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

69 [Music] 69 well John's husband is this auction houses usually care only about what goes over the counter what makes money animals genuine and fake goods go over the counter there is no difference the man is rather ethical principles overboard as long as it sells anyone happy [Music] ninety-five million dollar [Music] these bronze heads are from auction houses galleries and art dealers they all have one thing in common archaeologist Stefan Lehmann reckons they're fakes the work of a mystery super forger known in German art circles as the Spanish master no one knows who he is but Lehman is on his trail sponsor masters nota nom the Spanish master is a makeshift name nobody knows exactly what it's supposed to mean or where it comes from I've heard the expression used in the art trade in general my recently met an archaeologist who claimed to have coined the expression because he knows a forger from Spain when I asked him for his name he said oh I can't think of it right now Lehman describes these portraits of ancient rulers to the forger Augustus Caesar Alexander the Great all the sculptures have a common attribute an emotional facial expression which is actually not typical of classical antiquity they're always bronze heads which are an especially high demand among art collectors this one was put up for auction at Barnum's this is one of the heads that was offered in New York by Robin Symes in the December auction it's about jewel this was acquired conventionally over the counter in her New York antique shop if you take Aladdin of all born this one was put up for auction in Munich this one's been sold several times it's already got quite a history today it's in the possession of a foundation in Geneva in a museum as far as I know this one is in Geneva - lemon is a professor at Martin Luther University and Haller from his office the Berlin born expert researches the art market and find so many heads he considers dubious that he has to shake his own load this one still on offer approximately 250 AD price upon request of course higher self na'far his claw [Music] what up close the price well it starts at about a million my name you won as an art dealer for 40 years Christophe Leon sold many major pieces of ancient art to international museums he made a decision that's unusual for an art dealer he wants to talk about his observations in the ancient art trade he shows us the catalogue of an international auction house that sold off a collection this in the past only a few pieces of genuine let's go through and quickly this one is so fake it stinks look it's so blurred a sculptor in antiquity would never have done that you can forget it depends if it Kissin kind o ancient sculpture ever looked like that with these eyes these big bulgy eyes this one's ridiculous you can tell by the hair the hair always gives the game away the vases are okay we won't waste our time on them this is so fake it stinks this one's impossible it's all rubbish this one here - none of them are antiquities here's another one with a male member bulging through the cloth that was never done in ancient times this is this antique Azizah it's always always to sneak a mouse button it's just a list oh it all got sold the few genuine works and all the forgeries $47,000 eighty-three thousand fifty nine thousand that's big money and de casa hey does a Kadima get ahead in everybody keeps tight-lipped and says nothing no one goes and says careful my friend what you have here is a disaster you wasted your money Leon says up to 50% of all antiques sold at auction are fakes it's an incredible figure [Music] high above Manhattan the experienced American archaeologist Oscar white muscarella watches the art trade he worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a curator for many years and is a renowned expert he's considered the good conscience of archaeology because he doesn't mince his words you could say he's a kind of whistleblower why one of my mentors here Sherlock Holmes I have learned that both deals are flexible son thinks the watching house is because they're forgeries I talked to a deal about this once and he smiled and what they're doing you see instead of selling it to a customer from their own shop they don't want to salvage it we don't want her soul for interest and a lot of dealers don't one don't want to sell avoid it they put it up for auction under a false name or they'll say from an old collection ministers the the provenance from an old family collection or from an old collection or from mr. X and these are dealers were selling the forgery and auction and not being personally involved in who buys it you see in America because it has so many museums is a prime target but the sale of forgeries yes [Music] New York may seem far away but the international trade has made its way to provincial eastern Germany to a Stefan layman experienced personally this bronze bust of Alexander the Great was presented at the vinkor man museum in Stendhal in saxony-anhalt in the year 2000 later it emerged that the bust had belonged to the London art dealer Robin Symes Stefan Lehmann attributes the bus to the Spanish master whose style he recognizes in it the special appearance of the edges where it was supposedly broken in ancient times and evenly spread patina the face completely preserved as if by magic Lehman went public with the news that the museum was displaying the bust without clear details of its provenance it's what all happening younger cooked I was there and I took a look at it and to me it was crying out that it was a forgery I was quite astonished so I bought the catalogue and I found that even less convincing I mean there are many forgeries and even the best of us can fall for a fake that's completely best in Keisel fool there's nothing more to say so I published a lecture which I gave here in Hara in the form of a museum booklet and expressed my own view that in my opinion it's out of the question that the piece under consideration is from the ancient world an organ or an antique is over nightfall and Tom unti cables ancient bronze bust of Alexander the Great or a well-made forgery by international art dealer mafia ten years ago this sculpture was considered a sensation displayed at the vinkle minh museum allegedly on loan from a private collector but the accusations that it's a fake go back a long way but not before time I still have the same opinion as stated in an academic publication that we are dealing with the forgery or the Winkelman society however accused him of libel and sued was this simply a scholarly dispute or an archaeological scandal to avoid a lengthy trial a mediator was hired but meanwhile the purported bronze sensation has been missing since the exhibition 10 years ago Osmund indeed I should speak for scientists to go down the legal route in Sumy that was a new departure I must say and in a certain way it's a form of violence your focus of this Avista thoughtful goodbye it a foul Spectre certain vital there was also the intention the lawyer for the plaintiff told me the aim was to get me removed from my post eventually the trial ended at the Berlin Regional Court with a settlement the details of which both parties have agreed to keep secret but instead of shutting Lehman up the trial spurred him on to carry out more research forgeries are an unpopular topic in archeological circles Lehman is one of the few archaeologists to address it publicly and word has got around today he's looking at a new case a Swiss collector who wishes to remain anonymous bought a bronze head in New York but then started having doubts about whether it was genuine usually Lehman looks for bronze heads at art fairs and in museums galleries and auction catalogues now for the first time a possible work by the Spanish master is on his very own desk it's a portrait of Augustus Caesar it's a stroke of luck for Lehman and his colleague Henry clue who's also an archaeologist the Swiss collector says Lehman could have sold the head on and is now risking the loss of a good million euros impressive piece if the head turns out to be a forgery it will be immediately worthless this phones thereby endure it's 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 that also increases its value prices for works of ancient art have risen rapidly in recent years many people looking for a safe investment by works of art Stephan Lehmann believes the stock markets and the trade in antiquities are linked it's actually all iron navaja de mons is the likely outcome of course it's something you can easily explain with the new era after 1989 when there was a whole new market of billionaires oil billionaires stores in this big idea of between meter they got the other key bells and harmful the stock markets went crazy people learned quick money and now there are very many people with almost inconceivable amounts of money and one of the investments recommended by banks is antiques paintings and works of ancient art what do you belong Tiki don't classify us from Iceland the Spanish master and his circle tried to help by meeting market demand with forgery Simba Dolph Sabbath reading that explains why four trees are made you see and for jeewa sold all over the place uh and because they have their dead there's a market for it because museums and collectors buy it we're talking money money money is the underlining factor and the reason this is done because only rich people have the money to pay for it and these rich people take get further advantage by donating it taking a tax deduction she ain't getting prestige and this goes on and on and on as we're sitting here it exists at this very moment so the trade in antiquities is obviously a wash with forgeries according to Oskar muscarella surprisingly many experts in German museums and universities know about it - but it's frowned upon - right expert opinions for the art trade because of concerns that in addition to forgeries there's a lot of looted art on the market Marco's Harrogate who heads one of the sections of Berlin's Pergamon museum has bought his staff from writing expert opinions on antiquities for the art trade let's get doctor ions RTD indigent is on the one hand you have those who say we have to document illegally exported works or academia so that the knowledge does not get lost designed on the other hand you have those who say that my writing expert opinions you raise the value of a work of art and make it even more profitable and that is also my personal opinion who does this let's stop by the position of us all I decided that we could not and should not write any more evaluations because the experts are the ones who assess an item and give it its value with their assessment often via team Christophe Leon was an art dealer for many years and has a doctorate in archaeology we joined him on his way to France a museum there is allegedly exhibiting several heads of dubious provenance including some works ascribable to the spanish master [Music] Leon has known the archaeologists Stephan Lehmann from Haller for many years whenever works from antiquity show up that appear suspicious they exchange views and information Leon says the market for forgeries has been booming for several years now as an art dealer he personally experienced the developments on the art market for 40 years ah dese nuts in home that I spent four years at Baron University until 1970 and an Borowski one of the biggest dealers in antiquities at the time asked me to join him in Basel we worked together for a year and a half and then I set up my own business I've been an art dealer ever since but I never really left academia me fellows happened by mine over the years I've always tried to stay within certain rules of the game I did not do all the things people around me were doing back then because I knew it would backfire sooner or later because I'm no saint but I put limits on myself from the word go because I came from a different side I came from academia [Music] [Music] meanwhile in Halle Stephen Lehmann continues to examine the bronze head from the New York art market his research has also exposed the market strategies adopted by the alleged forger first responders from Isis the Spanish masters forgery workshop naturally thinks about images it can produce for the market the via told in the ranking of archaeological objects bronze sculptures are number one there's something very special and we can expect them to attract great attention here's a grumpy expression rather than the ideal one we imagine for Augustus you can tell that the artist is playing with emotions a little bit but it's a fantastic piece the fish Stephane Lehmann also heads the Archaeological Museum belonging to the University in Halle its storerooms contain a collection of plaster casts of original artworks from classical antiquity these correspond exactly to the genuine antique portraits whenever Lemmon examines a suspected forgery he always compares this with an original as in the case of this portrait of Augustus Caesar archaeologists call this method stylistic analysis it's a centuries-old approach used to identify genuine works of art simply by looking at them it takes years of experience a wealth of knowledge and intuition is in the of each other's you can see here how an official portrait of Augustus looks these eyes aren't very arched they just have a slight curve and there's the long nose in the mouth which is oriented toward the vertical axis then this calm facial expression this very calm expression with only slightly raised contours only very light modeling which transports a very calm timeless face sight losses is East Formica and then we have a serrated edge at the bottom hardly man at all but allegedly torn off with great force you tired when you look at the details you have doubts about whether it really is a fake Cobalts 5 her bouzouki file shows like this is a perfect come on it's perfectly done masterly so to speak my stylish Stefan Lehmann really does think the head is a fake but to make sure his verdict is right he has to get the head examined again by scientific means [Music] the Fraunhofer Institute in foot specializes in testing materials normally the scientists here test industrial products and research prototypes an alleged forgery by the Spanish master is a first for them art evaluator hard Marat wants to have the bronze head scanned it's the first time anyone has tried to analyze a suspect sculpture head in this way we've already conducted a range of tests and to round it off we'd like a CT scan of the inside of the head what exactly are you hoping to be able to see with the CT scan you can spot casting defects repair marks and what I'm really looking for is the holes left behind by the spacers use English Mona is hoping to see inside the head into the material it's made of to find out the method used to produce it I reckon he's alright they're looking good and stable well Gladys is set up for his CT scan now Miller and the Fraunhofer Institute physicists are ready to examine the head Mira is a materials scientist and evaluates works of art made of metal porcelain or fabrics this time it's bronze purported to be from ancient times the first of the pictures pops up on the screen from Kevin who's even brighter there you have your spacer looks quite funny that's good too but there appears to be a serious problem this is very strong radiation we can hardly recognize any sharp material structure you get the feeling that there are definitely some cavities in the material but you can't define precisely how deep they are we simply didn't have strong enough radiation energy to penetrate this head properly so all Gustus will have to have his head examined again back in Halle Stefan Lehmann has fresh news a fellow academic has brought to his attention a number of suspect bronze sculptures in France God's Word in capsule engine was he owns it funk like in moves on as regards the heads in the Museum in the South of France in Mahjong a private museum belonging to an Englishman who made a lot of money loved art he collected and then built a Museum of antiquity in the South of France and suddenly and this really surprised me several ancient Roman bronze heads showed up here one of them has long hair that's highly suspect then there's this head with short hair that was unknown to me yes it's very strange and then called stiff and then we have a head that is certainly supposed to have been part of a bust or a statue as you can tell from the broken edge the person is wearing a full beard and striking mustache I am slark so all at once we have one known in addition to two three four five of these life-sized or slightly larger than life-size heads made of bronze what you're obviously supposed to come from statues here in normal that's who come meanwhile Christophe Leon has arrived in the South of France he wants to take a look himself at the Museum Stephane Lehmann told him about in his view what some of his counterparts in the art trade do is up to them but when purported works from antiquity that are considered highly suspicious by academics make their way into museums that's going too far yeah I love this was human is a giant end up you can already identify the museum's problem areas on the internet because the exhibits are very well depicted well photographed well presented but there's a golden rule in archaeology it's the key is forensics in other words you have to examine things yourself and then when you've looked at a piece and determined that it's genuine you have to be honest enough to admit that you got it right I see mouthing giving you begin to come we have to start fighting to keep museums free of forgeries museums are standard works imagine if art history were suddenly studied on the basis of forgeries he's taking a look at the heads in the museum he wants to make up his own mind first before he makes his assessment known so finish but this is completely wrong way off to mark these locks of hair like snakes no it's quite possible that this is a forgery by the Spanish master I definitely examined it with that in mind then I might be convinced but as I've said one of the features of the Spanish master is that he tries to create ancient heads but never quite succeeds Annan and Invictus x90 alternately these heads portray a different sight Geist a different spirit you can see it no head of hair was ever portrayed like that and antiquity didn't happen this head is strange - I don't trust it it's not an ancient style portraying someone like that there's no such thing an ancient face with eyes rolled upward keep this nice tie 90 cos cos it's ething the whole thing if they didn't open Oh is he gonna City and ultimately things were sold to him that I'd already graced the Depot's of various antiquities dealers for years and then things like that came along that's definitely a fake a head like that is not from antiquity I have my doubts about this too and things come along and you could carried away and you want to have them but that's obviously what happens when you put together a big collection under pressure and there are many objects here the museum's full if you they'll kick to dismiss you on this jag your stake you fired me I don't was in like I've said all museums have erroneous purchases in their basements lots of this museum too but they should sort through them and only exhibit the real ones clapping of their Sigma Stefan Lehmann is writing a book about the works of art he ascribes to the Spanish master he has pictures of 32 bronze sculptures on his desk he says the oldest items date from the 1970s the first of our status vows Martha Abbott under Spanish masters workshop divides the labor I assume but I could be wrong there could be more but I suspect that there are one or two three people who think what are we going to do next this here is an exceptional piece a bronze portrait of a black African woman do we even have the idea let's do something like that now they have to make the molds cast the metal and then ruin it all make damage marks create a fontina make it look ancient well done name also party me on this I so know that requires a lot of skill she falls as I said as it's by bones and here we have two bronze sculptures one is the head of a lady dated to the late Hellenistic period or the second century depending on academic opinion and this one is a purported goddess a bust that was placed in a round shield at Tondo as it's called they're all part of the ancient art collection in Basel and are on show their aunt in August 8th [Music] the Museum of ancient art in Basel is the only Museum in Switzerland to exhibit exclusively classical antiques the two sculpture Stephane Lehmann believes to be highly suspicious stood here considered stars of the exhibition museum director Andrea B Nazca has sent one of them to the workshop to have it examined once again by conservators [Music] the museum received the sculptures as part of a private legacy gift from the lottery collection in Artin Stephan Lehmann thinks the sculpture is the work of the Spanish master has come I listen to subbaraj I have to say this all surprised me we didn't know that layman was conducting such investigations and that he yet included our two bronze sculptures from the Ludwik collection their former owners Peter and Elena Ludwig collected art and acquired this bronze sculpture on the art market but the museum has no information about exactly where it comes from the idea of classical works with no known origin or provenance making their way into public museums via the art market is something Stefan Liam and applause Lehmann is classy sure are shallow yeah Lehman is a classical archeologist he's a professor at a university he's a curator at the Archaeological Museum but he's no specialist in bronze statues although he seems to think so using fun Michigan what I don't like in this case is this broadside on me personally on the museum on my colleagues so far there's absolutely no proof so I'm sticking to the version that these objects are original classical works of art antique sentient original which is the sunnatullah' she machines and in many immediate yes of course the museums are never amused obviously when important artifacts that are shown in their main chamber are cast into doubt it always leads immediately to personal differences that's normal you can't avoid that entirely in composition constant scene of a stenka but we Fargo but I think the question of whether they are original sculptures or modern forgeries is so important that we have to be above these trifles is clear Ian and Becks a Muslim [Music] back at the field foul and Hoffer institute preparations are underway for a second scan of the swiss collectors or Gustus after the failure of the first attempt to get a CT scan material scientist Harold Miller is now getting the bronze head x-rayed again in Europe's most powerful linear accelerator until now no Museum collector was prepared to hand over a suspected forgery for such an examination so no work ascribed to the master has yet been proved fake by these scientific methods [Music] the scientists have to leave the hall because of the extremely high radiation from the linear accelerator so the function is the examination is focused on the metal alloy in the bronze sculpture is it really from antiquity does it have the same characteristics as a bronze statue made 2,000 years ago one suspicion is that the forgers melt down ancient coins to cast new heads a clever approach what device does this token an it's a PerkinElmer detector with 200 micrometer pixel pitch again dolphin hostess of Quinta we believe because of a range of material characteristics that correspond with antiquity that this sculpture is made of genuine ancient material there is ancient material available for things like this and would not be an entirely new idea to use or to have used old material for forgeries facial this time the process works Mona looks at the cross-sectional images of the head and he notices that the patina on the head is only on the outside surface that's strange my sister's material and you can see that this material has a different density from the material around it which has a different alloy composition we've carried out metallographic tests meaning on a cross-section of the material and the outer crust and determined for one thing that the corrosion which looks very bad to the naked eye is only on the surface you shouldn't is methionine cleaned that's filled that leads us to the conclusion that this artifact was created in modern times and designed to look very old pick Tuskegee scientific methods have proved the bronze sculpture of Augustus to be a fake declare war on us 1b slang airfares of taps I do think that the authorities are reluctant to regulate the art market because a strong art market is viewed as in the interests of the German economy maybe without exactly knowing what is going on today dear taxation since it wants you on his floor with us fear I think we've learned a lot in the last few months to start with this trade because it is so profitable attracts those who try to make a profit from forged artifacts so we have to be on our guard especially when we take note of how imprecisely many objects are described when they are offered up for sale aboard in the universe if you want to import ukrainian sausage to the EU you need an import license certification a list of ingredients and chemical analyses cultural artifacts archaeological artifacts can be imported just like that without all the documentation and certification so we have to assume that a corresponding proportion of forgeries is on the market as much as 40 to 50 percent amanda's is pathetic [Music] as an archaeologist at the University Stephan Lehmann can avail himself of his academic freedom to evaluate items from the art trade today he has reason to be satisfied his new book about suspect and forged bronze heads has been published with the results of the new tests at the farm offer Institute which give Him certainty Dickey at the Dom in town the study on the ladies and gentlemen dear students I'm happy to welcome you here at our book presentation at their Martin Luther University in Hara Ely are two owned business off in my opinion scholarship must respond clearly and effectively to these challenges only then can we defend the basis of our subject against this money-grabbing attack and this is how he presents the results of his latest investigations into the museum in France in John a small town where Picasso spent his retirement near nice a British multi-millionaire has established a private museum which is home to a number of heads which he acquired and exhibited but which can hardly be described as classical works of art in my opinion Colm type of having fun [Music] but while Stefan Lehmann presents the results of his research another bronze head which he describes in his book as highly suspicious shows up in the US it's presented as a loan from an anonymous private collector and it's this bronze head of Alexander the Great which laman attributes to the workshop of the Spanish master [Music] it's no isolated case archaeologist Oscar muscarella has observed that museums in the u.s. have often exhibited dubious works of art the prominent collector decides to make a donation to Museum in 99% of times and perhaps a hundred but object generous 99% of the times the Pureland director will accept it if so factor why because they they want this collector to give more things than ought to make for financial contributions in very few cases and if a curator does recognize that one or two objects are forgery they'll keep in the basement and very few rare cases kept in the basin in most cases so an exhibit from the collection of some so donated you see in and the donors family get get the prestige of this situation and you had this all over America the bronze sculpture is being exhibited without any details of provenance Christoph lay on an old hand in the art trade also comes to the conclusion that the head is the work of the Spanish master owned only say in the cupola and now it's shown up in a metropolitan where it's being exhibited as a loan being shown there certainly won't be bad for its market value I expect the head to show up at an auction again in the not-too-distant future for sure it'll show up again who's gonna shine Tita and what about the Spanish masters identity and whereabouts we're still in the dark about them Stefan Lehmann suspects that what he's uncovered so far is only the tip of the iceberg and that there are many forgeries on show in museums around the world you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 1,052,168

Rating: 4.8301697 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, DW, Deutsche Welle, art, fraud, art fraud, forgery, art collector, crime, cover up, Spanische Meister, Spanish Master, counterfeit, antique, art trade, auction, museum, gallery, art gallery, exhibition, culture, conman, art world, creative, creativity, Winckelmann Museum, Bonhams, dw documentary

Id: 1lNSXB4i4fE

Length: 42min 31sec (2551 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/kppeterc15]

Orson Welles’ final movie, F is for Fake was on this subject. It’s a terrific work, part documentary and part film-essay. You can find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIVgUjj6RxU

[u/VincentNacon]

To be fair... if someone managed to fool art collectors and art experts for years... That's actually a work of art.

[u/RoyalBingBong]

If you like art forgery documentaries, then "Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery" (german trailer with subs) is something for you.

[u/RKfan]

Dang it Neal Caffrey!

[u/MyLouBear]

If you liked this, you might like the series “Fake or Fortune?” on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81032626?s=i&trkid=13752289

[u/FuzzyBagpuss]

If I found out I’d just paid millions for a fake, I’d have an art attack.

[u/BeerdedRNY]

Also check out Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery and Art and Craft (about Mark Landis). Both are damned good art forgery docu's.

[u/Got_ist_tots]

The book Provenance was about this and was great. Also In Vino Veritas is about wine forgery and also really good. Both are a really good look into worlds that are far from my reality.

[u/Psych0matt]

Should probably take it to pawn stars first, they know a guy