Fakes, fakes everywhere? (ctd.)
January 17 2017
Picture: Sotheby's
Some breaking news: the St Jerome being investigated by Sotheby's in connection with the Old Master forgery scandal has been deemed to be a fake. Here is Sotheby's statement:
When we learned last year that the painting may have originated from Giuliano Ruffini, we informed the purchaser from our January 2012 auction and initiated a process including technical analysis that established that the work was undoubtedly a forgery. Ruffini is an individual at the center of a broad-ranging and well-publicized criminal investigation for allegedly selling a considerable number of Old Master paintings that are modern forgeries.
As was true in the recent case of the fake Frans Hals painting [sold by Sotheby's for $10m in 2010], Sotheby's is honoring its guarantee and fully reimbursing our purchaser. We have also exercised our contractual right to cancel the sale, which requires our consignor to reimburse us. While we would have preferred to settle this matter out of court, our consignor has refused to abide by his obligations and we have been left no other option than to pursue legal action.
As mentioned earlier on AHN, the painting was sold by Sotheby's in January 2012 in New York for $842,500. It had been discovered in 1999, and before Sotheby's sale had been exhibited (at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna no less) and widely published as a work by Parmigianino himself. The 'Circle of Parmigianino' attribution given to the painting by Sotheby's was therefore one of some caution, and followed Prof. David Ekserdjian, the leading Parmigianino scholar, saying he did not believe it was by the artist. That said, there was little doubt then that the picture was from the period, and when after the sale it was loaned to the Metropolitan Museum in New York the attribution was upgraded again to 'Attributed to Parmigianino'.
Sotheby's lawsuit names the consignor as Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrieres of Luxemburg. He is described here as an art historian, sometime art dealer, and lawyer. According to Vincent Noce's article on the St Jerome in The Art Newspaper in October 2016, the St Jerome was once owned by Giulano Ruffini, who had owned the Frans Hals portrait which has also been declared a fake by Sotheby's after extensive scientific testing. For the first time, therefore, we can now say for certain that we're dealing with multiple forgeries. Two other paintings still under suspicion, a Cranach of Venus belonging to the Prince of Liechtenstein and a David with the Head of Goliath by Orazio Gentileschi, have yet be proven to be fakes (though, as I have said elsewhere, in my opinion it is likely that they are). Both of these paintings previously belonged to Ruffini, according to Ruffini's own testimony in The Art Newspaper. What we can begin to deduce from this pattern, if indeed it is one, is the fakes are all: small-ish; of no certain provenance or publication history before the 1990s; on either panel or stone supports; by major but not first-rank artists.
Sotheby's court papers set out why the St Jerome has been declared a fake, after analysis by their in house Director of Scientific Research James Martin:
Mr. Martin took pigment samples from 21 different areas of the painting. Each and every one of those samples (none of which were taken from areas of restoration) contained the modern synthetic pigment phthalocyanine green, which was first used in paints nearly four centuries after Parmigianino died.
What is frankly extraordinary about the latest news is how different the painting is to the Hals portrait. This faker, if indeed the same person painted both, has demonstrated amazing versatility in artistic styles to go from 16thC Italian Mannerism to 17thC Dutch Golden Age painting. There has surely never been a better mimic of such differing artists. If I could meet them, the first thing I would do is congratulate them.
Anyway, that's for another day (I hope). The interesting legal aspect here is that Sotheby's have gone to court against Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrieres before they have done so against the London art dealer Mark Weiss, who consigned the Hals portrait to Sotheby's in 2010. In both cases, Sotheby's say they are determined to secure repayment of monies they have paid to the consignors, as the terms of their sale contract would have stated. Sotheby's are still in discussions with Mr Weiss.
