The black market for fake art has significantly shrunk in recent decades, largely due to the advancement of technologies that enable more accurate authentication of artworks. According to Viktor Schpengler, founder of the Russian Repin Center for Art Expertise, in an interview with RT, “Technologies are constantly evolving and the modern technical tools are hardly comparable to those used in our field 10 to 20 years ago. This makes expert opinions more precise and reliable.”
One of the key advancements is the ability to precisely identify the pigments used by a particular artist, often created in-house by the artists themselves in a complex process that made it increasingly difficult to fake their works. However, forgers have also adapted, attempting to replicate the composition of colors used during the artist’s time.
In identifying forgeries, experts also recognize the handwriting of certain forgers, which can be nearly genius-like in its similarity to the original. Schpengler notes, “We have already succeeded in identifying the handwriting of some forgers. For example, there are two major ‘masters’ in Russia today, whose style we often recognize in forged paintings. We have a database of forgers and their signature tricks, which also helps us identify forgeries.”
The “map” of art forgeries is also dynamic, according to the expert. For instance, the Russian Avant-Garde is no longer commonly faked, unlike 20 years ago, when a surge in forgeries led to scandals when museums discovered they had fake works by Russian Avant-Garde artists in their collections. “The circle of buyers for these works is quite limited and even inexperienced collectors know that the Avant-Garde is often forged, so they are cautious” Schpengler explains.
Today, most fake artworks are of early 20th-century Russian artists, not the Avant-Garde, Schpengler adds, mentioning the works of Konstantin Korowin, Robert Falk and Alexander Kuprin as examples.