Fraud and Fake

Le Matin (Paris) published an article charging that three statues in the Louvre were largely of modern manufacture. It printed pictures made in 1843 and 1876 showing the statues, known as the Parthenay Kings, without heads, without legs; with these objects they are now well equipped. M. Berard, Minister of Fine Arts, ordered an investigation and the police are carrying it on.

But that is only the beginning of the matter. A chorus of other cries of "falsehood! "were raised: Restorers of statues for French museums had removed statues and returned imitations. Six fake antique statues had been sold to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Twenty per cent of the Gothic statuary in the Metropolitan was not bona fide. A prominent New York and Paris dealer made a practice of selling clever forgeries to " These dirty Americans," et cetera, et cetera.

Many of the charges are vague and anonymous. Some of them are ridiculous. Art experts are reserved in their comment--and for good reason. It may cost $500,000 to say another dealer's wares are fake. Sir Joseph Duveen is even now being sued for that amount for alleged aspersions on the genuineness of a statue. Others have faced similar suits.

It is declared that for 1,000 francs a statue worth 150,000 francs can be reproduced--so accurately, perhaps, as to pass undetected by experts. It is admitted that it would be difficult for a fake to pass the experts of the Louvre or the Metropolitan, but experts differ among themselves as to what is genuine, what is spurious. The inquiry is raised: "If experts cannot tell the difference, what are we paying for, age or beauty?"

M. Cornillon, a Paris art dealer, who asserts that another dealer perpetrated the frauds charged, exclaimed : " I don't care about private collectors. Modern work or a copy of the ancient piece may be more interesting or more beautiful than the authentic ancient one, and if the private collector wants such pieces it is his privilege. I may like to wear my hat backward; that is my privilege. What I object to is that future American artists should have put before them false representations of our art. The museum is sacred." As for the man who committed the supposed frauds: " That man would put arms on the Venus de Milo or. a head on the Samothrace Statue of Victory."