I wokt at a camera store that also does eBay consignment. I have been asked to sell three paintings on consignment, but I have doubts about the authenticity of the paintings, listed below.
The first painting is titled “The Flight of the First Balloon,” allegedly by Cindre Boucher, signed and dated 1897. It is 29.5"x23.75". I can’t find anything on that artist. Google searches turn up nothing at all, nor do searches on the painting’s title.
Second is “The Defeat of Napoleon”, allegedly by James A. Walker, with a date range of 1841-1898. While I have found information on Walker, and the painting fits with Walker’s overall theme of military scenes, I can’t find any reference to the painting in particular. I was also provided the following details by the consignee:
Newman Galleries Label
Samuel J. L. Evans Estate
Third is by W. Harler, signed and dated 1892. Like the first one, I can’t find any information about this artist. It is a still life, 14.5"x15.5", of fruit.
All of the paintings are supposedly oil on canvas, and described in excellent or “like new” condition.
I have images of the paintings available, but no photographs of the signatures or dates were provided. The consignee has retained the pieces.
Several factors, including the requested $15,000 reserve price for the second painting and seeming lack of data on the works (though I do not have access here to scholarly databases), make me feel that the consignee is setting us up to take any heat if/when any forgeries are discovered. Can anyone provide additional insight?
Hmmm - how do you see your store being set up to take the heat if the paintings are fake? Consigning doesn’t put the ownus on you I don’t think…perhaps it does.
Do you have a feeling the paintings are fake? They may in fact be genuine if the person selling them is holding onto them for their value.
Be sure that your sales staff make no implication of authenticity, and you are not responsible for authenticity. If asked, say that you have not seen the actual paintings. If asked, say you are unable to find information about the artists. If asked, say that you have no documented provenance for the pieces.
You have unauthenticated art, and can provide the name of the seller. Other than that, you got nuttin. Don’t allow anyone in your employee to imply any more.
Caveat emptor. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Value is in the purse of the buyer. If it comes down to direct questions from a buyer, you give honest answers. People who buy paintings by looking at photographs of paintings should expect to get paintings that look like the photographs. If you consignee makes a claim, you should make it clear to him, and the potential buyer that the claim is his, and you cannot verify it.
Just because it’s got the artist’s name on it doesn’t mean it was by the artist. As I’m sure you’re well aware, the late Victorian era was well known for people copying famous pictures.
If you’re not sure, then what can it cost you to require provenances?
If there’s an issue, we’re going to have to handle it first, including dealing with eBay.
The reasons I am suspicious are based on these factors: the consignee has retained us, rather than an an art dealer or a consignor with art experience, the artist names are similar to much more famous artists from the same periods, and that I cannot find any information on works that are supposedly desirable enough to expect final prices above $2000.
I’m placing the unverifiable information (artist’s name and type of painting) under a “Provided by consignee” title.
I should make clear that I’m not the business owner, but an employee. If it were my choice I would not have accepted the lot.
Not trying to be snide (I figure there probably is a good reason), but I’m a bit confused as to why someone would make “fake” paintings and then slap on a name that nobody, including Google, has ever heard of. I hadn’t thought of the similar name angle until you mentioned it, but François Boucher is off by over a hundred years from the alleged Cindre Boucher. The only thing I can come up with is if people regularly plunk down $2000 on paintings just because they’re old, but not of my friends have that kind of money to spend on art, so I don’t know if that happens a lot.
Hmm. It’s possible that the first and third artist simply aren’t anyone who would be anything like famous enough to appear on teh web, and it’s possible that since Walker IS, the high price (especially for Civil War stuff) is actually feasible. I’m away from school for a couple of days but could check a couple of sources on Thursday if you wish, but even if I didn’t find anything it wouldn’t prove anything about these guys.
Are they any good? Link to jpgs? The guys provides no provenance or info about the artists? (a provenance-- at least partial-- is a pretty typical and reasonable request). $2000 for 100 year old decent paintings is not beyond the pale, even if they’re not by anyone really famous. I’d ask for provenances and see what the guy says.
IMHO, whether the paintings are fakes or not doesn’t seem to come into play here, since the putative artists are people that no one seems to have ever heard of anyway. Why fake the work of an unknown artist?
My wife is a great artist, but google her name and you won’t find a thing about her. If someone wants to pay $15,000 for one of her paintings, simply because they like it and not because she’s passing it off as an original Georgia O’Keefe, that’s their problem, not hers.
Well, James A. Walker, a relatively well-known painter, so it would matter there certainly. The other guys, well, to some people a painting from 1880 and one from 1980 have different historical values. And “no one seems to have heard of” means here “no one on the SDMB off the tops of their heads”. I’ll try to remember to look up the other guys in a real source tomorrow.