Police ignorant about art crimes

By Yusuf S.H.

JAKARTA (JP): The police have been sitting idly by amid the startling growth of fine art crime. Even when Indonesia's fine art world was jolted by an exhibition of allegedly "forged" paintings in Jakarta, late last year the police still failed to take any decisive action against the growing problem. The reason?

As the curiosity of Indonesian artists is mounting, head of the police detective unit for economic matters of the capital city's Metro Jaya regional police, Adjunct Sr. Comr Benny AJ Mokalu made a direct and honest assessment, "We admit that we do not know much about art. That's why we have never handled these types of cases."

This statement was in line with what head of the police detective unit of the capital city's Metro Jaya regional police wrote in his paper titled Fine Art Copyright, Intellectural Property Rights and its Law Enforcement.

He wrote that the limited legal action taken by the police against copyright-related crimes in fine art was largely attributable to limitations in the number and qualifications of human resources.

To solve this problem, he called for cooperation involving government agencies related to intellectural property rights of fine art in Indonesia to ensure that the fine art community (artists, creators, collectors and so forth) can enjoy legal protection.

It was this aspect that gained prominence in a seminar on copyright-related crimes in fine art, held at Galeri Nasional Indonesia, the Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, on Tuesday, Jan. 30 in cooperation with the Indonesian Fine Art Foundation (YSRI) and The Jakarta Post.

Apart from Benny Mokalu, who represented the head of the police detective unit of Metro Jaya police, Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu, the speakers in the seminar also included the curator of the National Gallery Merwan Yusuf and Cita Citrawinda Priapantja of Roosseno Patent Rights Bureau.

The keynote speaker was Walter Simanjuntak, who represented the Director General of Rights over Intellectual Property of the Ministry Justice and Human Rights. The seminar was opened by Abdurrahman, secretary of the Director General of Cultural Affairs.

According to Citrawinda, a master's degree holder in intellectual property rights graduating from Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord, New Hampshire, United States, and a doctorate in law from the University of Indonesia, the police can take action and don't need to wait for complaints from the community because a crime in fine art belongs to the category of ordinary offenses, not that of offenses warranting a complaint. Wina Armada, a legal practitioner acting as the moderator of the seminar concurred with her.

Although it is true that crime in fine art is an ordinary offense, Benny insisted that the community should file a complaint and be ready to testify. This complaint, he said in response to a question from one of the participants, can be filed directly to the production and trade unit of the local police. He suggested, however, that the complaint should not be filed to a police sub-precinct owing to their limitations in human resources.

"This is a solution that will enable us to take action. In the case of the exhibition of alleged fake paintings at the Regent Hotel the other day, if anybody is willing to file a complaint and testify, we will shortly process the complaint," said Benny amid applause from participants. Unfortunately, Adelia Rangkuti was not there to hear this statement. Adelia organized the exhibition called Exhibition of Pre World War II Paintings, which displayed and auctioned the collection of antique goods collector J. Syahdam. The exhibition and auction was halted.

Benny also suggested, in line with the idea readily discussed in the fine art community, that a special copyrights institution like YKCI/ASIRI in the music sector should be established so that it can coordinate with the police and other law-enforcement apparatuses in dealing with crime in fine art.

In response, head of the National Gallery Watie Moerani hinted that preparatory action had been taken to follow-up this idea. She said one of the goals in organizing this seminar was exactly the establishment of such an institution.

She added that the National Gallery management hoped that crime in fine art would be thoroughly dealt with shortly to ensure that the creative atmosphere in Indonesia could continue to be protectively developed, nurtured and fostered.

Moral and Economic Rights

A copyright, said Citrawinda, inherently comprises two rights, a moral right and an economic right. Once a work of art is created and sold, the copyright is not automatically sold as well. If a buyer of a painting (a collector, a trader, etc. ) reproduces the painting, for example, for a calendar, without the artist' consent, the artist can sue him.

Article 44 of the Law on Copyrights stipulates, Whoever deliberately and without right publishes or reproduces a creation or grants a permit to do so shall be punishable with a maximum imprisonment of 7 years and/or a maximum fine of Rp 100 million.

Art forgeries, Citrawinda added, are subject to sub-articles (1) and (2) of Article 380 of the Criminal Code. In this respect, it must be borne in mind that not only the mastermind but also related parties will be legally implicated because the principle of offense of accomplices applies in this case. The moderator, Wina Armada, also added that in the case of the exhibition of forged paintings at the Regent those legally implicated would be those forging the paintings, the collector and the organizer.

Speaking about art forgeries, Merwan Yusuf suspected that art forgeries were usually carried out in groups: those painting the forgeries, those placing an order and those granting legitimacy.

The works usually imitated are those by noted, dead artists with a high selling price. To ensure that the forgery will go smoothly, the biography of the artist whose works are to be imitated, will be seriously studied. A good understanding of this biography is import for an alibi or a cooked-up story.

In a forged painting, it is usually the case to use a new material which has been given the effect of age (in the paint, for example) or to forge the style. Painting forgery may be divided into complete forgery, partial forgery or style forgery.

What about copying? Copying of a work is justified only when a permit has been obtained and this copying is intended for study, research or other non-profit purposes. The copied version must be smaller in size than the original, and it must mention the name of the painter.

In Europe, the name of the painter whose work is copied is placed on the front side of the canvas while in the United States on the reverse side," he said, without stating what the practice was like in Indonesia.

Fine-art observer Mamannoor, the moderator for the session in which Merwan Yusuf read his paper, added that many paintings by Indonesian noted painters have been the target of forgery such as works by Affandi, S. Soedjojono, Popo Iskandar, Jeihan, Widayat and Barli.

Meanwhile, Walter Simanjuntak told the seminar that 20 percent of GNP in the United States come from copyrights (in music, films etc). Therefore, he called on the fine art community and law- enforcement apparatuses to thoroughly deal with copyright-related crimes in the fine art sector. Unfortunately, as he admitted himself, law-enforcement apparatuses in Indonesia remain poorly coordinated.