Skip to main content

Collectors hunt down forgeries as Arab art market flourishes

As Middle Eastern art experiences an international boom, Lebanese collector Basel Dalloul is leading a drive to expose forgeries and follow more stringent standards for authentication.
IMG_7830.jpg

For as long as art has commanded high prices, it has attracted forgers. In 1945, Dutch artist Han van Meegeren was arrested and charged with selling a painting by Johannes Vermeer to Nazi leader Hermann Goring. Fearing a death sentence, he shocked the art world when he admitted that the painting was a forgery, one of more than a dozen he had produced over several decades.

The ingenious forger is thought to have tricked buyers out of the equivalent of more than $30 million. In today’s globalized art market, such astronomical sums regularly change hands — sometimes for a single work — and forgeries remain a lucrative source of income for unscrupulous artists and dealers. As prices for work by Arab artists have risen over the past decade, forgers have taken notice.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.