The Art Newspaper reports that the Dalí Foundation is hosting a conference on the authentication of works and "fighting forgery through the courts" at Dalí’s summer home and museum a few hours away from Barcelona. Scheduled speakers include Judith Goldman, a member of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, and Veronique Wiesinger, Director of the Fondation Giacometti (the Swiss artist having recently been the object of one of the largest scale forgeries in history). For more information, see here (unfortunately registration is now closed).
Is this a joke? Am I to understand that Judith Goldman of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc; is speaking at a conference of art authentication and the courts? Did Joel Wachs of the Warhol foundation just spend over $7 million dollars keeping such important issues from actually going to court? Did the Warhol foundation and its arm the authentication board just accuse an unsuspecting buyer of forging a dollar bill piece, whilst actually using confidential documents to protect the warhol employee who actually made it? This is art scholarship? is the no one in the art world who will actually stand up to these people?
ReplyDeleteAuthentication boards raise a wide-range of issues, perhaps the most important one being how and the extent to which they are held accountable for the decisions they make (given how they can abuse their power to manipulate the market). Some commentators have pointed to anti-trust law as a possible way of structuring these kind of cases. I think it's preferable that a court of law, as an objective third-party, stand up to such boards rather than the art world itself which is too close to the issues and has too many interests at stake.
ReplyDeleteYes, I also find it humorous, considering that Dali forged/plagiarized so much of his own work to the detriment of his own patrons and art investors.
ReplyDeleteTechnically Dali wouldn't have been creating "forgeries" of his work (that would be a contradiction in terms) but rather producing multiple copies which, by increasing supply, would drive prices down and hurt his patrons/investors.
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