How authenticity of works of art is verified today

ROME. Today in the art market there is such a situation when European auction houses, dealers and collectors are not able to conduct proper checks to avoid the sale of works of art stolen and wanted.

Paul Mitchell with a return picture of Jan van Goyen
Photo: Antonio Zazueta Olmos for the Observer / Guardian.co.uk

Christopher A Marinello, who specializes in tracing stolen works of art and resolving copyright disputes, says: “We find many stolen works of art, namely in such legal states as Italy, France and Germany. The simplest case is that shippers often prefer to hide spoiled works and sell them for nothing compared to paying for them on insurance. And bona fide purchasers subsequently lose out because they did not show due diligence at one time. ”

In particular, Marinello participated in negotiations on the return from Italy of the landscape of Jan van Goyen, a 17th-century Dutch painter who was stolen in 1979. The negotiations were especially delicate, because, according to Italian law, if someone conscientiously buys stolen works, then he has every right to keep them. Marinello was able to prove that this painting was one of nine stolen from the London house of Paul Mitchell, a specialist in antiquity.

Thieves were forced to open a window to enter his house. Later, Mitchell said that he decided that a little noise coming from below was made by his cats. “The police call these night thieves" vines. " They specialize in house thefts when the owner is literally in the next room. ”

The theft of paintings was heavily worried by Mitchell. They belonged to his father, and over time became so valuable that Mitchell could not afford to insure them at full cost. Back in 1979, the paintings were valued at 400,000 pounds. Today, the number of zeros already exceeds seven. After the theft, Mitchell tried in vain to find the paintings, offering a reward of £ 5,000 for any information about them, advertised in international magazines and even hired private detectives. But the trail of paintings has long since become cold.

Van Goyen’s painting, a beautiful beach scene dating back to 1643, came up by chance, a few weeks after a Dutch firm tried to buy it in Italy. Before making a payment, a company representative decided to check the canvas on the database Art loss register (ALR), which contains information about all stolen works of art in the world.

Marinello was the ALR General Counsel at the time, and he officially confirmed that the painting was stolen. “The Italian auction house, which put up the work for sale, did not even bother to check it on the basis of ALR.

It’s good that the buyer did it himself, and thereby saved not only his reputation, but also a significant amount to pay for legal services, trying to subsequently prove in court the ownership of the canvas. ”

Today, the market has a large number of dealers, collectors and auction houses that do not perform even the most basic checks. In the vast majority of cases, stolen items are resold, and this goes unnoticed. When asked why they did not do such checks, Marinello refrained from answering, only assuming that the buyers themselves often did not want to know about the possible criminal past of the work of art.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru