IZO

There is speculation over the Petrov-Vodkin being offered at Christies on Tuesday (Christies). Inevitably so, because his work is so rare and sought after. Is this painting authentic or not? At Sotheby's Sunday night reception I spoke to two experts in the art of this period (presumably, 1910s). Neither had a definitive unshakeable opinion, but both were sceptical. One said he had investigated the provenance and, while it appeared good on paper, it seemed unproveable and the old catalogues (1922 and 1932) merely list and do not illustrate the painting this one is claimed to be. What do I think? Well, I only flew in from Berlin on Sunday and at time of writing I haven't seen it in actuality. Nor am I anything like a PV expert. But I'm sceptical too, for a reason I won't divulge because it could conceivably assist a future faker of PV's work.

Interesting lawyers' ruminations on an art buyer's legal rights with reference to knotty cases revolving around authentication (mondaq):

Joel Thome, the plaintiff in the case, alleged that in 1975, he approached the artist Alexander Calder to discuss the re-creation of stage sets that Calder had designed for a 1936 production of an Erik Satie composition and the mounting of a new production. Calder agreed to the re-creation of three versions of the set – a full size set, a smaller one for smaller theaters, and a maquette, or model. Working from drawings of the original set designs, a set of plans was prepared by an architect and approved in writing by Calder. The sets were constructed, but Calder died before his picture could be taken with them. The production was staged a year later.  In 1997, Thome decided to sell the sets, and supplied documents to the Calder Foundation seeking to have the sets authenticated and included in the catalogue raisonné. He subsequently submitted additional documents. Each submission was acknowledged in writing by the Foundation.  Despite conversations that Thome alleged he had with the Foundation indicating that the works would be included, the works were never given an authentication number. Thome alleged in his complaint that as a result, he has been unable to sell the sets despite interest on the part of a number of buyers.  Thome sued the Foundation, as well as its director and a number of its trustees, seeking a declaratory judgment that the works are authentic works by Calder, an injunction ordering the Foundation to include the work in the catalogue raisonné, and damages under a number of different causes of action. The case was dismissed by the trial court. The appellate court affirmed that ruling.

Berlin Russians make dangerously good copies of old masters (Monsters and Critics):

This is the Berlin gallery of Russian brothers Yevgeny, Semyon and Mikhail Posin, who make their living by painting imitations of the world's most famous masterpieces. Their works are not exactly forgeries, but very good copies or reproductions. The Posin brothers are said to be among the best of their kind in the world. Only experts would be able to distinguish a Posin copy from the original - if the brothers did not mark the back of their paintings to comply with the law.

Visit them here (Kunstsalon Posin).

Odessa museum director will travel to Italy with claimed Titian painting for expert evaluation (Lenta.ru, in Russian).

On fakes in Kiev (RT.KORR, in Russian):

Scandal in Kiev art-circles: the owner of the Fortuna art gallery Ruslan Fartushny tried to sell fake works by the well-known artist Olga Akasi. In order to pull the wool over the Japanese potential buyer's eyes, a con-artist was "invited" to the "auction" of fakes who claimed she was the artist! Business fraud, which has become the alternative badge of Ukraine, has moved into Ukrainian art!

According to this report, Olga Akasi herself later attacked the fakes with a knife (Gazeta.ua, in Russian)!

And, Shemyakin forgeries in Omsk (Moscow Times).

New to me (info submitted to IZO by email, apparently by Susanne Orlando of Galerie Orlando, Zurich, which trades in Russian avant-garde art): The Russian Avant-Garde Rag. The current issue, number 2, is devoted to the Chauvelin-Nakov conflict over works attributed to Ekster, which seems to have been subject to a ruling in a court in Orleans, France (The Russian Avant-Garde Rag). For earlier reports on that dispute (IZO). The previous issue (The Russian Avant-Garde Rag) criticises people who denounce claimed Russian avant-garde fakes on the grounds that it is an attempt to control our "freedom to enjoy the work of the Russian Avant-Garde". I've no idea who's behind this publication.

"Evgeny Rukhin" on ebay.

Aleksei Smirnov on the artist Falk and his time, in three parts (retromaniak part 1, part 2, part 3, in Russian). The article makes it clear that in the Soviet era not only avant-garde works were faked; so, appearance of a work by (say) Falk or Petrov-Vodkin in a 70s-80s-90s catalogue or book is not a sign of authenticity.

I liked the [American-Russian couple Eddy and Nina] Stevens's living room (...) on the walls were icons that were genuinely made in Rublev's circle at the beginning of the fifteenth century. These icons were supplied by one Moroz, a shady character, a patron of the mentally-ill artist Vasya Sitnikov (...) Moroz lived somewhere near the Lubyanka, by the KGB building, to which he had entry. But later he was imprisoned for some crime all the same. (...) 

In the courtyard there was a nicely heated garage where Nina kept her collection of Moscow avant-gardists. In this collection were a good Tyshler, some insects by Plavinsky, a lot of Vasya Sitnikov, black cups on grey backgrounds by Krasnopevtsev (...) 

On one occasion Nina suggested I go with her to Falk's studio (he had already died) and try to buy from his widow the Nude which had been at the jubilee exhibition of the Moscow artists' union and which Khrushchev had for some reason made an issue of. (...)

Madame Stevens authorised me to offer from ten to thirty thousand dollars. In those days in Moscow these were enormous sums of money. (...)

I knew of course that I wouldn't be able to buy the Nude, and Mrs Stevens was not interested in any other Falk. But I said to her that I'd probably be able to persuade the widow. I decided firmly to stop visiting the Stevenses, the role of cicisbeo (the Venetian term for the second man in an elderly lady's household) didn't suit me. In order to finish the Falk business I dug out of the attic a big old unfinished canvas by my father from the VKhuTeMas period, on which a naked female model was outlined, and on it I painted three works based on sketches I made during my visits [to Falk's widow] - two of Falk's Paris landscapes and a small ugly nude. At this time on the same canvas I also faked two small portraits by Petrov-Vodkin. All this was flogged by a shady friend to some foreigners and my fakes were subsequently exhibited in Europe and reproduced in catalogues.

Sensation (ANSA)!? 

Long-lost works by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich and followers of his Suprematist movement are on show in Rome for the first time since their recent chance discovery in the Belarus city of Vitebsk.  ''The paintings and drawings had been hidden in the cavity of a wall where they had lain for decades. They resurfaced thanks to a stroke of luck, when the owners of the house decided to renovate it,'' said Rome art dealer Roberto Gnisci who worked for over a year to mount the event at his Chimera gallery.' (...) Gnisci said the folder's owner, whom he met during a visit to Latvia last year, feared the state might seize the works and asked him if he would take them abroad.  (...)  A friend, the late art and film critic Mario Verdone - father of popular Italian actor-director Carlo Verdone - urged him to go to Paris and seek the advice of Jain [sic] Watson, a reclusive authority on the German and Russian avant-gardes.  (...)  the elderly critic agreed to come to Rome to see the paintings, once they were delivered to Gnisci. (...)  ''Despite his frailty and a recent illness, Watson was as enthusiastic as a schoolboy when he examined the works. He was certain they had not been forged."

I think they may mean Ian Watson. Forged? What a thought.

Manhattan collector buys fake Chagall with fake Comite Chagall certificate (NY Post).

Watch out for Chinese fakes of imperial Russian coins (Numismaster) (thanks, MK).

The Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi has on display a mixture of authentic works and copies or fakes, and even the curators don't know which is which (NYT) (thanks, MK). For some reason the NYT dubs this situation a "legacy of war" but of course it isn't: it's the legacy of a culture with different traditions and priorities from those in the West.

Fell-out-of-bed-laughing dept. Someone claims they have a big holding of hitherto-unknown Ukrainian avant-garde art, presumably removed from special storage in Ukraine when the USSR fell apart (Zerkalo Nedeli, in Russian) (thanks, NI):

...recently Israeli citizen David Harel visited Ukraine and claimed that in his collection was a "whole list" of canvases by the Ukrainian avant-garde. Various sources name Alexandra Exter, Vasili Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, El Lisitsky and Vladimir Tatlin among the artists. (...) The collector thinks it possible that the paintings he inherited were taken from the collection of the Museum of Ukrainian Art (now the National Art Museum) in Kiev soon after the disintegration of the USSR in the early 90s. In any case, some of them came into possession of his family with that legend attached...

So, if the above "legend" is true, then presumably Mr Harel inherited the paintings from a deceased member of his family who was involved in a major crime, at the very least as a receiver of stolen goods. In that case, why not just give the paintings back? The director of the National Art Museum, Anatoli Melnik, says:

It's not out of the question that this rumour is put about by the owner of the collection in order to increase the market price of his pictures.

You don't say?!?!

The Faking Of The Russian Avant-Garde (ARTnews). It's old news, essentially, but this is the result of a "six-month investigation" and gathers together a large amount of disparate material which confirms that fakers and their witting (hey, maybe even unwitting) accomplices are abundant. As the article points out, the "provenances" used by fakers are no provenance at all:

Hundreds of works have appeared in recent years at auction houses and in galleries all over Europe, from Munich to Madrid. These works have very sketchy provenances in which certain assertions are repeated again and again: the works are said to have come from hitherto unknown private collections or to have been smuggled to Israel by immigrants in the ’70s or to have been deaccessioned by provincial museums in the former Soviet republics—although this practice was strictly forbidden—or to have been confiscated and hidden for a half century by the former KGB (the secret police), although experts say there is not a single documented case of avant-garde works emerging from KGB vaults.

On the growing problem of fake Parajanovs (Armenian Reporter):

The specialists at parajanov.com believe that there are several persons involved in making forged collages in the United States, Russia, Georgia, and Armenia. As there are few artworks that can become available and as the number of fakes continues to increase, they strongly recommend doing very extensive research before acquiring any work said to be by Sergei Parajanov.

Dubious avant-garde show in Finland (Helsingin Sanomat):

Suspicions have been raised that works on display an exhibition of Russian avant garde art, which opened recently at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku might be forgeries.

In a review appearing in Wednesday’s edition of the business newspaper Kauppalehti, critic Otso Kantokorpi raises questions of the authenticity of the works, and asks if the exhibition might be “the greatest art forgery of the 21st century”. (...)

Kantakorpi says that the exhibition should be an international sensation, as the known works of Rodtsenko [sic], for instance, are very small in number, and the Turku exhibition has a number of Rodtsenkos that had been previously unknown.

“...The works are ridiculously bad. Miracles sometimes happen, but 25 previously unknown Rodtsenkos do not suddenly appear from the collection of a Turku real estate developer”, Kantokorpi says.

"Warhol" owner wins right to sue Andy Warhol Foundation for failure to authenticate (Bloomberg). There are of course other bodies that have a near-monopoly over the authentication of works by individual artists, particularly in France, where I believe an artist's descendants' pre-eminence in the authentication process is enshrined in law. The Comite Chagall is one such. That situation is anomalous to my mind: why should the (say) grandchild of an artist be better qualified to authenticate a work than an expert who is not a blood-relative?

The proliferation of copies, some of them old, is causing dismay on the Vietnamese art market (Time):

Vietnamese artist Nguyen Trong Niet, an 85-year-old painter who has lived most of his life in a rundown flat in Hanoi's Old Quarter, proudly says that he painted Muong Kuong Market years ago in his living room, which is also his bedroom and kitchen. The vibrant lacquer brushwork of the piece exquisitely captures the bustle of market day in a Vietnamese village. The Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, the country's national arts museum, thought so, too. Offiicals there snapped up the painting for their collection, and for the past 40 years, Niet's work has been hanging on the museum's walls.   Or has it? Niet was stunned when he came across a photograph of Muong Kuong Market in a Russian art book several years ago — the painting was allegedly hanging in the Oriental Museum in Moscow.

The leading works of Soviet socialist realism were also widely copied, often expertly. Sometimes it was the artist himself or herself who made a copy, either for a museum collection or as an example-piece (эталон) from which a studio of copyists would make further copies. Sometimes these third-party copies turn up, attributed to the original artist; they're usually easily distinguishable by their inferior quality, but not always.

There are strong suspicions that a work by Boris Kustodiev sold by Christies in 2005 for $2.9 million is a fake. It has, sensationally, been included in the latest volume of fakes published by RosOkhranKultura. Three expert opinions have denied its authenticity. Christies also sold the work earlier, in 1989 (Kommersant, in Russian). The article doesn't give the identity of the painting's 2005 buyer, and nor will I.

Breaking news: Russian art scandal in the Tours chateau-museum. The exhibition Alexandra Exter and Her Russian Friends (Alexandra Exter et ses amis russes) has been closed prematurely and all 192 pictures seized by the police following a complaint by art historian Andrei Nakov. Nakov thinks only two of the works are genuine, and has furnished magistrates with evidence to back up his claims. The show was organised by another Russian art expert, Jean Chauvelin. He denies Nakov any competence and points out he has been working on an Exter catalogue raisonné for 10 years. Of the 192 seized canvases, 130 belong to M. Chauvelin himself. He hasn't given the police any certificates of authenticity because, he says, "I don't need to, I am the expert!" Nakov claims he had to act because Exter's "moral right" was passed to him. (Le Monde, in French) (thanks, PM). 

To put this in a broader context (aferizm.ru, in Russian):

In Switzerland in 1988 Andrei Nakov, organiser of an exhibition of work by Mikhail Larionov, was involved in a court case: all 197 works were deemed fakes.

A post last week may have been misinterpreted (IZO earlier). It wasn't my intention to suggest that Triumph Gallery is any more relaxed about authenticity than other galleries or dealers: Triumph Gallery boss Emelyan Zakharov was simply the person being quoted in this case. In fact, Triumph Gallery annoyed a lot of people by sponsoring the recent series of books illustrating fakes on the Russian market (IZO, earlier). My remark about museum shows being useless as a measure of authenticity still stands, though.

Scamsky Inc. (Heidi Brown/Forbes) (thanks, MK). When it comes to the "experts" who authenticate olde works:

Experts working privately can charge up to $100,000 or 5% to 10% of a painting's selling price. One expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, says a Russian dealer planning to sell a fake Malevich offered her $50,000 to authenticate it. 

Even experts who've made "mistakes" usually stay in the fold. Andrei Nakov sued the Geneva Tribune in the early 1990s for its coverage of a scandal involving his certification of 1,500 pastels and drawings by Malevich contemporary Mikhail Larionov. Chicago's McCrone Research Institute, which did chemical analysis, and a Swiss court both concluded many were fake, but Nakov won the suit and stands by his authentication. He's working on a translation of his Malevich catalogue raisonne. Art world insiders question the inclusion of some works, but Nakov says his analysis is thorough and well documented.

What Forbes mentions is only the visible part of the iceberg. Check the IZO Fakes category (IZO) for some other bits-and-pieces. There are people today, I know some of them, running substantial faking operations, abetted by auction houses, dealers and collectors. Unfortunately most of the fakes encountered cannot be publicly challenged or documented as such because of libel laws, not to mention threats of violence. The fakers operate with effective impunity and have huge sums to gain and nothing to lose except the cost of some oil, canvas and an unscrupulous artist's time.

The upcoming Rodchenkova-Popova show at the Tate will perhaps give the fakers another chance to add provenance to their warez. The museums don't care too much, neither do the dealers. Triumph Gallery's Emelyan Zakharov's buck-passing is characteristic, I fear, of dealer attitudes in general: "We will sell a work as long as it's had exhibits in two museums." In fact, a museum exhibition should be understood as adding precisely zero credence to a work, ditto authentication by an artist's relative, a certificate from some of the laboratories and all the other plausibility-enhancers. If you are thinking of buying an expensive painting, here's some advice I wrote in 2006 (IZO).

Igor and Tatyana Preobrazhenski (IZO, earlier) have had their sentences reduced to five years each for their fake paintings scam (ITAR-TASS).

Counterfeit coins from China (CoinWorld):

Jinghuashei says that his coin factory is probably the largest of its type in China. It produces in excess of 100,000 fake coins per month for Chinese coin types alone.

He says he is currently only selling about 1,000 counterfeit U.S. coins per month, mostly on eBay. His primary motivation for servicing this comparatively small volume business is that he is making contacts with people he hopes will come to China to buy counterfeit coins on a wholesale basis.

Jinghuashei also claims a sales volume of several thousand counterfeit coins per month in world coin types.

New technology for diagnosing fakes: spectroscopy of the surface materials; computer measurement of the canvas weave; brushstroke analysis (Art Radar Asia).

Lengthy discussion of Faberge, or not, sales on Ebay (Alexander Palace).

John Varoli has sent a precis of his Russian-related articles in the November Art Newspaper; not all available online; see below the cut. I was interested in this about the Melnikov Garage:

"The relationship is very straightforward,'' said Erica Bolton, GCCC spokesperson. "The Museum of Tolerance will be housed on the 1st floor and GCCC will be on the ground floor. So they will not interfere with each other.''

40% of pictures valued at $100-200,000 on the market in Russia are fakes, according to Art Consulting, and up to 80% of cheaper antiques (Oreanda, in Russian).

A stroll around the Antiques Salon, at which, apparently, the quantity of fakes exceeds "conceivable boundaries" (marina_yudenich, in Russian):

In the end I have to say – without any joy, in fact with sadness – that I stand by my words of five years ago: there are no proper antique dealers left, but instead of them we have distinguished-looking silver-haired black-market traders who in the 1970s sold jeans. And chewing gum.

Kabakov fakes problem is just growing (John Varoli/Bloomberg):

Emilia [Kabakov] said the "best fakes story'' was when a Moscow dealer asked her to authenticate an alleged Kabakov drawing from a private collection, but which proved to be a fake.

"I told him I'll destroy it,'' said Emilia. "But this man begged on the phone: `Please don't, it belongs to a criminal group; I'll call you back.' In 15 minutes he called back, `They said, let Emilia destroy it, we'll make a new one.'''

The T-shirt (zazzle.com) (thanks, MK).

UPDATE: more T-shirts: Putin (Cafepress); NOBAMA (Cafepress); and Palin again (Cafepress) (thanks, MK).

The Santori Temposan museum in Japan has cancelled at the last moment a show of Russian avant-garde art from the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art because, in the opinion of experts, the exhibition contains seven fakes (gazeta.ru, in Russian). This scandal has been brewing for a little while, and it appears that more than one Japanese museum is unhappy (IZO, earlier). There is in fact, considerable scepticism in the Moscow art world about the authenticity of avant-garde works bought - all comparatively recently - for the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art.

A Japanese museum has removed three paintings claimed to be by Mark Chagall from display (ABC News):

The Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo was informed by the Paris-based Marc Chagall Committee that the three works were not genuine because the painting techniques were dubious, museum spokesman Masao Kotani said.

Mr Kotani said the paintings - Portrait Of A Woman (1908), Family (1911-1912) and Fiddler (1917) - were lent by the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, which insisted the paintings were real.

"We are going to leave it to the two of them to discuss the paintings' authenticity," Mr Kotani said.

Mrs and Mr Preobrazhenski have received sentences of nine and eight years respectively for selling fake paintings from their Russian Collection gallery in Moscow (Lenta.ru, in Russian).

A look at the market in fakes, in connection with the Preobrazhenski affair (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, in Russian):

Not long ago, in Ukraine, in the Kiev-Pecherskaya Monastery, an underground laboratory for the mass production of ancient artifacts was discovered. It was equipped with technology more advanced than that of the laboratories of Ukrainian detectives.

I also liked this:

There's a popular joke among art historians:
"Do you give a guarantee that the picture is genuine?"
"Of course. It's guaranteed for two years."

The case of Igor and Tatyana Preobrazhenski, antique dealers charged with selling fake C19 paintings, is being heard in Moscow. One of the main characters in the affair, Dmitri Kubiinikov ("Dima Byk" - Dima the Bull), who, it is claimed, bought old Scandinavian paintings and altered them to create plausible Russian-school works, is still being sought (Open Space, in Russian).

The forgers are now well-and-truly in among the non-conformists. The work below, for example, attributed to Viktor Pivovarov, has just been withdrawn from the Macdougall sale after research showed that it was a fake. Of course, many nonconformist artists are still with us, which provides a buffer of sorts, but after they die can we expect the market to be inundated, and thus spoilt, by the fakers with their false provenances? As far as the artists who have died are concerned, the problem is already with us. Who believes all the Rukhins in circulation, for example?

A comment from Dr Basner on the Times article linked to below:

I've found a substantial mistake (or misunderstanding of the very plot of our technology) in the Times' publication.

The last paragraph:  Some forgers, such as Robert Thwaites, who was caught forging 19th-century paintings in 2004, use paints and canvasses from the relevant period, which would enable them to circumvent isotope analysis. "You would have to look at other factors," Ms Kimbell said. "Provenance is the most important, although this can and has been faked too."

He could not use the old paints since the oil from the 19th c. has already been polymerized (...) and it is impossible to PAINT with it! He could use old pigments (or dry old paint) but HE NEEDED TO ADD FRESH OIL IN THEM  (otherwise he could not paint), - and in this case we expose the traces of Cs and Sr. !!!

We have already done all the necessary tests with the original old paint (from the tube). It was "pure", but dry, you cannot use it for painting. But if smbd wants to use it - he has to add either oil, or turpentine. We did this - and this substance had already the traces of Cs and Sr.

John Varoli's original article in The Art Newspaper, which is sans mistake, may be read below the cut (thanks, JV).

A new method in the battle against fakes, developed by Dr Elena Basner, formerly of the Russian Museum, relies on the presence or absence in the pigment-binding oils of isotopes released by nuclear explosions in 1945 and later (Times).

Dr Basner, who is a consultant to a Swedish auction house, plans to use the technique to test the authenticity of Russian avant-garde works dating from 1900 to 1930. “The number of avant garde fakes out there is unbelievable, probably more than the number of genuine works,” she said.

“Collectors and dealers do not want to come to us. They are afraid the market will resist this technology. There are many people who have an interest in keeping fakes in circulation.”

UPDATE: this news was first broken by John Varoli in The Art Newspaper.

Ilya Glazunov has announced that lot 415, A View Of The Kremlin, at Sotheby's upcoming Russian sale, is not by him: "it is appalling and compromises my reputation as an artist." However, Sotheby's Russian boss Mikhail Kamensky insists it is by Glazunov (Kommersant, in Russian; via galerist, in Russian [who adds that Kamensky has "proof" that the painting is by Glazunov]). What will be the result of all this? Probably that the price will go up ;)

It's nice when someone agrees with you; even nicer when it's a portion of the professional art world. A friend calls to quote me this from the most recent issue of The Art Newspaper about the top-lot Kuindzhi at Sotheby's NY last month:

Before the sale, the work's authenticity had been questioned by collectors and dealers, none of whom wanted to go on the record. Sotheby's dismissed this: "We feel these rumours are spread by some dealers in order to scare bidders away and keep prices low," said one top auction house official.

Well, that's a bit far-fetched from Sotheby's: in fact, it suggests they inhabit a parallel universe in which values are inverted. Who are these dealers who want to "keep prices low"???!%$£@!! And it doesn't address the fact that the work sold plainly differs from the illustration of, purportedly, the same work in an early C20 Kuindzhi book that Sotheby's chose to reproduce in its catalogue. A couple of snapshots from Sotheby's catalogue below: on the left, the old book illustration, on the right, the painting that was sold by Sotheby's. Even at the tiny resolution I offer them here on IZO, they plainly differ. Look for example at the markings on the tree-trunks: it's like a game of spot the difference for pre-schoolers. I'm told by someone who viewed the old book itself that the differences really are substantial.

It's hard for me to see how Sotheby's can assert that the work illustrated in the old book and the work they sold are one and the same. It's possible, of course, that it underwent substantial all-over restoration at some point; in which case, one might expect Sotheby's to point that out. But I didn't get the impression, on viewing it in Moscow, that it had been restored. If the old book illustration does indeed represent the third version of this painting by Kuindzhi (the other two being in museums), then, logically, Sotheby's work would be something else: a fourth version, perhaps, painted, I suggest, on a very off-day? Or...? UPDATE: the report in The Art Newspaper is by John Varoli.

A look at the controversy over C19 fakes (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

A report on aspects of the Moscow scene: Volker Diehl Gallery, fakes and the Lena Hades affair (all covered on IZO) (Valentin Diaconov/Artinfo).

Top lot at the sales at Sotheby's in New York on 15 April was Arkhip Kuindzhi's Birch-Grove. I saw this work at the Moscow preview; it was strangely underwhelming in its execution, all the more so because Kuindzhi is such a sumptuous painter. To me it looked like a copy by another hand, and I even wrote to Sotheby's to that effect. However, that was merely one person's opinion; the provenance as given seemed excellent; and one assumes Sotheby's were absolutely sure of the work before putting it on the block.

The auction houses regard a 70% selling rate as a good result, so the 52% for the contemporary section was no doubt a disappointment; but this is a highly unpredictable market and Sotheby's in New York (as, too, in London) deserves credit for trying to expand the roster of living artists saleable at auction. Good prices were achieved for outstanding works by Kabakov and Rabin, and a Rukhin fetched a record (for him) $265,000; but an overpriced Tselkov went nowhere (John Varoli/Bloomberg).

In general, lots that sold on 15 April were doing so within or around estimate, unlike the Faberge icon on 16 April (John Varoli/Bloomberg). In the secondary market, as indeed in contemporary art (I'm thinking of the major events of 2007-8: Kulik's Veryu show and Osmolovski's Kandinsky-prize-winning bread icons), what rules now is a somewhat nebulous "spirituality":

"Religious artworks are more popular now with Russian and Ukrainian collectors,'' said Alexander Tabalov, a Ukrainian food- processing tycoon and art collector. "Rich people in our country are thinking more about spirituality.''

So far, Rossvyazokrankultura has accredited about 400 experts to give expert opinions about works of art; for its part, the International Confederation of Antique and Art-dealers will announce a list of some twenty experts at the antiques' salon on Saturday (RIA Novosti, in Russian). To my mind, twenty is more reassuring than 400.

At the presentation of the fourth volume in a series of books detailing fake paintings on the Russian market (IZO, passim), it was announced that the scandal of wrong authentications by the Tretyakov Gallery (IZO, passim) will be investigated by a commission of Rossvyazokhrankultura (Lenta.ru, in Russian). Earlier, it seemed that the TG itself would make the investigation. At the same event, the deputy head of Rossvyazokhrankultura, Anatoli Vilkov, said that legislation would be amended to make it easier to prosecute art dealers for selling fakes (RIA Novosti, in Russian).

An article about an antique-faking scam in England, the fakes to be traced back, apparently, to one Dennis Buggins:

Buggins recently “loaded up” an old desk in Russian-style fittings, including gilded brasswork and new veneer. The desk has recently been offered for sale for £525,000 and described in [prominent London antiquer dealer John] Hobbs’s promotional literature as a “highly important mahogany desk” probably built in 1790 by the Russian cabinet-maker Christian Meyer.

I have no idea if anyone has been sourcing Russian furniture from John Hobbs (or any of Mr Buggins's other clients), but if so, they might like to peruse the article (Jon Ungoed-Thomas & Christopher Owen/Sunday Times).

Following the publication of the third volume of fake art on the Russian market, the Tretyakov Gallery has managed to establish nearly a hundred instances in which it erroneously confirmed the authenticity (i.e. authorship) of submitted artworks. It has also found another 120 instances in which it failed to confirm a work's authenticity but it was sold as authentic anyway (Lenta.ru, in Russian). As far as I can tell, this confession by the TG concerns only those fakes that have been published in the three volumes, so one presumes there are more errors, so far unrevealed.

The new (third) volume of purported fakes mentioned here a couple of days ago contains a foreword in the form of an interview with top collector Peter Aven (Kommersant, in Russian, with full details):

"We should not be shy of naming names," says Aven. "Take the Tretyakov Gallery experts [X1] and [X2]. Few people trust them. There are people like the art historian [X3], a genuinely professional and knowledgeable person who has consciously chosen to sell fakes. When I walk around the antique salon at the Central House of the Artist some sellers turn their pictures to the wall because I know many of them well. But afterwards they are again hung and impudently offered for sale. And when you tell them something's a fake, they answer insolently that they have a document for their Lentulov, Mashkov or Konchalovsky, although they are 100% forgeries."

The third volume illustrating purported fake paintings on the Russian market, assembled and published by RosSvyazOkhranKultura, will be launched tonight at the Triumph Gallery (tvkultura.com, in Russian).