Chagall?
The phony counterfeit art trade is once again flourishing. There seems to be a twenty year curve on the limited edition scam. These fakes show up in the "finest" galleries. The Dali scandal of the eighties was so rife that thousands of people still have these "signed" editions stowed away only to find that their 2000 dollar print is worth 75 dollars as a collectible poster.
The Department of Justice recently indicted a number of dealers charging them with ripping off art buyers to the tune of 5 million dollars. Read here
A Florida Dealer, Jerry Bengis of Coral Springs who touts himself as one of the leading authenticators of Salvador Dali and whose website states "We are now starting to make available certain items from our 30 years of collecting." was one of those indicted.
Remember this........Fancy chandeliers and leather sofas do not guarantee that you get what you pay for. There are the unscrupulous dealers and counterfeiters who work together. Particularly beware of Chagall, Miro Picasso and Dali. I've even seen a fake Red Skelton clown print. When an edition has A.P., H.C., P.P. with no edition # this should be a red flag. Edition numbers can be tracked via the publisher and printer. These are in a Catalogue raisonné
Here is a lithographer discussing so called "fake" Dr. Seuss prints
Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of new Dali fraud cases popping up, many indictments, etc. There is also a Movie coming out based on the new book "Dali and I" which claims that Dali himself was a fraud. I've read some new interesting facts on www.Art-Fraud.org about this and other fake prints. I am very confused and worried about the future of fine art prints.
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