Are these paintings the real deal?
Colin Gleadell investigates the storm that’s gathering over the authenticity of 26 works in a new show
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.