Sotheby’s sets up unit to beat art fraudsters
BRITAIN: Sotheby’s has hired a former FBI sleuth to set up its first scientific research unit, amid concerns over forged paintings infiltrating the art market.
The auction house has hired James Martin, a scientist who has helped crack some of the most important art forgery cases of recent years, for a new department designed to investigate works offered at the sale room.
Tad Smith, chief executive of Sotheby’s, said the move was intended to ‘‘help make the art market a safer place’’.
It follows a major art world scare earlier this year in which Sotheby’s reimbursed a client a reported £8.4 million (NZ$15M), after a work sold privately in 2011 as being by Dutch artist Frans Hals was found to be ‘‘undoubtedly’’ forged.
The case unsettled experts, prompting reports that 25 forgeries worth up to £200 million could still be on the walls of unsuspecting owners.
It was Martin, who worked on the case for Sotheby’s at his firm Orion Analytical, who found the painting contained modern materials, proving it could not have been created in the 17th century.
He has now been drafted in by the auction house fulltime, as it acquired Orion to set up its own department.
Smith said: ‘‘Sotheby’s has had the pleasure of working with Jamie for the better part of the past two decades, and over time it became increasingly clear that rather than work on a one-off basis we could create something unique within Sotheby’s that would further distinguish us in the marketplace and at the same time help to make the art market a safer place.’’
Bendor Grosvenor, the art historian, said the decision was a good move by Sotheby’s. Each time an expert caught a forgery and reported on it, he said, artists were able to use it as a ‘‘faker’s charter’’, learning what to avoid.
‘‘I think the fact that there are fakers of this immense quality means that we have to be prepared to do these scientific tests as a matter of course now,’’ he added.
Martin’s biggest cases include the Knoedler scandal, in which 40 ‘‘masterpieces’’ by artists including Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were sold for US$60 million before being revealed as fakes by Martin, who found the paint pigment used had not been invented until a decade after one of them was supposed to have been painted.
- Telegraph Group