The art and the law

It is in no contradiction with the law to copy a painting or to reproduce other kind of genuine works of art but it is for sure fraud to sell or even to try to sell non-original works of art as genuine paintings, sculptures or alike. Furthermore there could be a problem with violation with copyrights.

As a salesman you might be in good faith having no knowledge whether a work of art is a falsification or not. But putting it at eBay.com for sale as genuine painting from a famous artist to an unrealistic low price is certainly fraud, if he or she knows that what he sells is a forgery. No normal person sells an original painting for $100, if the market price is $100.000 or more. Then we are talking about a falsification which one is presumed to know through an auction house or alike. I doubt that anyone sells genuine art (Gauguin, van Gogh, Picasso) at eBay.com without having controlled its genuineness. Therefore it can be considered a fact that putting a falsery for sale at eBay.com promising genuineness is not only against the law but it is also done in bad faith and therefore to be considered as fraud.

Unfortunately much is pointing in the direction that no outsider cares about what is going on at eBay.com. Here all salesmen are art dealers and private persons, only the techniques are put forward by the people behind that particular  homepage. Can they not be pursued by law they are for sure morally disturbed and with an approximately annually turn over a billion of dollars, they certainly should have the means to hire a specialist or more within those fields.

© Preben Juul Madsen www.artfakes.dk