The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake
The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake

Video: The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake

Video: The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake
Video: Why is the Mona Lisa so famous? - Noah Charney - YouTube 2024, November
Anonim
The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake
The picture, sold at the Sotheby's auction for 10 million, was recognized as a fake

The painting, which was considered the work of the famous Dutch artist Frans Hals and was sold in 2011 at Sotheby's for $ 10.8 million, was declared a fake. The auction house fully acknowledged this and compensated the owner of the painting, who bought it 9 years ago, according to the BBC.

With the help of the latest technical means, it has been reliably established that the picture could not have been painted in the 17th century, since it was created using modern materials. This revelation was not an isolated one: the picture of the fake Hals is just part of the scandal associated with the alleged appearance in the art space of over two dozen fakes.

Experts believe that many paintings, the authors of which were considered the Old Masters (as it is customary to designate the outstanding artists of Western Europe who worked before the beginning of the 18th century), may turn out to be fakes. The size of the losses is catastrophic, as there are more than 25 paintings with a total value of about $ 246 million.

"The scandal of the century in the field of art" - the world famous art dealer Bob Haboldt called this event. The last time something like this happened was in the 1940s, when the authenticity of the paintings, the hands of the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, was questioned.

This time, the painting "Venus" by the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach (the Elder) and the Italian painter of the early Baroque Orazio Gentileschi "David with the Head of Goliath" came under suspicion.

In March 2016, on suspicion of forgery, the authorities seized, directly from an exhibition in France, "Venus", which belonged to the Prince of Liechtenstein. The painting appeared on the art market in 2012 and was literally the next year sold at auction in the London gallery Colnaghi for six million pounds (7, 8 million dollars). Louvre experts are currently working on determining its authenticity.

American collector and art dealer Mark Weiss, who bought the Hals, as soon as he learned that the "Portrait of a Man" was connected with the seized "Venus" of Cranach, informed Sotheby's and expressed his doubts. Thus, the experts of the auction house and identified a fake.

Recommended: