When is an artwork like a P1,000 bill? When it has security features.

By Camille Anne M. Arcilla

In 2004, Hollywood comedian and art enthusiast Steve Martin purchased from the Parisian gallery Cazeau-Béraudière a work by German expressionist painter Heinrich Campendonk — at least he thought it was a work by German expressionist painter Heinrich Campendonk. Mr. Martin, according to The Guardian, is the victim of the largest known art scam in German history, losing €700,000, or $850,000. The fake painting was said to have been authenticated by an unidentified expert prior to its purchase.

In the local setting, numerous dubious works claimed to have been made by Filipino master modernist and National Artist Vicente Manansala have appeared and been passed around since his death. This led the late artist’s followers and supporters to form the Friends of Manansala Foundation in 1981, to condemn fraudulence and all forms of misrepresentation that would devaluate the artist’s legacy.

As the Philippine art scene flourishes, there has been an influx of forgeries that needs to be addressed. Auction houses have been forced to remove pieces when their authenticity has been questioned, even when they have the proper documentation on hand.

DOCUMENTATION
To show if a piece of art is legitimate or not, the owner should have a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist which bears details about the work. But what if there’s no physical document attached to the artwork? Or, worse, what if both the artwork and the supporting documents are forged?

Cris Mora, co-founder and managing director of Art Provenance, told the story of what happened to one of his partners who bought a work of art — but noticed that the documents did not look right.

He talked to a friend who said he knew the previous owner of the work. “He [in turn] called up that friend and asked why she didn’t tell him the painting was being sold. She was like, ‘No, the painting is still here in my house, on my wall!’” he told ����ý.

It turned out that the painting he bought and its supporting documents were all fakes.

There has to be a better way to identify if an artwork is indeed fake than asking experts’ opinions (they may disagree with each other), or a going to a friend of a friend of an artist, said Mr. Mora. The incident prompted him, along with Rico Gonzalez and Gerry Qua, to think of a way to solve the problem.

“A piece of paper is only what you get, but how do you know that that piece of paper is referring to this object, to this painting?,” he said. “If a forger did it so well that you cannot tell, how do you know that this paper refers to this thing? So what we wanted to do is to mark the original work in such a way that it is always identifiable.

“We wanted to introduce a measure of objectivity to the marketplace and how we assess if [a piece of art is] real or not real,” he said.

SECURITY TAGGING
Art Provenance is a start-up that does artwork identification through a technology called “security tagging.” It started in 2014 doing initial analysis and R&D, and finally went live January this year. It is the first of its kind in the Philippines, and Asia as well.

“There’s only a handful who are trying it, [who are] also in a start-up phase. There are two [companies] in the United States, one in New York and in San Francisco and they haven’t launched yet. The other one has a similar approach like ours. [The] third one is in France — [it’s] a bit older and been around for a while, but their models are a bit different. Ours is a closed-system while theirs is crowd-sourced,” Mr. Mora said.

He, however, clarified that Art Provenance does not do the authentication. What it does is it provides the services needed to secure the authenticity of a work. “We work with an artist and they do the authentication. If they say it is real, we secure the authentication. We link it to the physical object through the technology.”

With security tagging, the artwork is marked with a basic sticker label that has a code in it. This links to a Web site where all the information about the work can be accessed from a database. Microdots are placed beside the sticker code as an additional security feature. Each of the microdots has  microscopic number and letter codes and the dots are placed in a unique pattern. The sticker uses an archival adhesive would not come off easily.

“The metaphor used is it’s like a P1,000 bill. It has security features embedded in it that allow you to tell if it’s real or not,” Mr. Mora said. “It is non-replicable and easy to verify, and, most importantly, it’s archival. It wouldn’t also cause damage to the artwork.”

The online database is accessible to artists, collectors, and galleries who want to see the tagged artworks. When clicking on a certain work, details such as the date of authentication and ownership — if the collector chose not to remain anonymous — will appear.

“Over time, we want to include the provenance history that is attached to that work. Provenance refers to the path of ownership from the artist to the owner today. That’s the main tool in authenticating an artwork, by tracing it through documentation,” he said.

The provenance of all artworks tagged, Mr. Mora said, starts with the artists, then is followed by the gallery, then the buyer.

“It’s up to the owners if they want their names attached to the provenance history or not,” he said. “They can say ‘private collector,’ or ‘Mr. X.’ Whatever they want. It depends on how the owners configure it in their settings.”

Art Provenance partnered with DocsCheck, a team based in Singapore which handles the database which can be accessed from anywhere.

“Say, if I want to sell an artwork to you, I can use this as a proof of authenticity. In this way, people wouldn’t have doubts in what you’re saying,” he said.

LAO LIANBEN
The price of the security tagging services varies depend on the value of the artwork authenticated and may range from P1,500 to P10,000 per work. Mr. Mora said it wouldn’t be feasible if they ask for a high price for emerging artists.

At the moment, Art Provenance is working directly with galleries to tag the artworks that are being released. Some galleries want the artworks tagged and pay for the service before a selling exhibit, Mr. Mora said. Others bill the buyer for the service on top of the price of the artwork.

“But we make it in such a way the artist wouldn’t have to carry the cost,” he said.

Recently, Blanc Gallery announced that it will be administering an en masse authentication of Lao Lianben works with the help of Art Provenance. The project, called “Into The Light,” will run until July 15.

“The initial idea of authenticating Lao works sprang up a couple years back when he and I would have frequent dialogues about exhibition plans and other projects,” Blanc owner Jay Amante said. “This project came about when we found a need to secure the provenance and documentation of Lao works from the 1970s up to the present.”

Mr. Amante said that the gallery will be collaborating with Art Provenance in the future.

Art Provenance had also worked with other galleries such as ArtInformal, Tin-Aw, JStudios, and Finale, among others.

“If it goes well with Mr. Lao, I would like the other artists of his caliber to do the same thing, like BenCab who is successful internationally but his work is forged all over the place,” said Mr. Mora. “I know there are other artists like Elmer Borlongan and Ronald Ventura who went down the pile… these bigger named artists who are starting to gain international recognition are going to start to be the target of the forgeries. It’s sad, but the more successful you are as an artist, the more you become [a target] in that sense,” he said.

“We hope that the artists, the galleries, the collectors, believe in this thing because once they do, it becomes the standard and, we hope, it will be the way people will verify the authenticity of their artworks. Essentially, we want our brand to become synonymous to authenticity over time,” Mr. Mora said.

He expressed optimism that the tagging will become “routine” and encourages other artists to do what Mr. Lianben has decided to do.

Although they are not authenticating works of dead artists just yet, Mr. Mora said Art Provenance is actively exploring moving in that direction. “For the moment, we are not (tagging dead artists’ works) just to be sure that what we are tagging is real. There is no better rapport than [when] the artist is real. We know there is a huge opportunity there, like the works of Manansala and Ocampo… there are a lot of Manansala fakes [out there].”

“We want a technology that is already established so we know if it actually works,” he said. “It’s the simplicity of this approach that gives its longevity. Although simple, this does not diminish its effectivity. A number is a number, a pattern is a pattern.”