The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-20
SPURIOUS PICTURES
UNIFIED STATES CHIEF MARKET
 FOR FORGED ~MASTERPIECES."
Many Englishmen GuIled by Counter fefts CorOts-Plan to Protect Purchasers of Art
 Works,

am certain, that his royal highness has been deceived. That Corot Is forg- cry. and. although l should not like to say the people who persuaded him to buy it for the new Dublin Gallery of Modern Art knew 1t was one, can not help expressing my surprise at their ignorance. And you mean to tell me that four of your leading London experts still believe the canvass to be by the man who opened up the way for irnpressionism? Dear, dear me! That is very sad. But these experts are the same all the world over. Really. at times I wonder why we picture buyers place so much reliance upon their judgment?"
 Such was the opinion which re- ceived a few days ago in course of conversation with a Parisian gentle man who has at least twenty Corots fin his gallery-genuine Corots, not the spurious works which are palmed off by dozens on wealthy Englishmen and Americans. I had called upon him to put him in possession of the facts con- nected with the controversy now be- ing waged over the Prince of Wales igift to the Dublin Gallery of Modern Art And had just explained that the supposed masterpiece was really poor copy of a picture by Meszoly in the Budapest Museum, when he delivered the above decisive judgment. Know ing the ways of picture forgers. and having expoSed Irauoulent pFdctces oi Parfsian merchant experts in the June issue of The North American Re- view, his words did not surprise me in the least Without having seen the Dublin Corot, any intelligent connois- seur. in spite of the. letters which Messrs. Agnew, Buttery, Wallis and AColnaghi would have said the same.
 Certificate With Painting.
 Never has the traffic in spurious pictures been carried on such exten- sive lines as 1t is today" continued the picture lover, when we were com fortably seated in our easy cbatrs., s'Something will have to be done to put stop to it. And Pm glad to see sug- gestions are being made with that object Every picture that is painted nowadays should have certificate signed by the artist in the presence or official witnesses. That would be guarantee of its authenticity, and do much to prevent these picture forgers from carrying on thetr trade in works by living masters. As to works oy painters of the past. The forgery Of these should be prevented as much az possible by bringing in more strin- gent law against falsifiers: The pres ent law in France Is badly in need Of being amended. By the bye, l suppose you have seen that the tenth chamber of the correctional tribunal is at pres- ent trying a number of these men? They are charged with forging pictures by Corot, Courbet. Chintreuil, Dupre Theodore Rousseau, Dfaz, Dauofgny SisIey, Willette and others. The works were seized at the Hotel des Dentes, the official sale rooms in the Rou Druot and at their private residences Among them are three spurious Will lettes, I was present when the ten prisoners were charged with the off, fense, and I had the curiosity to lis ten to some of the evidence. It was most pathetic to hear what Wlllette had to say. He was the only living artist out of all those whose works had been forged, so he was naturally put into the witness box. As he zrssSSkel could imagine very much the same sort of protest would have been uttered by Corot and Courbet and Rousseau had they been there"
 Do you remember his wordsf"
 Tn the main, not textally He said that after twenty years incessant work and in spite of success he had only just been able to make a living out Of his art because of the large number of forged pictures and drawings bearing his name which are on the market In France and abroad. And he expressed the opinion that auctioneers. who ire uuentiy sell forged canvases as gen nine works of art, should be responsible for their errors. Yes; you are quite right; something will have to be done to put an end to this scandalous tramc
 
 where most of the spurious ancient and modern masters which are forged by hundreds on the continent are sold, but !. there can be no doubt, as the Duolln case proves, that some of them ma their way into English collections. Paris. Vienna, Berlin, Rome and St. Pe- tersburg are the principal centres Of the trafic, and wealthy Englishmen ana Americans who come over from Lon don and New York with the object or picktnR up treasures for their galleries run a great risk of being swindled. un- 1esz accompanied by a sure friend who ia au courant with the tricks of the trade. The higher in price picture may be the less chance there IS, geher- ally speaking. of 1t being genuine ana the truth of this is getting so uniVer- sally recognized among collectors that The majority of those who form collec- tions of pictures and other works of art looh nowadays for treasures, not in the shops in the large cities, but in those Of secondhand dealers in the provinces Every large city has its speclaIty m rt tne manufacture of spurious Works or arl' the country districts, not yet discoV- cred by the forger, constitute the safest hunting ground for the Englishman or American who does not wish to be swindled out of his money.
 Not very many weeks ago The Jour nal of Paris published the following paragraph on this subject; DO our readers know that there exists In Paris n manufactory in which artists, recev- ing large salaries. copy the canvases Of our great masters? These pictures are aent to the United States, high duty Ia paid on them. and, being thus stamped as autheUntic. they are then sold for their weight In gold to Ameri- can n1illionaires. In the gallery of one of these collectors can be seen quite a number of pictures. the origi- nals of which are either in Paris or in fhe provinces" The only change which aeed be made in this substantially true abatement Is this: The writer should have said "a number of manufactories. for they simply swarm all over France, principally in the Montparnasse and Montmartre quarters of Paris. Some of these picture forgers are at tached to this or that dealer ex- Dert-the man who has his shop on the grand boulevards and his branches n London or New York: oth- srs supply the trade" in general Elem TJenner. Charles Jacques Corot, Diaz' Conrhet and Dupre are the artists whose SvorlSs are most copied. but there Is not an artist of any note who has not had his picture copied. often with varia- tIons. by these men. The forgery IS done SO cleverly that I defy any one save the most experienced Judges to detect the fraud. M. Jules Claretie, inc eminent member of the French Academy, once knew an artist who