Forgeries and Fakes

The prevalence of forgeries is also good news. Since I started checking on the on-line antiquities market I have seen an amazing number of dubious pieces of pre-Columbian art. I have had an interest in the forger’s craft for years. Contrary to the attitude exhibited by most collectors, curators, and a surprising number of my colleagues, fakery is not something that started a few years ago. For example, the Denver Art Museum (News from the Center, June, 1994 ) notes that Colima dogs have been being "newly" manufactured since the late 19th century and that nearly half of those cute doggies out there are not as old as the collector/dealer/curator would like to think. Leopoldo Batres in his 1909 Antiguedades Mejicanas Falsificadas: Falsificación y Falsificadores illustrates pieces in "pre-Columbian’" styles made for the Spanish conquerors as well as the flourishing central Mexican industry in "Teotihuacán" greenstone masks, "Aztec" obsidian blades and figurines, etc. I have yet to see a style of antiquities that has not been forged. But it was possible, mostly, to ignore this flooding of the antiquities market with fakes until the World Wide Web. True, there was the occasional exposé, like the "outing " of Brígido Lara, the talented artisan who has given us so much wonderful Classic Veracruz sculpture (Connoisseur, June 1987) but in general it has been possible for dealers and academics alike to claim that "Oh yes, there are fakes out there, but the trained eye of the true connoisseur can spot these things immediately for the ugly and nasty hoaxes that they are". Well, no. And these days the trained eye has probably itself been trained on fakes. The ostrich-like stance of so many of our colleagues has resulted in the corruption by forgeries of many areas of pre-Columbian studies. This is really visible on the WWW because here one gets a illustrated look at the entire range of the market. And what I, and many of my colleagues, see is that from the top end of the international "art" galleries and auction houses to that wonderful site that advertises employee leasing, rare coins, pre-Columbian art, and mortgage debt relief (www.austincom.com), fakery is the order of the day. At this point we are awash in modern Mezcala, contemporary Copador, hilarious Jalisco and post-Columbian gold galore. The situation is no better for the arrowhead dealers, as was so trenchantly reviewed in American Antiquity by John Whittaker and Michael Stanford (Vol. 64, No. 2, 1999). Many of the arrowhead Web sites discuss forgery openly; other pre-Columbian dealers do not.

Now the dealers are quite aware of the legal problems of selling forgeries, as well as the practical ones of losing their clientele should the situation become public, as given the Web, it probably will. Many of them tout their own expertise (Jonathan Carlofino even gives the title of his MA thesis —although not the name of the institution that granted the degree—www.pre-columbian-art.com) or that of their associates. I think I might just believe Jim Tatum, all of whose authenticating is done by "my son Carlos" and who says they only do Florida ‘cause that’s all they know. I am not so sure about the guy named as "experienced long time relics authenticator and dealer " even though he will furnish a copy of a Certificate of Authenticity (bold face) that has a picture of the artifact and a dated signature. American Heritage Artifacts in its statement on collecting Indian artifacts (not surprisingly they are all for it and regard it as "saving vital specimens for the generations to come") hedge with a certain amount of persiflage. Sotheby’s states blandly that artifacts are sold "as is", part of the "as is" presumably being their real antiquity and eBay is even more up front, the bottom of each page says "caveat emptor". At lower levels dealers tend to talk loudly about their expertise "All Antiquities and Indian Artifacts we sell come with our exclusive lifetime guarantee of authenticity" ( http://www.caddotc.com ) and will often, for a small extra fee, offer you a certificate of authenticity "suitable for framing".

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