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August 28th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
When academic Nina Burridge opened the frame of a Margaret Preston print she had bought from a live sale from Arthouse Auctions in Sydney, she could not believe her eyes.
“Oh no, I’ve done my money. I thought I was buying a limited edition Margaret Preston linocut or woodcut and I thought I got a very good deal because I paid around $300 for it,” she said.
What she discovered, instead, was a page, cut out of a catalogue.
Ms Burridge was prompted to check the work after hearing from a friend in Perth, Elizabeth Karol, who had also bought a Preston print from the same auctioneers and discovered it was a fake.
Both the works were described in the catalogues as “original lithographs”.
“I thought I’d found a bargain and I was buying a lithograph of the original work which is in the Gallery of New South Wales,” Ms Karol said.
“But as soon as I took it out of the frame I realised something wasn’t right.
“What was hidden was the cover of a magazine. In fact it looked like a photocopy of it.”
Both prints had hand-written signatures on the bottom right hand corners, the same as genuine limited edition prints by Preston, who is one of Australia’s most prominent artists.
She died in the 1960s but her work is keenly sought after by collectors.
Arthouse Auctions is among a new breed of art dealers who conduct pop-up auctions around Australia.
It is headed by auctioneer, Avdo Tabakovic, and head of art, Giovanna Fragomeli.
The two were directors of the company, which was deregistered last year but continues to trade under the name.
Ms Fragomeli told the ABC: “We have been buying the Margaret Prestons for years from a vendor who collects art magazines. They are purely decorative prints.”
She defined an original lithograph as “a printed document”.
She said the Preston signatures were “hand written simply as information and not to represent any signature”.
However, the Arthouse Auctions’ website says: “All artworks sold at our auctions are backed by a 100 per cent guarantee of authenticity based on the catalogue descriptions.”
“That is why we ensure full descriptions in our printed catalogues,” the website said.
Ms Karol took her complaint to the courts and, after mediation at Perth Magistrates Court, Arthouse Auctions agreed to refund her money.
Ms Burridge told the ABC she has not asked for a refund even though she feels “angry and betrayed”.
‘Pariahs of the art world’
Selling art at auction and online is a multi-million dollar industry.
Many galleries are in on the act but for people who do not know much about art, there are traps.
Two art experts who inspected Ms Burridge’s print told the ABC it was a case of “buyer beware” at art auctions.
Art conservator Steve Coburn always uses a magnifying glass and a torch to check artworks.
“In the majority of circumstances, where you have a fake it’s usually the photographic process. If you have a magnifying glass and a torch you can pick that straight away, even through glass,” he said.
It was so shoddy. It’s a page torn out from a book with a pencil added
“Unfortunately every industry has its predators. Fakes and forgeries are the pariahs of the art world.”
When art gallery owner Chris Hodges saw the fake he was shocked.
“It was so shoddy. It’s a page torn out from a book with a pencil added. It’s not a lithograph in the real sense or a woodcut,” he said.
Mr Hodges says it gives the art world a bad name.
“It is damaging because the general public feels there’s a scam going on everywhere and there’s not,” he said.
“You need to be discerning in what you’re buying and it’s troubling because some of the best artists in the country are having their reputations tarnished where the bad, cheap, and poor quality material is being compared against their best.”
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Topics:
arts-and-entertainment,
law-crime-and-justice,
sydney-2000,
australia
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-27/warning-to-art-buyers-over-fakes/4916264
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