The Daily Telegraph

Are these paintings the real deal?

Colin Gleadell investigat­es the storm that’s gathering over the authentici­ty of 26 works in a new show

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Aletter to The Art Newspaper’s website this week raises questions concerning the authentici­ty of 26 artworks purportedl­y by eminent Russian avant-garde artists of the early 20th century (Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova et al) hanging in a special display at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent. The museum does not own the pictures; they are on loan from the little-known Dieleghem Foundation in Belgium, a not-forprofit organisati­on owned by Russian businessma­n Igor Toporovski, which, the museum says, is “using the museum as a platform to share its astonishin­g collection with the public for the first time”.

Toporovski has told the Belgian press that his “extended family” acquired the works over several decades since the Stalin era from reputable private sources. But he has never shown them before, and they are unknown to many acknowledg­ed western scholars.

The signatorie­s of the letter, which describes the Ghent exhibition as “highly questionab­le”, include art historians Dr Natalia Murray of the Courtauld Institute, who organised the exhibition Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 at the Royal Academy last year; Dr Vivian Endicott Barnett, author of the catalogues raisonnés for Alexej von Jawlensky and Kandinsky; Dr Konstantin Akinsha, the curator of an exhibition on Russian avant-garde at the Neue Galerie in New York; and Prof Aleksandra Shatskikh, who has written several books on Malevich.

Other signatorie­s include specialist Russian art dealers James Butterwick (London) and Ingrid Hutton (New York); Julian Barran, formerly a director of Sotheby’s Impression­ist and Modern Art department in London, and head of Sotheby’s France; Impression­ist and Modern Art dealers Ivor Braka, Jacques de la Béraudière and Richard Nagy; and Alex Lachmann, a Russian art adviser and collector.

The paintings, they say, “have no exhibition history, have never before been reproduced in serious scholarly publicatio­ns, and have no traceable sales records. The exhibited paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej von Jawlensky are not included in the catalogues raisonnés – internatio­nally recognised as definitive sources for authentica­tion of works of these artists. Objects such as a box and distaff allegedly decorated by Malevich have no known analogues, and there are no historical records that even mention that Malevich ever was involved in the decoration of such objects.” The letter goes on to ask that the exhibition is taken down until their questions are addressed. The two essential questions are: where have these works come from, and who has authentica­ted them?

Lachmann takes issue, telling me: “The paintings are all ridiculous on stylistic grounds. I can’t imagine how a public museum, which is supported by taxpayers’ money, can put these highly questionab­le things on the walls before doing an in-depth research, as is common practice in the museum world, and as every responsibl­e curator or museum director is obligated to do.”

When challenged over authentici­ty on Facebook by Pavel Otdelnov, the Russian artist, the museum replied: “We can assure you that the museum has sufficient guarantees from the owners regarding the authentici­ty of the works shown in the galleries.”

When asked by The Daily Telegraph to provide documentat­ion of the works’ provenance, to reveal which experts had authentica­ted them, and scientific analysis for proof of age, Toporovski, the owner, said these were “confidenti­al documents”.

“Chemical analysis is only required when there are scientific (artistic) doubts or in case of judicial trial,” Toporovski added. “In the internatio­nal museum practice, neither certificat­es of authentici­ty, nor chemical conclusion­s are required. Neverthele­ss, each artwork belonging to the Foundation has its own file: provenance, history and technical descriptio­n (condition). The Foundation can provide this informatio­n on request, for research, scholars and profession­als.” However, he declined to forward any of this informatio­n by email.

 ??  ?? The Evangelist­s, attributed to Natalia Goncharova, at the MSK Russian Modernism show
The Evangelist­s, attributed to Natalia Goncharova, at the MSK Russian Modernism show

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