Fake Chagall fetches $650,000 at antiques auction in Belarus

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MOSCOW, ( RIA Novosti correspondent Anatoly Korolev). The controversy surrounding the recent sale of a Marc Chagall painting through the Belarusian auction house Paragis has created quite a stir on the antique and fine arts markets of Russia and Europe.

The work, sold off to a mystery bidder at $650,000, had been deemed a fake long before it was put up for sale. Specialist teams from Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery and the Marc Chagall Committee in Paris examined it and challenged its authenticity. But the auctioneer remained unconvinced and turned for confirmation to Meret Meyer Graber, Chagall's granddaughter. She officially notified the auction house that the painting was a fake.

Under the international rules of antiques and fine art auctioneering, an item whose authenticity is disputed should be withdrawn. But Paragis decided to go ahead with the sale regardless. It told the bidders that this may or may not be a genuine Chagall, but the uncertainty did not seem to daunt the bidders.

This absurd story indicates that antiques and fine arts markets in Russia and other former Soviet republics remain among the world's wildest. Neither the local auctioneers, nor the bidders seem to care much about expert opinion. The auctioneers often even use controversy to create hype.

It is not uncommon for auction houses and producers of fake artwork to act as accomplices. They often join hands to bring a skillfully executed fake to public attention long before it finds itself under the hammer.

Before being auctioned off in Minsk this past May, the work had been shown at various exhibition venues in Moscow. Painted in a style atypical of Chagall, it is an improvisation on themes from the artist's early output, and looks very much like a work-in-progress-as if Chagall saw no potential in the sketch and therefore decided to leave it unfinished.

Last year's purchase of the Forbes family's Faberge collection by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg was yet another controversial deal. The collection was sold at an undisclosed price, although experts familiar with the Faberge market say it must have been close to $140 million.

The Forbes' announced intention to sell their Faberge collection to Russian hands prompted talk among experts about many of the pieces being forged. This, however, did not stop Vekselberg from offering a handsome amount of money for the collection. Later, he put the acquisition on display at the Moscow Kremlin's Armory Chamber.

Valery Skurlov, a period jewelry expert at the Russian Ministry of Culture, said he has no difficulty deciphering a fake from an original. He said several items from the Forbes collection do not meet the marking regulations that were in effect in Russia when Carl Faberge worked here.

The gold fittings on the pedestal of the Spring Flowers egg bear no hallmark or designer trademark. The hallmark had been placed in the egg's interior, where the emblem of St. Petersburg was supposed to appear instead. Another impropriety is the two lines running across the piece. They carry no esthetic meaning whatsoever, but they do reveal the designer's lack of skill in guilloching the surface.

Vekselberg offered no comment until after Skurlov and Tatyana Faberge, an art historian and great granddaughter of the celebrated jeweler, made their findings public in a scholarly journal. The businessman then had to acknowledge that the collection did contain a dozen or so fakes.

The Russian antique market's annual turnover is estimated at $80-100 million. According to the Federal Customs Service, since the introduction in February 2004 of the regulations exempting collectors from customs duties on incoming antiques and artwork, as many as 75 individuals have passed through the checkpoint of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with period pieces of art in their luggage (data of February 2005).

The flow of antiques and artwork into Russia keeps growing, and the market threatens to spiral out of control. This is why the Russian government's recent decision to put the sector in order seems very timely.

The planned measures include the creation of a pool of about 1,000 licensed specialists to certify the authenticity of antiques and period artwork. As soon as the pool is created, museums will be stripped of their right to issue official certificates of authenticity.

The licensing process is expected to take about a year. But beginning in 2006, it will be impossible to buy or sell period art work in Russia without assessment by a state-licensed expert, leaving antique and fine arts auctioneers hurrying to trade off their fakes before the new rules come into force.

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