[CPProt.net] Korea: Forgery? Authentic? Scandal rocks art galleries

Tue May 17 05:17:29 CEST 2005

Forgery? Authentic? Scandal rocks art galleries

May 17, 2005 ㅡ When the Seoul Auction House put four drawings by Lee Jung-
seop, one of the best-known Korean artists of the 20th century, on exhibit
in March before a planned auction, collectors and experts demurred. 
They raised questions on whether one or two of the works ―never shown
before in public ― may be forgeries. Without gathering second opinions
from outside appraisers, the house went ahead with the auction anyway,
displaying three of the four drawings from the exhibit, all of which had
supposedly gone through the eyes of in-house appraisers. 
The fourth piece, "A Fish and a Child," was separately sold to a private
dealer for 120 million won ($120,000). But when it was hung in an Insa-dong
gallery later that month, appraisers from the Korean Galleries Association
― a professional art appraisers group ― unanimously agreed that the
drawing must have been forged using a computer program. 
"It was a decision made from a committee of experts who spent years in the
field specializing in scientific appreciation of Korean art," said Choi
Myeong-yun, the senior association member who specializes in paintings and
drawings, during a meeting with the press. 
Thus started a scandal that has rippled through Korea's art community and
prompted doubts if other works circulating among Seoul galleries are real.
Forgeries have become common in the local art scene, especially with
artists such as Lee who only produced a limited number of works during his
lifetime, increasing the value of forgeries.
Up to 75 percent of works attributed to Lee have turned out to be forgeries
within the past year, according to the association. The drawing in question
had lines that lacked "a sense of pace and liveliness," said Choi Seok-tae,
an art historian. 
He theorized the piece was likely to have been traced from one of Lee's wax
paper drawings from the artist's exhibition catalogue published in 1977.
Mr. Choi also said the drawing "had marks of the person pressing the paper
with a drawing tool to follow the original pattern." 
But the controversy over the drawing intensified when the artist's family
proffered a plausible defense: The drawing had been in their possession
since 1953. In an April press conference, Lee's eldest son, Tae-seong,
frankly expressed bitter feelings in public about what he called "a false
accusation" by the association. 
The son said his family can't provide specific evidence to prove the
authenticity of the works they sold to the auction house. The family, which
lives in Japan, decided to sell some of the artist's drawings to finance
moving his grave, he said. 
Shortly after the press meeting, Mr. Lee filed a libel lawsuit against the
association, claiming the conclusion of the appraisers had hurt the
reputation of his father and their family. Police have opened an
investigation. 

It's not the first time that fraud scandals have led to court action in the
Korean art world. In 1991, the artist Chun Kyung-ja filed a lawsuit against
the National Museum of Contemporary Art, alleging one of the paintings with
her name on it in the museum's collection was a forgery.
Chun left Korea shortly after the scandal, making the famous comment, "No
mother has trouble recognizing their own children, no matter how many she
may have given birth to." 
Last year, a drawing by Whanki Kim that was on loan from a major commercial
gallery in Seoul for an exhibit in Yangpyeong was caught up in a forgery
dispute led by a veteran committee member of the Korean Galleries
Association. 
Based on data collected by the association over the past 20 years, almost
30 percent of the artwork currently on sale in local galleries are
forgeries, the Korean Galleries Association estimates. One shocking
suspicion: As many as 30 professional forgers might be currently involved
in duplicating valuable paintings in Korea, some of whom served
apprenticeships under the artists whose works they are forging, according
to Korean Galleries Association officials. 
The association claims that appraisals of forgeries by European artists
have been relatively easier to uncover compared to works by Korean artists
because the technique of Korean art is much more familiar to professional
forgers here. 
The issue of a vast number of forgeries on the market has sparked an
ongoing debate on its effect on artists and collectors. The art market is
already suffering as the result of a lagging economy, and many hope the
cases can be quietly resolved. 
"It certainly damages our reputation," says Paik Hae-young, a director of
Paik Hae Young Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Seoul. "We want the
dispute to wrap up as soon as possible. [Forgery disputes] hardly affect
contemporary artists, but if things like this happen, the general sales
rate in the local art world declines." 
Others hope the forgery cases will be a wake-up call to apply clearer and
more accurate scientific standards to art appraisals in Korea by gathering
specific methods and case studies from other nations. Art insiders say that
many galleries still fail to go through a proper appraisal procedure before
they host exhibits, leading to misinformation on value and possible
misrepresentation. 
Experts suggest that there should be a clearer indication about the
distribution route of each artwork for an accurate analysis of the work's
authenticity. 
For years, major private art dealers in Korea kept their collections secret
to avoid paying surtaxes imposed on "luxury items" in Korea. 
"In the west, the value of an artwork is drastically different depending on
who the previous owner of the work was," Ms. Paik says. "In the Korean art
world, the system of genealogy is non-existent, which builds distrust among
collectors." 
Hwang Gyu-wan, an art historian, says the cases should be viewed from a
more broad perspective.   "If a few people closely involved in the art
world take things in the wrong direction, it will create tremendous damage
to artists' honor and the Korean art world in the long run," he says. 

by Chung Jae-sook, Park Soo-mee <myfeast at joongang.co.kr>  