Sotheby's has made four fake work of Shemyakin from "Russian trading"
ARTinvestment.RU   05 июня 2018

Two lots from today's Sotheby's Russian Pictures were removed after the treatment of Mikhail Shemyakin. The authenticity of the painting "still life with crab" and three sculptures from the series "Carnival of St.-Петербурга" refuted by the author himself

Revealing the story for those who love to repeat: "What's the point to fake living artists?" The meaning of — money. Fix for a sweet soul. And no one is immune from the meeting with the fakes, including first-world auctions.

Another thing that the serious auctions promptly react in case get a reliable signal. It happened at this time. After contacting the Mikhail Shemyakin, Sotheby's had to withdraw from today's trading two lots.

First — lot 205 —, a large painting "still life with crab". This is an example of repeat-компиляции. His ideas, so the forger in this case is based on fragments of real work, if not copy the original song in its entirety. In this case, the source of "inspiration" for crooks was a graphic work, 1981, reproduced in the album Chemiakin 1986. Was graphics, BAM — and became canvas/oil, and even earlier, in 1979. In a letter to Sotheby's itself Shemyakin told the story of the appearance of fakes of this series. He first discovered these falshaki in November 1989 in new-йоркской gallery Edward nahamkina. Interestingly, the gallery was located in two steps from the artist's Studio, where he worked for a short time. He immediately wrote a statement to the police, it was open and found a suspect — Andrew Belle, Leningrad painter, who at that time came to new-Йорк. He, according to Shemyakin, boasted to friends that he wrote 20-25 counterfeit canvases Shemyakin-order-Konstantin Kuzminsky. This story. Indirectly it confirms also that Belle works of the time contain obvious stylistic borrowings from still lifes and compositions Shemyakin.

the Second bag, the authenticity of which was reserved by the author, — is room 204 — three bronze sculptures from the series "Carnival of St.-Петербурга". Shemyakin noticed that the quality of the casting is immaterial, and has determined that the casting of these sculptures in these rooms look-другому and are in a very different place. The artist came to the conclusion that it is most likely unauthorized by the author for more castings — in other words, too fake.

the two lots was quickly removed by the auction house Sotheby's. In the catalog on the auction site. It remains only in the paper catalog. The auction today, they too will be gone.

it Should be noted that nothing out of the ordinary is that from time to time one or the other takes the dubious auction lot before bidding no. The auction format because of its publicity and transparency is in this sense "self-cleaning" and more secure for buyers.When you receive a reasonable signal the auctions usually have time to investigate and clean up the lots that caused doubt.

a Serious obstacle on the way of crooks-фальсификаторов often become funds artists — organization that monitors the authenticity and publish unmasked fake. The relevant section from the list of detected fraud and on the website of the Fund Shemyakin.

however, attempts to sell counterfeit well-known living artists today are happening more and more often. And that is why forgers work so bold and brazen, soon AI will cover in a separate article.

"Russian auctions" in London, meanwhile, is in full swing. Read our predictions. And good luck to all the purchases.

Vladimir Bogdanov, AI

the Editors thank Mikhail Shemyakin Foundation (Saint-Петербург) for the information and comments.