REAL ESTATE FOR BREAKFAST

TRANSCRIPTION: There is a museum in the small town of Elne, located in the South of France, that celebrates the work of local painter Etienne Terrus, who lived between 1857 and 1922. Terrus’ work has often been described as a precursor to the early 20th-century style that painted landscapes in bright colors made popular by Henri Matisse. It is reported that Matisse and Terrus were friends, but unlike Matisse, Terrus avoided the Parisian art culture, choosing instead to live quietly in Elne.

These days, like many small, cash-strapped towns throughout the world, Elne has sought to use the artwork of its native son to extol its town heritage and attract tourist dollars. For the past two decades, the town’s mayor and council have worked diligently to collect numerous examples of Terrus’ work for its “Terrus” Museum, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pursuit.

Sometime in 2014, during the town’s costly renovations to the museum, a well-known art historian was reviewing the town’s art collection of about 140 pieces when he noticed that one of the Terrus paintings portrayed the image of a tower built in the late 1950s. To the untrained eye, it was vintage Terrus, but to an art expert, it was an obvious fraud. You see, Terrus died in 1922.

Further investigations of the collection revealed to hugely disappointed town folk that their public art collection was composed mostly of fraudulent artwork. On some of their treasured paintings, Terrus’ signature was brazenly painted over the name of another unknown painter’s signature.

They’d learn that well over half of the collection was nothing more than cheap Terrus knock-offs or worse, works wholly unrelated to Terrus, easily obtained at country flea markets for as little as five dollars. A large part of the bogus art had been displayed at the museum for years.

The revelation of the counterfeit art was at first a shock to the public, but in hindsight, many were not surprised after they learned that in pursuing the town’s appetite to acquire “Terruses,” the museum never once employed an art historian or curator dedicated to authenticating their purchases. The town’s mayor and some council members, without any ascertainable art expertise, were to blame for paying top dollar for fakes. They had never bothered to perform any due diligence.

The small French museum is not the first museum to be swindled by counterfeiters, and they’re certainly in good company—back in 2016, the French government reported that the Palace of Versailles, the former home of Louis XIV, the Sun King himself, unwittingly purchased about $3 million worth of counterfeit Louis XIV furniture.

Chief executive officer of the Association for Research Into Crimes Against Art, Lynda Albertson, said it best when commenting about the unfortunate events at the Terrus Museum, “The [art] acquisition process involves exercising due diligence in terms of researching [the place of origin] and, when necessary, conducting material analysis during the acquisition of artworks.”

Source and excerpts taken from Elian Peltier and Anna Codrea-Rado, French Museum Discovers More Than Half of Its Collection is Fake, New York Times, April 30, 2018.

Dedicated to your success,
David Soble

About David Soble: David is a seasoned real estate and finance attorney with more than 35 years of experience, combining his background as a “big bank insider” with a commitment to demystifying complex legal issues for his clients.  As the founding attorney of Soble Law (also known as Soble PLC / Proven Resource), he leads a specialized team in Michigan and Ohio that handles real estate transactions, contract disputes, probate, and financial litigation.  Known for a practical, no-nonsense approach and peer-rated excellence (Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent), Soble and his team strive to protect clients’ property and financial interests with clarity, integrity, and experience.

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