Dalya Alberge
The Observer, Sunday 17 October 2010
Rotes Bild mit Pferden (Red Picture with Horses), sold in 2006 as the work of Heinrich Campendonk, the German Expressionist. Scientific tests have now proved that it is a forgery. Photograph: Dalya Alberge
Panic is spreading through the art world following the discovery of forgeries among major 20th-century paintings sold in recent years by leading auctioneers and dealers worldwide, including Christie's in London.
More than 30 paintings, thought to be by artists including Max Ernst, Raoul Dufy and Fernand Léger, have been unmasked as forgeries, the Observer has learned. The fakes have duped leading figures in the art world into parting with at least £30m.
Four of the paintings have gone through Christie's, including forgeries of Ernst's La Horde, estimated at £3.5m and eventually sold to the Würth Collection, and André Derain's Bateaux à Collioure, sold for £2m. Six paintings were sold by the leading German auctioneer, Lempertz, one for £2.8m. The forger's strategy appears to have been to create compositions that would relate to the titles of documented works whose whereabouts are not currently known.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/17/christies-forger-art-scam