New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-03
\ INSIDE VIEW OF THE OLD-MASTER BUSHES

can be readily detected by the experts d..
stroyed in the process of transferring, and ons
avenue of detection is closed.
Another common device of the forgers !,
to create the appearance of fly specks. This !,
done by putting a sepia wash on brush and
Ticking it on the painting.
But millonaires who delight in buying ola
masters, real and spurious, are not the onlv
victims. 1t is not so many years ago that II.
big British museums had house cleaning and
cast into the rubbish heap number of forged
paintings, statuary and other objects of art.
These forgeries were acquired in the dav,
when the British museums scoffed at the sue.
gestion of having experts on their stats. And
when the house cleaning came about, the Ger.
mans had their laugh, but it was short lived
for not long after the Kaiser's art critic and
head of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Ber.
lin. DR.. Wilhelm Bode, paid $4,000 Of Ger.
many's money for a wax bust which he de-.
clared had been modelled by Leonardo da Vinci
but which experts not only in England, but all
over the Continent, declared was the work ~
the English sculptor Richard C.. Lucas. and
made in 1916. Even when fragments of an
English newspaper of that year were routed
out of the head, together with some plaster Of
paris, DR.. Bode persisted in his declaration
that the bust was made by the immortal da
Vinci. and declared the bits of newspaper
proved nothing. Nor would he confess he was
duped when the son of Lucas offered evidence
that his father made the bust. Even when
noted German chemist, who analysed some Of
the wax of which the bust was made, found
that it contained spermaceti, a product IN
known in da Vinci's day, DR.. Bode continued
in his belief
The controversy finally came before the
Kaiser. who sided with Dr. Bode. Nor did the
discussion that waXed few years later be-
tween DR.. Bode and Ludwig Abels, an art
critic on one of Vienna's newspapers. over the
authenticity of Rembrandt purchased BIZ
friend of Dr. Bode shake the Kaiser's faith in
his art critic.
Our own Metropolitan Museum, it has been
whispered in other days, had more than one
forged painting in its collection. During Sir
Purdon Clarke's curatorship the controversy
started afresh. These dubious paintings il
must be added, were acquired before Sir Pur-
don took hold.
"A friend of mine the other day." remarked
Sir Purdon on one OCCASION told me that
$1,000 Corots are imported into this country
annually. I told him he must be mistaken, for
feel sure that he was short some 10000"
And that Sir Purdon's figure was nearer
right would seem to be the case to any one who
strolled almost any sale day into any one Of
the dingy junk shops that pass off as auction
rooms in any large city and saw the daubs that
are sold as Corots and Mauves and Henners
and Israelses and Bakelocks and (saye the
markD Titians for prices ranging from 81 to
$50 And who does not know the little school
teacher who went abroad one vacation and
picked up in "the dearest little shop in Paris
a genuine Rembrandt for 100 francs?
In Italy there is a legitimate trade-or was
before the war-among artists of copying old
masters, treating them so as to simulate age,
which are sold as copies. These copies in Italy
90 by the name of pasticco, which freely
translated is "mix-up." These mix-ups are sold
for mix-ups at reasonable prices. The better
ones among them are picked up by agents Of
INSCRIPTIONS dealers in England and this
country and after a little doctoring are dis
posed of as old masters to the unwary.
Most of the forged old masters are disposed
of in this country. In many cases impoyer'
ished nobenren work hand in glove with the
INSCRIPTIONS art dealers. For percentage
of the purchase price they are willing to have
it appear, and will give written testimony to
that effect. that the spurious painting is tina.
Of one of their ancestors painted by this or
that Old Master.
One London dealer who works in with these
noblemen gives the forged Old Master to his
they literally set their hands and seals on the
auction. When it is put up for sale the
dealer, with two or three of his employees, VIII
boost the price up to figure such as a genuine
painting of the master whose name is forged
to the painting might bring. Naturally the
newspapers tell of Mr.. So-and-so, the-p prominent
art dealer, paying new high record price for
an old master, formerly the property Of Lord
This-and-that. And when the American mill
ionaire comes along in search of high priced
painting for his collection these newspaper
clippings are offered as proof Of the genuine
ness of the transaction.
The collector does not live--be his HOBBY
paintings or what not-who has not at ore
time or another purchased forgery for the
real thing. He may not admit this, but 1t IS
true. The rule the seasoned collector follows
is to buy nothing except that with which he IS