The New York Times reports on how, as fine art for sale has become increasingly available online in the past few years, a byproduct of so many reputable businesses selling via the internet is that it has become easier for frauds and forgeries to be passed off as well. Most commonly fakes are violations of artists’ copyrights and trademarks or claims that authorized reproductions are limited editions. Buyers as well, are more inclined to base their judgement off of whether an online seller packed and shipped on time or answer questions promptly, as they believe that they can spot the difference between a real work and a fake.

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‪‬The New York Times surveys the behind-the-scenes legal policies of the art authentication and insurance world, using the Knoedler Gallery’s forgery of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Koonig, the deterioration of Matisse’s colors, an elbow accident with a private Picasso, and the re-appropriation lawsuit against Richard Prince to examine how to best protect a collection from fraud or damage.
[AO Newslink]

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‪Late painter Cy Twombly and his American advisers allegedly evaded $38.8 million in Italian tax on approximately 40 paintings sold from 2005 to 2009. Although Twombly’s eldest son Alessandro was due to receive $150 million in cash via the Cy Twombly Foundation in New York, funds were seized and cannot be released until the legal battles clear [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Art dealer Guy Wildenstein is said to owe the French IRS $330 million in back taxes for undervaluing his father Daniel Wildenstein’s estate, and allegedly dividing his inheritance in offshore accounts in Jersey, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands.  [AO Newslink]

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‪‬ Madison Avenue Gallerist Robert Scott Cook of Cook Fine Art faces up to 20 years imprisonment for secretly selling one client’s 16 works worth $4.2 million by Picasso, Manet, Matisse and Renoir to auction houses [AO Newslink]

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Jean-Baptise-Camille Corot, Portrait of a Girl, 1857-8, which went missing on June 29, 2010 and was recovered weeks later. Image courtesy of the New York Times.–>

What began as a summer comedy of errors – an Upper East Side doorman finds a Corot painting missing on a courier’s drunken bender – took a strange turn earlier this month when the painting’s owner realized its co-owner may have been involved in its disappearance.  The following is a summary of the news and events that have unfolded over the past few weeks in the case.

The story begins like this: on July 29th a doorman at 995 Fifth Avenue, near 81st Street, discovered a painting in the bushes in front of the building. The nineteenth-century painting, “Portrait of a Girl” by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, whose estimated value is $1.4 million, was apparently lost hours earlier by an intoxicated courier, James Carl Haggerty. Thinking the artwork belonged to one of the building’s residents, doorman Franklin Puentes stored it inside his locker after unsuccessful attempts to locate its owner. Puentes then went on a three-week vacation. When he returned, he heard the buzz about the missing painting and promptly turned it over to the police.

More text, images, and related news links after the jump… (more…)

Yesterday morning, Lawrence B. Salander, Upper East Side art dealer and owner of the now bankrupt Salander-O’Reilly Galleries was arrested at his estate on Millbrook, New York. Salander is accused of stealing $88 million from high-profile investors, art owners and Bank of America. The Grand Jury of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan charged him with grand larceny, falsifying business records, scheming to defraud, forgery and perjury. Salander pleaded not guilty and may face up to twenty five years in prison. The Justice ordered a $1 million bail.

RELATED LINKS
News Release [New York County District Attorney’s Office]
Times Topics:Lawrence B. Salander [New York Times]
Art Dealer is Charged with Stealing $88 Million [New York Times]
Tennis Great John McEnroe helps nab art dealer Lawrence Salander, who was indicted for fraud [New York Daily News]
Salander Charged with Stealing $88 million [Artforum]
Art-World Madoff Arraigned in Manhattan Court [Artinfo]

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The late Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge

A look into Christie’s coming Yves Saint Laurent sale, the largest single owner sale in auction history [Economist]
An interview with artist Jenny Holzer [Art21]
A review of Denis Dutton’s book “The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution” which attempts to define art within a socio-biological context [NYObserver]

Bernd Runge, now at the helm at Phillips de Pury via Tattler.ru

Ex-VP of Conde Nast (and ex-East German Stasi secret police spy) appointed by newly Russian owned Phillips Auction house as CEO and in related, Ex-British Petroleum CEO to run the Tate museum group [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s discontinues the practice of allowing art to be bought at auction with credit cards [NYMag]

Guernica – By Pablo Picaso via Pdx.edu

Picasso’s Guernica to adorn Whitchapel Gallery reopening in April [ArtNewspaper]
Christie’s combines 19th Century European Art, Old-Master Paintings, Old Master Drawings and British Drawings into one department to create an umbrella category for art between 1300 and 1900 [NYTimes]
The complicated process behind creating and selling forged Russian artwork [Forbes]

Richard Serra via TigerofSweden

With his show on at Gagosian London, [AO] a lookback at the soon-to-be-70 iconoclast Richard Serra [Guardian UK]
New York gallery sues Ex-Enron official Jeff Shankman regarding his attempted extortion of six figure sums lest he “go public” that works sold to him were fake [Bloomberg]
Irish group begins futures market trading based on famous Mei-Moss art price index [Financial Times]
Controversially Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison gallery moving to landmark, Victorian, David Chipperfield-renovated building owned by the Royal Academy [ArtInfo]
Arab and Iranian art on the rise, the sales of which grew from £1 million in 2006 to £17 million (thus far) in 2008 with 260% price increases in that time [TelegraphUK]
In related, Sotheby’s announces intentions to open branch in Doha, Qatar [ArtDaily]

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US Attorney announcing charges via Chicago Sun-Times

Buyers of ‘limited edition’ signed fine art prints take note– the Feds have indicted an international ring of several dealers making, forging signatures, and selling fake prints by Chagall, Picasso, Calder, Warhol and other big name artists. Utilizing Ebay, galleries and art fairs to sell the works, the fakes were made by reproducing from original artworks and by creating prints in the ‘style’ of a particular artist.

Official FBI Press Release[FBI]
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7 dealers from US and Europe indicted [Chicago Tribune]
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Same dealer was imprisoned for fraud in the 90s [Chicago Sun-Times]

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The Apotheosis of King James I via the Times U.K

Tate seeking £6 million to keep “country’s most significant” Rubens[Times UK]
Monet, Rodin, 30 other works stolen from ‘priceless’ French collection [Bloomberg]
As Indian art gains value, is it a good time buy? [NY Sun]
Chanel commissions Sophie Calle, others for bag inspired installation [The Age Australia]
Fake Picasso prints sold over eBay, arrests made in the U.S. [New York Post]
Update: Is the Whitney Biennial too smart for its own good? [NYMag]
Sischy, Brant formerly of Brant Publications (Art in America), are new editors of European Vanity Fair [Mediaweek]

“Dog Test” by Robert Longo via Forbes

Longo Quoted on “Dog Test” Drawing Sold Recently in London [Forbes]
Forged Monet discovered last week in German Museum [Herald Tribune]
Chinese art market takes France’s third place standing [Art Newspaper]
Update: Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim Museum [NYTimes]
Update: More Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim [Wall Street Journal]
Update, Video: Guo-Qiang’s Gun-Powder Works [NYTimes via C-Monster]
Orginally £300, Banksy piece up for £150,000 [Guardian]
Two W. 25th St. gallery buildings sold for $48.75 million [The Real Deal]