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F O R G E R Y   A N D   B O G U S   A T T R I B U T I O N S

VAN GOGH

Another Unvarnished Truth



F104a: Van Gogh forgery, French School circa 1885, artist unknown.

In 2014, we challenged the flawed attributions of F104 and F104a and F198, three related forgeries. F198 has been catalogued for almost a century as an autograph work by van Gogh. The painting was offered to Milmo-Penny Fine Art in January 2014 with a full attribution and supporting documents from the Van Gogh Museum. Subsequent research led us to the conclusion that the painting is an elaborate forgery. The Van Gogh Museum base their attribution on the provenance of the painting and its relationship to the two other paintings, F104 and F104a. However, our research establishes that these two paintings are also forgeries and that the provenance relied on by the Van Gogh Museum is false. F104a is in the collection of the McMaster Museum, Hamilton, Ontario, who continue to present their painting as a van Gogh despite their own research, which establishes a forged signature and a number of other critical anomalies.



F198: van Gogh forgery, French School circa 1885, artist unknown.

Apart from the two forgeries, F104 and F104a, the Van Gogh Museum relies on the provenance of F198, which we say was invented by the forger in the late 1920s. Jan Hulsker, the leading authority on van Gogh, assigned the painting to the summer of 1886, which means that it can't be one of the paintings left behind by van Gogh in Nuenen; that it can't have been part of the Breda Collection and therefore can't have an Oldenzeel Gallery provenance as relied on by the Museum. Apart from this, we have laid out at least forty compelling arguments challenging the Van Gogh Museum’s attribution, mostly originating from their own research. The official position of the Museum is that they disagree with us, but they refuse to say why. Their own evidence against the attribution is compelling, not to mention Jan Hulsker's well-known views on the painting and the technical report of the Netherland Institute of Cultural Heritage. However, their disregard for Vincent van Gogh's own correspondence is disturbing, to say the least. One of the mainstays of the Museum case is a comparison to F104a as it is a signed painting according to them. However, they ignore van Gogh's own correspondence, which declares that he did not sign his Nuenen work at all.
The McMaster Museum uncovered critical anomalies in their 'Unvarnished Truth' project ten years ago. This worthwhile and informative resource has been taken offline, presumably as a result of our challenge. However, we hope that a reappraisal of the work will soon lead to a reattribution. The owners of F104, the second painting relied on by the Van Gogh Museum, have accepted long ago that their painting is not authentic.
Our research forms the script of a documentary now in the course of preparation and will show that the same forger was responsible for all three forgeries and perhaps many others made at the same time. We also explore the Ontario connections of all three paintings and disclose how these connections expose the 'Lost Arles Sketchbook' as an elaborate hoax.

 

Irish Masters catalogue in course of preparation. Details from dominick@mpfa.ie.

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Private Dealers in Fine European Paintings
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