Faking It

Etienne Terrus ca.1910

A few days ago, an article in the Guardian Arts section told of a small museum in Elne, a small town in southwest France, dedicated to a local artist named Étienne Terrus (1857-1922). Although virtually unknown now, M. Terrus was a relatively skilled and moderately well known painter during his lifetime. He was often seen painting en plein air in the region where he lived. M. Terrus was friends with Henri Matisse and others of his generation as well. The Terrus museum was championed in the 1990s by a local woman who rallied locals to raise tens of thousands of euros to purchase a large body of M. Terrus' works. Alas for the town, more than half of the museum's collection have been discovered to be fakes.

Etienne Terrus, "Untitled," oil, 1890

The story got me thinking about art forgery. These days it is probably much easier to forge the works of a minor, lesser-known artist. Famous painters' works are catalogued and (for the most part) well documented. Their styles, materials, methods and more are very difficult to imitate convincingly. Further, works by famous artists command high prices, which command unwanted attention. But a minor painter's work can be faked and sold for a few hundred or few thousand dollars with considerably more ease. Variations in quality and style are easily explained by artistic growth and improving skills.

Some also believe that forging relatively unknown artists' work is quite lucrative since small works, drawings, and watercolors can be produced in higher volumes with less worry about each passing muster as top quality. And given that scholarship of the oeuvre of a minor artist is unlikely, passing counterfeit work could be quite safe. A forgery of the work of a  master, like Franz Hals would be much harder to pass for authentic.

Perhaps the old rumor is true--a high percentage of art in museums may well be fake.
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