The Washington times., 1937-07-05
The Human
Side of the
News
BIZ EdUin c. Hill

faxed "OId masters. only
the other day a Partisan
sign-painter named Cazot
was caught fabricating mas
terpieces of the Barbizon
School.
From one of his credulous vic
tins he got $4,000. And his
accomplice, according to the
Paris Surete, was none other
than a grandson of the famous
Millet who gave the world the
"Angelus.'
1t is estimated by New York
dealers that unconsclonaoIe
rascalS, clever as sin, dispose OF
at least a million dollars worth
of fraudulent masterpieces"
every year. Some years ago 1
sat in a New York court room
for weeks while experts testi-
fled and counsel argued as to
what hand had put on canvas
the likeness of a lady who had
graced the city of Florence in
the days of the MediciS.
This was the occasion OF the
celebrated, engroSSing and di-
verting trial of the suit brought
by Mrs. Andree Hahn, OF Kansas
City, against the then Sir Joseph
Duveen, eminent collector and
art dealer. Mrs. Hahn was seek
ing 100000 damages, on the
allegation that Sir Joseph had
said that the original of Leo
nardo da Vinci's painting, La
Belle Ferroniere, was in the
Louvre, in Paris, and that the
painting, La Belle Ferronniere,
which she possessed was not the
work of ola Vinci.
In the end, even the jury
could not agree, and rather than
go through another lengthy
trial, Lord Duveen, as he is now,
settled out of court for 100000,
so it was reported.
More recently other disputes
have come into the open. One
involved a portrait of George
Washington, which hangs in the
gallery of Chicago dealer. He
bought it as a Gilbert Stuart
and then, doubling its authen-
ITCHY, offered to sell it back to
the person whom he had pur-
chased it from. The other case
resulted in an American dealer
getting a judgment for $26,625
against an English firm because
six paintings, including three
attributed to GainSborough and
Sir Joshua Reynolds, we're not
what they were cracked up
to be.
The experts contend that an
old master cannot be faxed be-
yond ultimate discovery. K.
Walter Bechsty, who had a
chemical laboratory to unmask
such frauds, says:
mo matter how cleverly a
fake is done, no matter how
closely the masters manner and
pattern and color are initiated,
there is always something miss
ing; also, something added. I'm
consciously the imitatOr will put
in something of his own. No
man can completely Sublimate
his own mind to that of an
other"
At the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the violet lamp is
used to test sculptures, and the
X-ray tells the age of the paint
ing. For all this, clever crooks,
in their fake factories here and
abroad, produce something like
$4,000 masterpieces" a year
art, armor, antiques, books and
even postage stamps. Their
tricks are many, down to using
buckshot, to simulate worm
holes in furniture, and a mix
ture of gum and India ink to
provide the flyspecks on the
paintings.
How we'll they work is at
tested by the statement that
there are six thousand Corots
hanging in the United States,
whereas Corot, in his lifetime,
produced only 1000 paintings,
at the most. Few of us want to
admit being duped, and for this
reason most of the frauds go
UNPUBLISHED. Some patrons are
like the late Senator Clark, of
Montana, who. when part of
his collection was questioned,
made this reply:
Il. don't care. l bought them
because / like them"
But this was not the attitude
Of Henry Huntington. Five
years after he had paid $780,
900 for Romney's Mrs. SiddonS
and Sister," he suspected its
commences and, going into the
English courts, got back his
money.
The two most sensational
frauds of our time have been
the fake MilletS and the Statu-
ary of Alceo Dossene. Jean
Francois Millet, the French
master, had painted a picture
called lie Venneur" which dis
appeared soon after its show
ing in 1848. Eighty years later,
his grandson, Jean Charles Mil.
let. announced the discovery of
the canvas in an attic. Here
was a real treasure, and the
authorities flocked to look upon
it. One raised his eyebrows and
frowned.
1.-THE signature is all wrong"
he said.
LII BRIcATE