Forgery, crime plaguing art world

Forgery, crime plaguing art world

By Reita I. Malaon

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian art market has enjoyed a boom
since 1998, despite the economic crisis. You can visit any major
art gallery or attend various art auctions and witness the
increasing appreciation for works of art.

The previous record price of Rp 1 billion paid for Joko
Pekik's Berburu Celeng (Hunting a Pig) was surpassed by the Rp
2.6 billion paid for W.G. Hofker's Portrait of the Seated Ni
Noneh, which was sold during an auction held by Larasati last
October.

These figures attest to the public's interest in paintings not
just for their artistic value, but as investments. And those
purchasing art are not only established collectors, with a
growing number of younger people eager to acquire works of art.

However, as demand for works of art has grown, art crimes,
especially forgery, have also risen.

The Indonesian art market is saturated with forged paintings.
There are even dealers who specialize in selling forged works of
art. And the big auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's,
which have been auctioning major Indonesian paintings since about
1994 in Singapore, are not immune to this plague.

Some questions have been raised upon the authenticity of
several paintings in their collections. There was even one
incident where the family of the late S. Sudjojono submitted a
claim on a stolen painting from their private collection
which turned up for auction at Sotheby's Singapore.

When we saw the catalog for Sotheby's October 2000 auction, we
immediately saw that one of the six Sudjojono paintings that were
being offered in the listing was the one that was missing from
our private collection, said Pandanwangi, the daughter of
Sudjojono.

The painting was originally titled Djuang Main Yukulele
(Djuang Plays the Ukulele), but in the catalog it was titled Girl
with Violin.

It was so obvious that was not the title of the painting since
she is not playing a violin but a ukulele. And of the other five
paintings, we suspected four of them were forged. We directly
contacted Sotheby's to clear these matters, unfortunately they
seemed to be reluctant to be of any help about the stolen and
forged paintings, she said.

They still went ahead and auctioned them and one painting
that we suspected was forged was sold. Afterward, we invited the
buyer to verify the authenticity of the painting but so far we
have not received any word from the party, added Pandanwangi.

"Since the time of my husband's death in 1986, we have been
receiving requests to authenticate his paintings, and sadly only
about 20 to 25 percent of them were originals," she said.

It is impossible, of course, not to think of the
controversial halted auction of world-class paintings by Van Gogh
and Rembrandt a couple months back at The Regent Hotel in
Jakarta. The obvious reason for this debacle was the huge profits
awaiting the forgers and sellers.

One dealer who specialized in forged paintings justified his
actions as fulfilling the needs of the customers. "They came to
me only for the fake ones," he said, adding that if he didn't do
it there were lots of others who would.

Art crime is not exclusive to Indonesia. It is a big business
in European countries and the United States. But what makes the
crimes here in Indonesia seem so ridiculously easy to pull off?

First of all is the lack of clear laws dealing with such
criminal acts, said noted art critic and curator, Amir
Sidharta.

Our law enforcers do not have the capability or the
infrastructure to deal with these crimes. But the weak laws are
not the only culprit. Another major factor is that the academic
world in Indonesia is unprepared to tackle the problem, he said.

"We do not have an adequate record of the paintings of our
major painters, let alone the younger generation. The only one
that has such a list is Affandi," said Amir.

As a result there are no references to ascertain the
authenticity of many works. Moreover, there is a blank spot in
Indonesia's painting history.

In the aftermath of the Communist upheaval in the mid-1960s,
many major works of art were burned by the authorities,
especially those painted by artists from LEKRA, a cultural
organization related to the now-defunct PKI Communist Party.

So there is sparse knowledge about the works of those artists
from the 1950s through the 1960s.

"Another problem is that we do not have a stolen art registry
that we can use to check on works of dubious origin," said Amir,
who is currently in the process of creating a database for the
works of artist Erica Hestu Wahyuni.

"(The database) is sorted by period so I can use it as a
reference to determine the authenticity of any of Erica's work
that comes my way. And the next project will be for
S. Sudjojono's works," he said.

Also, there simply are not enough art experts here to guard
against forgery.

Art institutions like The Yogyakarta Art Institute or The
Jakarta Art Institute have long produced master painters, but
only a handful of their graduates have chosen to remain on the
observing side.

The inadequate number of art experts and a lack of written
records compound the problem.

Putting an end to art crimes is clearly a major task that must
be handled by the academic world and the art authorities, with
assistance from the government.

So in the future art lovers can acquire a Hendra or a
Sudjojono with greater certainty. And no art auctioneer -- like
the one from the halted auction at the Regent Hotel -- will have
to state that one should buy a painting for its aesthetic value,
regardless of its authenticity.