
Manuel, Carreño and Mariano Rodríguez.
"Works sold with the authorization of Cuba's National Museum of Fine
Arts carry an authentification certificate, and our customs officers are very
strict," said Lilian Llanes, director of the Wilfredo Lam House of Havana
and president of the Havana Biennial. "The problem is that international
interest in treasures of Cuban art has generated a huge unofficial market of
false works that may find their way abroad."
Finally, some experts conclude that a lack of in-depth knowledge of Latin
American art is a major factor . "The Latin market has become too huge, and
expertise is fragmented; there just aren't experts who cover the entire art
spectrum," said Mario Gilardoni, a leading Buenos Aires art market
consultant.
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company |