Painting forgery boom fills art collections

By Pandaya and Tjahjono Ep.

JAKARTA (JP): Jim Supangkat could not say no when a collector, dying to have a Sudjojono masterpiece, called him to examine a painting he had been offered for over Rp 80 million (about US$10,000).

The unnamed collector told Jim, one of Indonesia's few independent curators, he was tightly squeezed by the deadline set by the man who would sell the admirable painting.

When Jim told him the painting was a fake, this guy was dumbfounded. Maybe he couldn't tell if he was happy or disappointed.

But not all wealthy people with an eye for expensive paintings are as shrewd as this friend of Jim's. A business tycoon, whose mansion is often described to have lost its grandeur because every inch of the walls and ceilings is covered with paintings, was once amazed to find that only two of the five Afandis in his collection were authentic.

You can imagine the feeling when you discover that the expensive painting on your wall that you bought the other day and you adore so much is in fact a fake. The pirated works are so similar that only highly experienced people are able to tell them from the originals.

"Be careful when you are offered a painting belonging to a bankrupt business tycoon at a price lower than the market price," advises Jim. "Very probably it is bogus."

While the painting business is booming, the forgery boom is even more spectacular, although there have been no reports of the authorities raiding galleries or art shops selling bogus works.

Artists, curators and collectors all agree that painting forgery has reached an intolerable level. However, although many claim to know the culprits, they all duck for cover when asked why they don't mention names.

"No one has been prosecuted for forging paintings," notes Oei Hong Djien, a collector. "This has lead people to think that counterfeiting an artwork is not a crime."

Observers believe the dirty business involves well-organized syndicates of painters, art dealers and art shops and galleries. They target mainly inexperienced collectors.

According to Jim, all well-known artists have had their most valuable works forged: Popo Iskandar, Afandi, Jeihan, Soenarjo, Sudjojono, Djoko Pekik, Raden Saleh, Sukmantoro.

"The dealers will cleverly convince customers that the piece they are selling is original and the price is the same as that of the original," he says. "Painting piracy has become an industry."

Art critic Agus Dermawan T. notes that forging organizations generally include people specialized in copying works, forging artists' signatures and selling the paintings. "One person doesn't know the others," he says.

No courage

Curators, lawyers and artists have often called for government action to stop the practice, but the call has fallen on deaf ears.

Apparently the "victims" lack the courage to speak up enough for the authorities to hear. They are not aggressive like the Indonesian Recording Companies Association, which often gets the police to raid kiosks selling pirated cassettes and compact discs.

The inaction on the part of the government is particularly amazing because the 1987 law on intellectual property rights stipulates that the authorities can act against suspected offenders with or without complaints from victims. Forging an intellectual work is a crime just like theft or rape.

"The law allows police to arrest a suspect without waiting for a complaint from victims," says Wina Armada Sukardi, a law expert.

People who have later discovered that their collections are fake often choose to keep their mouths shut out of shame, or fear of being suspected as offenders themselves.

Some art shops, which love to call themselves "galleries", in Jakarta openly offer paintings whose authenticity is questioned by experts. Attendants of a furniture shop on Jl. Cipete Raya, South Jakarta, which also sells decorative paintings, can show you works by famous artists if you can convince them you are serious.

They will refer you to an art gallery on Jl. Karangtengah in Lebakbulus, South Jakarta, which they say boasts a collection of paintings by famous artists like Afandi, Jeihan and other renowned artists.

"We sell only the original versions," claims an attendant.

In Yogyakarta, a popular restaurant on Jl. Kaliurang is also well-known among local artists as a haven for bogus paintings, which are made by art students paid Rp 10,000 a piece.

A 38-year-old Yogyakarta artist is probably one of the most courageous pirates, for openly describing how he makes a living copying famous artists' works for a Jakarta-based syndicate.

He says "the man from Jakarta" will come to his studio with paintings to be copied. He swears he has no idea how the pirated works are marketed and by whom.

If you want to play the sleuth to get the names of "pirate" painters, you could probably start with a trip to Yogyakarta to visit David Sanur Handoko. He has a collection of over 500 paintings and claims all are authentic.

He says he "knows very well" who is involved in organized painting forgery. Once he planned to establish a "clinic" to verify the authenticity of paintings, but canceled the plan upon discovering that the "pirates" were all his friends.

Like a disease

Kartika Afandi, a daughter of the famous Afandi and a painter herself, says she knows of a gallery on Jl. Hayamwuruk in Central Jakarta which openly offers bogus paintings without fear.

Afandi's masterpiece Orang Memegang Ayam (Man Holding a Rooster), which is valued at about Rp 200 million, is the hottest item for counterfeiters, Kartika says.

She says many of the bogus artists are based in Yogyakarta and Surakarta.

"I know many of my father's works and mine are counterfeited. This proves that our works are much in demand. I don't think it can be stopped and it would waste time to make an issue out of it," she says.

Painting maestro H. Widayat likens the prevalence of forging to a "virulent disease" which spreads without anyone being able to stop it, with the law seeming about as useful as a heap of dung.

He once recognized a fake version of one of his late 1970s works because it bore his signature, H. (Haj) Widayat, while he went on the haj pilgrimage to Mecca only in 1988.

Indonesian artists are "strange", as Jim rightly says, in that few have the initiative to properly document their works or issue certificates of authenticity. The worsening forgery situation has made some aware of the need for such documentation.

Early this month, Agus Dermawan laughed all the way home from a painting exhibition at the World Trade Center, Jakarta, where painter Mas Dibyo was the butt of jokes because the certificate of authenticity for each of his works sold bears not only his signature but also his fingerprints.

"Although it sounds crazy, it was an original idea, but it ended up in being ridiculed by fellow artists," he says.

But you are wrong to think that all people loath bogus paintings. In fact, many people will do anything to get them as long as the price is affordable. Who really cares to ask whether the painting hanging on the wall of your living room is genuine or fake?