An Important Janco Fake

In addition to auctioning art, "Hammersite art auctioneers" (formerly known as "Ben Ami Auctioneers") the veteran company established in 1984 provides many other services. One of them is determining and substantiating art work authenticity. The painting below is a curious example of the intricacies in the world of art forgery.

The aforementioned painting, supposedly attributed to Marcel Janco - a prominent founder of the DaDa movement and a renowned 20th century Israeli painter - was brought to Hammersite's gallery for examination not long ago. After careful inspection, Hammersite's expert and appraiser Michael Ben-Ami revealed it as a sophisticated forgery.

The painting in question was an almost impeccable copy of Janco's 1945 "A Burnt Village," which was a notable part of the Histadrut's collection and was auctioned by "Ben-Ami auctioneers" (now known as Hammersite) in 1996. The painting had been executed on an original old canvas, which was scraped off to reveal the lower surface and thus instill a feel of authenticity.

Despite its deceptive appearance of genuineness, it had been signed in English, as apposed to the original signed in Hebrew. It was also evident by the minor color variations and lines indiscrepancies, that the forger had attempted to create an "authentic" variation of Janco's "A Burnt Village."

However he wasn't sophisticated enough to realize no artist paints exact replicas while making versions of the same piece. Moreover, it was obvious the forger could not imitate Janco's robust and rich brush strokes, leaving the fake pale and muted in comparison to Janco's dramatic work.

Had this painting been mistakenly auctioned today, its estimated value would be over $50,000. Fortunately, that was prevented from happening. However the problem of art forgery is getting more and more prevalent. For this reason, Hammersite has taken the initiative to create a substantial, public database documenting known art forgeries in the Israeli market, in an attempt to prevent the phenomena and leave art to the true artists.