The gallery is showing forgeries and copies of paintings that bear the signatures of Vilmos Aba-Novák, József Koszta, Hugó Scheiber, Béla Kádár, József Rippl-Rónai, Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry, Armand Schönberger, István Szőnyi, Lajos Gulácsy and László Mednyánszky.
The gallery aims to show visitors the variety of methods skilled forgers use to create a painting that can pass as an original. Many of the 300 paintings in the exhibition are from a single collection, acquired by the owner piece by piece over the years. The owner discovered only later, after a close examination of the collection, that most of the works in it were fakes.
The number of workshops in Hungary that turn out forgeries has grown in the past 10-15 years, according to Nagyházi Gallery expert Vera Mayer. These workshops use the latest techniques to make fake paintings, she said, citing the example of an Antal Berkes painting made with a computer that would have passed as an original had the forgers not tried to make the reverse side of the painting appear old. In another forgery, of a painting by Károly Markó, the forgers tried to make the surface of the painting appear cracked, however, their method was so brutal that it was obvious even to the untrained eye that the painting was a fake.
Most forgeries are attempts to mimic an artist's style, sometimes incorporating elements from several genuine paintings. Most forgeries also come with fake documents "proving" ownership or showing the painting has been exhibited, said Mayer.
The exhibition is intended to convince art buyers to take pieces to an expert for an opinion before they purchase them. This can be done free of charge at any gallery, Mayer said.
At the request of the family which owns the majority of the fakes in the exhibition, the paintings will be destroyed at this year's annual Falk Art Forum on September 15.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
