Andrew Wyeth forgery uncovered

[Jonathan]

It's the 7th forgery to turn up since his death (18 months ago). The full story in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_...

[Ruth]

Interesting. And there you are, Jonathan.

I'd never thought about how difficult it would be to copy a watercolor exactly. In watercolor, you put it down and it is what it is. Not much room for correction.

[Jonathan]

It's true. The article mentions one forger who misspelled Wyeth's name and then sanded it off and tried to correct it. Audacious--or maybe just dumb...

[Heather]

How do you just 'sand off' a signature? Then repaint over it? That is a dead giveaway. I'm glad they had those records of his work! Interesting article, thanks Jonathan!

[Jim]

I'm wondering how much the person who was having the painting auctioned off paid the forger wh apparently hasn't been caught yet.

[Dvora]

Very interesting. And very cool to see you mentioned in the article, Jonathan. Thanks!

[Jonathan]

Jim wrote: "I'm wondering how much the person who was having the painting auctioned off paid the forger wh apparently hasn't been caught yet."

My understanding, based on the facts presented to me by the Inquirer's reporter, is that this particular forgery was introduced into the market a few owners back. If that's true, then the current owner, the one who was attempting to auction the item, would be the victim of the crime, not one of its perpetrators. Of course, only time will tell whether this is the correct interpretation of events.

The chances of the actual forger being caught or punished are not good. Law enforcement doesn't devote tremendous resources to art forgery investigations, and proving the forger's intent to deceive (that is to say, his intent to commit fraud) is extremely difficult.

One standard evasion of forgers, when caught, is to say their only desire was to learn from the master--in this case, Wyeth--by copying his style; the false signature, they might claim, was added later by someone else, etc., etc. The rarity of criminal prosecutions for art forgery is among the factors that make it such a low risk crime for the people who perpetrate it.