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Freemanart : REPORT ON 2007 Back
2007 was an enormously eventful and successful year for the Freemanart Consultancy. One where the necessity for authentication and authenticating Picasso paintings, prints and drawings has never been in greater demand.
As an ever increasing number of fakes and illicit reproductions surfaced, with them, so did the client enquiries from all over the world, taking us afar afield as the Middle East and South America, the Far East, Australia and even Russia.
A greater increase in work load from Law Firms, Attorneys, Insurers and particularly international Auctioneers certainly kept us on our toes.
Fake paintings and prints.
Sadly, came to us for investigation through all the usual channels!
Small time auctioneers, internet auction sites, particularly you know who and an old friend, yet a quite surprising favourite for questionable works to surface, cruise ship auctions.
The demand too for authentication of works by Dali, Miro and Chagall also continued to grow as the market place seemed to become flooded with more and more counterfeit works.
These ranged from the patently brilliant, aka, fully fledged fakes with detailed planted provenance, incredibly believable technique and all the right materials & know how, right through to the shoddy and downright laughable.
Diary:
The year had begun with a demanding, taxing but revealing study of an Italian Old Master painting which took us to Switzerland and to Italy heading one of the finest team of art experts ever assembled.
Demands in Belgium took up considerable time throughout the month of February but resulted in huge success for clients seeking the authentication of a masterpiece, with March bringing intriguing issues from as far a field as New Zealand and South Africa.
By April we were embroiled in an unnerving affair of quite dramatic intrigue, working under difficult and ‘uncomfortable’ circumstances in the United Arab Emirates. This resulted in the uncovering a multi million dollar art fraud of the highest magnitude with overpowering consequences for those involved on both sides when we were confronted with 7 Illegitimate but highly believable masterpieces, emanating from the Saddam Iraqi regime.
By May things became a little lighter but none the less stressful on the mind and body as a treasure trail took us right across Canada with the annual Roadshow Tour commitments. It was to be a tour in which some fifty million dollars worth of family heirlooms eventually surfaced and amongst them, two paintings worth well over a million apiece.
Editor:
[Whilst our Executive Director loves his TV work, he never seemed to be off it!]
There’s always lots to do from our Spanish office and as usual, the USA and Canada kept us very busy over the summer. There was more Miro, Chagall, & Dali controversies and our old friend Picasso of course, by the shed load.
With the Autumn and the second part of the North American Roadshow tour behind us, we look forward to the challenge of visiting South America in December to catalogue and review the legitimacy of one of the largest private collections in the world.
The New Year will be spent with clients in Australia and New Zealand before we begin work on another Italian Old Master, this time for clients in Moscow!
With one of the most difficult authentication projects we have tackled ahead of us, working closely alongside Romanian authorities, French and Italian experts, we look forward to the challenges that the world brings us in 2008..
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Copyright
2008. Freemanart:
Unauthorized use of the images illustrated is prohibited and protected
under International laws of Copyright.