"It is too complicated to explain," said William Chak, an antique appraiser. According to Chak, auction houses like Sotheby's made it clear 20 years ago that they would not be responsible for the authenticity of paintings they sell due to the fact that judgments on paintings can be too controversial.
But is that an appropriate excuse for auction houses to profit from the sale of unauthenticated works, not to mention those trade fairs where artwork presenters seem to carry even less responsibility regarding the realness of their items?
Art critic Zhu Qi commented about Fu's case on his Weibo on February 7. He said, "Making fakes is common in the industry. Sometimes both the seller and the buyer know the work is counterfeit but still continue with the transaction, leaving the media and audience aside."
The real situation might not be as grim as Zhu has described. Chak told the Global Times that he once met the buyer who bought a Xu Beihong portrait of his first wife, Jiang Biwei, for 72.8 million yuan in 2010, which was later called a fake. "He was very certain that he had bought the real piece. He somehow has a source of information that makes him believe so," said Chak.
It is hard to prove if auction houses intentionally include some copied artworks in their auctions or just make mistakes. Both Chak and Pat believe few auction houses would risk deliberately selling counterfeit items. "If two experts write to the auction house, the seller still has the responsibility to drop the deal and withdraw the artwork," said Pat.
Weibo as a platform
Weibo now seems to play more and more of a supervisory role, making the process of evaluating and discovering "wrong items" easier. Shi Jiandong, editor of the collection channel at sina.com said in an interview with 99.com, an art website, that whether someone is an expert, artist, family member or manager of the artist, the privilege of judging a piece of art should not be limited to one person or any particular organization. Everyone should have the right to take part. The more people involved in [the process], the less conflict each work has."
Many argue that judgment based on a photo is not fair. Pat has about 10 years experience in the industry and has worked in the painting department at Christie's.
"When I worked for the auction house, I judged 90 percent of the items through photos in e-mails. When it is not a real piece, you can tell directly from a photo. But if you need to certify that it is a real piece, you probably need to see the real thing," said Pat.
Many people who love art and antiques do not have enough knowledge or resources to tell the actual validity of an item. Weibo provides a channel for wider communication and education. Yet, it cannot solve the problem of who should make the final judgment about an artwork. At least it helps the public to know where the controversy lies.
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