The prevalence of forgeries is a major problem affecting the art market. Buyers fear purchasing forged works, worried about financial loss and humiliation amongst their peers. (This is one reason that completing due diligence prior to a purchase is so important.) Sellers are nervous about lawsuits and reputational harm. Connoisseurs and advisors are concerned about offering opinions about particular artworks. And scholars fear that these objects will damage the art historical record. The financial and informational damage caused by forgeries is hard to quantify. However, art market professionals know that many forgeries are on the market.

When forgeries make their way into museum collections, it’s particularly newsworthy. Museums, not just repositories for art, are educational institutions charged with the extraordinary yet difficult task of serving as cultural and art historical experts. Quite understandably, these institutions are fallible and sometimes err in their determinations. One sculpture that has received a great deal of attention is the Getty Kouros. Disagreement amongst scholars led the museum to label the work as “Greek, about 530 B.C., or modern forgery.” However, it was announced by the NY Times that the museum finally conceded that it is a forgery.

To read more about forgeries, due diligence prior to the acquisition of art, and famous forgery cases, we invite you to read “Are you Faux Real? An Examination of Art Forgery and the Legal Tools Protecting Art Collectors” or the shorter “Purchase Art in a Market Full of Forgeries: Risks and Legal Remedies for Buyers.”