Modern Masters Under Threat

• Pages: 2-4

1. From an IP law

perspective, the

term “counterfeit” is

usually associated

with infringements

of trademarked

goods while “piracy”

often is used in the

context of copyright

violations – see Article

51 (footnote 14) of the

Agreement on Trade-

Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property

Rights of the World

Trade Organization

(WTO).

Alberto Giacometti,

Femme de Venise IX,

1956, bronze

Fake copies of this

original work have been

seized at the request

of the Giacometti

Foundation.

2009, for example, in one of the most elaborate

scams of recent times, the German police re-

covered some 1,200 sculptures – with a market

value in excess of a billion euros – crafted in

Giacometti’s iconic style. In April 2011, Stuttgart’s

regional Tribunal charged the defendants not

only with commercial fraud and the falsica-

tion of original documents but also, thanks to

the Foundation’s input, with violating copyright,

making it the rst-ever judgment in which the

original artist was recognized as a victim of copy-

right infringement.

A growing problem

For Véronique Wiesinger, Director and Senior

Curator of the Giacometti Foundation, the pro-

duction of counterfeit art is a growing problem

that has reached “industrial” proportions. “Today

we are seeing fakes and forgeries inltrating even

museum collections where they are corrupting

the way visitors understand the artists’ legacies,”

she noted. “It is urgent that measures be taken

to protect the cultural heritage of future genera-

tions, [to promote] respect for artists, their works

and their IP rights, and to defend the interests of

art lovers and collectors,” she added. “The prices

achieved by authentic art reect the growing

importance of cultural heritage in society and in

the cultural economy. The proliferation of coun-

terfeit works that these prices bring about is a

stranglehold on the market for authentic works

and corrupts the cultural heritage of humanity,”

she noted. Ms. Wiesinger is convinced that art

counterfeiters’ sole interest is lucrative. “For them

it is simply a case of making easy money on the

back of the creative reputation of others,” she

A booming global art market, worth an estimated

43 billion euros in 2010, has given rise to an

alarming increase in the circulation of counterfeit

works of art. As the commercial value of art has

grown, so too has the number of illegal copies

of highly priced works entering the market place.

Gallery owners and right holders alike agree that

this trend is a cause of great concern. Counterfeit

art1, the unauthorized reproduction of a work of

art or any portion of it, undermines the economic

and moral rights of visual artists and threatens

public trust in the integrity of museums and other

custodians of cultural heritage – not to mention

the distress caused when art lovers and collec-

tors are duped into spending hefty sums on what

were believed to be authentic and original works.

While the illegal copying of music and lm and

its corrosive eect on employment and the econ-

omy regularly make headline news, the plight

of individual artists and the threat to their intel-

lectual property (IP) rights resulting from the

unauthorized reproduction of their works often

go unnoticed. The Giacometti Foundation and

the Picasso Succession, responsible for manag-

ing rights in the works of two of the 20th cen-

tury’s creative geniuses, Swiss sculptor Alberto

Giacometti and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, have

recently stepped up their eorts to raise public

awareness about the need to respect the IP rights

– economic and moral – of artists in their works.

The works of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) and

of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) consistently com-

mand top market prices. As such, they regularly

fall prey to unscrupulous fraudsters seeking to

cash in on their popularity and reputation. In

MODERN MASTERS

UNDER THREAT

JUNE 2011

2

The Annette Giacometti Prize

In a drive to raise public awareness about the plight of individual artists and the challenges confronting

right holders, the Giacometti Foundation launched the rst Annette Giacometti Prize in 2011. The prize, in

honor of the untiring eorts of the sculptor’s wife to combat counterfeits, was awarded to the Victoria and

Albert Museum in London, U.K., for its exhibition entitled “The Metropolitan Police Service’s Investigation

of Fakes and Forgeries”, shown in January and February 2010. The exhibition, which featured conscated

counterfeit art works that, had they been authentic, would have had a value of 4 million pounds sterling,

examined the nancial and cultural consequences of counterfeit art on contemporary culture.

The Foundation also awarded a cash prize of 10,000 euros to two students, Florian Harribey and Lucas

Perrinet, for their short documentary tracing the creation of an art work and its subsequent unauthor-

ized reproduction.

Photo: Giacometti Foundation