Painting forgery boom fills art collections

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?