Police ignorant about art crimes

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.