The Chaos of Authentication in the Art Market: You can buy an "Authentication Certificate" as long as you pay money

by xyxgyp1998 on 2012-02-07 20:08:31

The Chaos of Authentication in the Art Market: Money Buys "Authentication Certificates"

A jade suit with golden thread (archive photo)

An oil painting named "Madam Jiang Biwei", supposedly by Xu Beihong, turned out to be a student's practice work.

In recent years, private capital has gradually flowed into the art market [painting and calligraphy wholesale]. As the ranks of collectors have grown, so too has the demand for art authentication. However, a series of events have revealed the chaos in art and cultural relics authentication. A student's practice work that doesn't even qualify as a forgery was authenticated with a "true piece certificate" signed by Xu Beihong's eldest son, entering the hall of a well-known domestic auction company under the name of Xu Beihong's work, and was sold for 72.8 million yuan! Two so-called "golden-threaded jade suits" made by contemporary people using jade pieces were appraised at 24 billion yuan by several famous experts, and were even used to defraud loans. There are also large and small auction companies and appraisal agencies where one can buy an "appraisal certificate" simply by paying money... Can people still trust art and cultural relics authentication?

Family Appraisals Are a Joke

Recently, the biggest bombshell in the painting and calligraphy auction industry was the claim that the "Xu Beihong 70 million oil painting" was actually a student's practice work. Last June, Beijing Jiuge International Auction Company sold an oil painting named "Madam Jiang Biwei" for 72.8 million RMB, with Xu Beihong's eldest son presenting a "true piece certificate." On the 15th, ten classmates from the first research class of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts jointly issued an open letter stating that this oil painting was a practice work by a classmate back then. They also released five similar works with the same scene and characters, all of which were practice works from that time. Public opinion was shocked.

Professor Li Xiaoshan of Nanjing University of the Arts and a renowned art critic introduced that currently, there are a large number of paintings by major artists such as Xu Beihong and Fu Baoshi appearing on the market, which is not a normal phenomenon. Because their lifespans were not long - Xu Beihong lived to be 58, and Fu Baoshi lived to be 61. As major artists, their works are generally collected by the state, including memorials, art museums, and related universities, with very few pieces entering private hands.

In this incident, one detail is worth pondering: Xu Beihong's eldest son "also presented a true piece certificate!" In response to this, Li Xiaoshan pointed out that Chinese calligraphy seems to have become a kind of "Chinese national condition," and now there is a strange phenomenon in the art appraisal world where family members issue so-called "authoritative certificates," which has already happened multiple times. This is a very absurd situation. "As for this Xu Beihong painting, what can the signature of the eldest son prove? Was he in his mother's womb watching Xu Beihong create this oil painting?" Li Xiaoshan questioned. Li Xiaoshan believes that art authentication should be conducted by authoritative institutions and experts, which is also the international standard, because only then does it have authority and professionalism. Family members often lack personal experience, are not scholars or experts, and are easily entangled in various fame and profit arenas!

Experts May Also Become Brickpiles

However, are authoritative appraisal institutions and experts necessarily reliable? Researcher Ye Peilan of the Palace Museum and an expert in ancient porcelain studies said on September 20 at the Art Investment Salon of China Finance that the current appraisal institutions are extremely chaotic. "Just speaking of Beijing alone, there are dozens of places doing art appraisals, let alone nationwide. Many appraisal points in Beijing claim who their advisory experts are, and my photo is there everywhere, making me their advisory expert. Some don't even know about it themselves, while others have just informed us."

Ye Peilan said that the National Appraisal Committee of the Cultural Relics Bureau "officially does not participate in civilian affairs, but some committee members are actually secretly active in the market. Some do it openly, some do it covertly, and they even have very good relationships with auction companies." With the involvement of interests, can these experts' appraisals remain fair and accurate? That's hard to say. In the recent "Golden Thread Jade Suit Loan Fraud Case," five top-level figures walked around the glass case of the "Golden Thread Jade Suit" without even touching it and appraised it at an astronomical price of 24 billion yuan. It's hard to imagine that all these experts would lose their heads simultaneously. From their own confessions to the media, there were indeed undisclosed calculations and considerations. On one hand, it's about favoritism, which has become a convention in the circle; on the other hand, it's about interests. Industry insiders stated: In the appraisal industry, there is an unwritten rule of "not undermining each other." That is, once an appraisal report and price have been issued by one appraiser, peers generally won't challenge it publicly but will choose to communicate privately. In the appraisal of Xie Genrong's "Golden Thread Jade Suit," several appraisal experts indicated that the most authoritative Mr. Shi Shuqing had given an appraisal price of 24 billion yuan, and other experts thus found it difficult to express dissenting opinions.

Cultural scholar Wu Shu, who has published multiple factual works exposing the black curtain of the collection market, said that a common practice is for appraisers to estimate antique values much higher than their actual worth, as this is directly linked to the appraiser's interests. "Currently in the industry, if no appraisal certificate is issued, the appraisal fee is approximately 100 to 500 yuan, but if an appraisal certificate is issued, the fee rises to 2000 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, depending on the appraiser's reputation, the more famous the appraiser, the higher the fee."

Unreasonable for Auction Houses to Authenticate Artworks

"Like in China, where appraisal organizations are blooming everywhere with the purpose of charging fees, is rare internationally," Wu Shu said.

Famous collector Ma Weidu mentioned that when he began interacting with foreign cultural relic collectors in the 1980s, foreign cultural relic appraisals mainly relied on individual reputations. For example, Zhu Lian Thompson, the former chairman of Sotheby's Asia region and a porcelain appraisal expert, many big buyers listened to him. If he said it was right, it was right; if he said it was wrong, it was wrong. He couldn't be coerced by a group of people to participate in appraisals, nor could he relax appraisal standards for a bit of money. Technical errors can be forgiven, but moral flaws would make it impossible for one to ever work in the cultural relics industry again.

Currently, art appraisals are often conducted by auction houses. Is this practice reasonable? Li Xiaoshan emphasized that it certainly cannot be handed over to auction houses, as auction houses are enterprises pursuing maximum profits. Even conservatively estimated, there are a hundred or two auction houses in China, and the chaos within them is imaginable! In developed countries, the primary market is galleries, where painters themselves do not sell their paintings; instead, galleries handle the sales. Auction houses are the secondary market based on galleries. In China, however, the situation is reversed, and from painters to operators to experts to related institutions, everyone disregards rules, counterfeiting runs rampant, no taxes are paid, causing huge losses to the country.

Industry Calls for Self-discipline and Regulation

For collectors, the cultural market management department needs to strengthen management to promote industry self-discipline; at the same time, it needs to strengthen the popularization of cultural relic knowledge to improve collectors' appreciation levels and reduce opportunities for being deceived. Jinan City Museum Director Li Xiaofeng believes that to correct the风气in the cultural relic appraisal market, it requires both industry self-discipline and social supervision including media oversight, as well as legal system construction. "In the past, cultural relic appraisals were elegant matters among literati circles. Now, it's the era of universal collections. Only with relevant laws and regulations can the cultural relic appraisal industry develop healthily."

Currently, China's private cultural relic appraisals have neither formed mature industry self-governance nor received legal regulation and supervision. Laws and systems related to cultural relic appraisals, such as the Cultural Relic Protection Law, Auction Law, Management Regulations of the National Cultural Relic Appraisal Committee, Vocational Skill Appraisal Regulations, etc., almost do not involve private cultural relic appraisals. The qualifications of appraisal experts, appraisal procedures, legal responsibilities, etc., are blank spaces.

Some insiders stated that currently, China's art appraisal market is in a "three-nothing" state: First, there is no legal regulation, although the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Cultural Relic Identification" issued by the Ministry of Culture in 2009 has relevant provisions on cultural relic appraisals, the content of this administrative regulation does not involve the widespread existence of private cultural relic appraisals; Second, there is no institutional regulation, the provincial cultural relics bureau only manages the judicial appraisal institutions approved by the bureau, and private cultural relic appraisals currently have no institution managing them; Third, appraisers do not need to bear appraisal responsibilities, even if the cultural relic appraisal is determined to be false, it is difficult to hold the appraiser accountable because there is no clear provision in any law or regulation regarding this matter.

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