artcollector1

Since this forum is about, art, artist, collector ect, I would like to know your opinions about that situation?!?
I was visiting an online auction site yesterday when I saw up for auction a Jean-Paul Riopelle gouache on carton. If you dont know who is Riopelle, I could say that he is one of the most important canadian artist, associatied to the historic moment of the ''Refus Global''
Any way, this painting on the site is cleary not an original( and I've contacted the catalogue raisonné to make sure)
I also asking myself if there about laws about selling non-authentic painting as original painting?
I'm sure that this piece will sell more than a thousand of dollars, and that some collector will get ripped off
any way, what do you think about that?

John

This happens all the time on "an online auction site". I've reported egregious examples a couple of times (if it looks like a real person has actually put in a bid), but I've never been encouraged to do so, or even thanked, or even acknowledged.

A common scam is to simply sign a last name or initials. Who's to say that crude drawing of a ballerina isn't an original Joe Degas? I'd like to think the scum behind these sales get their comeuppance eventually, but I really don't know if that's true. In all the time I've been monitoring the art field, I can only recall a couple of prosecutions of this type.