Truth in the Fine Art Industry
Limited Edition Reproductions
by
Theresa Franks
Pick up any magazine on the subject, visit any related website, talk to any knowledgeable dealer or gallery and you will soon find out that the field of fine art reproductions, limited edition prints, giclées, sculpture reproductions and other forms of reproducing artists' original works is fraught with ignorance, deceit and abuse.
Understanding the Problem
Today anyone with a camera or scanner and an inkjet printer can produce a print or multiples of a print from an original work of art. In fact most prints marketed and sold today are manufactured using some form of photomechanical process. With high-tech advancements in digital technologies, the lure of easy money, and no regulation of any kind, the art industry and especially the multiples or print market is an attractive breeding ground for fraud and abuse.
It is the ease and speed with which an art print or multiple can be created today, coupled with an uninformed public that give rise to exploitation, fraud, forgery and fakery in the print or multiples industry. The result is a generally diluted and bankrupt marketplace, at least from the point of view of the serious art collector. The only beneficiaries of the perversion of the print industry today are dishonest dealers, printers and publishers (in some cases with the collusion of the artist) who continue to erode the market by knowingly engaging in illicit activities that drive quick and dirty profits.
Fine Art Registry™ has published numerous examples of print abuse in articles on the Fine Art Registry website. Art merchant Park West Gallery, who operates largely aboard cruise ships and claims to auction "fine art limited edition" prints and series of art works by both living and dead artists is a prime example of the abuses that exist in this market. As is the case with most of the art prints marketed, advertised, and offered for sale today, those offered by Park West Gallery are not accompanied by any written or certified disclosure from Park West Gallery or the cruise lines prior to purchase. In fact, the art print and multiples inventory offered for sale by Park West Gallery to cruise passengers is not even physically located on the ship at the time of sale and the buyer does not usually see the actual item he is buying until six to eight weeks later, long after returning home from the cruise, when the art is shipped to the new owner from the Park West Gallery wholesale print warehouse based in the U.S. The Park West Gallery certificates of authenticity and appraisals that follow the pieces (usually well after the art work is received) are all created within Park West Gallery itself and signed by the owner of the company. In other words, Park West Gallery and the cruise lines do not provide prospective buyers/cruise passengers with any written or certified disclosure prior to offering art multiples for sale or finalizing sale transactions with cruise passengers.
Most importantly, none of the documentation provided to buyers by Park West Gallery and the cruise lines, even after the fact, is sufficient to even come close to meeting the disclosure laws contained in the Michigan Art Multiples Sales Act (where the Park West Gallery HQ is situated) or in similar laws of any other state in the U.S.
Park West has also been sued by one of the artists whose work they were selling who claimed that the gallery had made and sold unauthorized prints from his work, passing them off as genuine limited edition prints created by the artist.
While Park West Gallery is perhaps the extreme in the industry with respect to bad business practices relating to the marketing and sale of limited edition and mass marketed commercial prints and multiples, the abuse is widespread. Many art print wholesalers, publishers, printers, art retailers, including brick and mortar galleries and online venues, and artists, are part of the problem, either through ignorance or intent, and it looms on a global scale, plaguing the whole of the art industry, including artists, collectors, dealers, galleries, museums, and auction houses, and a host of other vertical markets within the industry as outlined further below. Note: Though prints are the main topic of discussion below, sculpture multiples should also be considered part and parcel of the crisis in the multiples market, though arguably perhaps not as widespread.
Major Contributing Factors to the Problem
1. Lack of public awareness
The single biggest factor driving the illicit market in print multiples is the public's lack of awareness and understanding of prints and reproductions and the market in general. The public is largely unaware of the widespread abuse in the print market and ignorant of the fact that there are laws on the books in at least fifteen states in the U.S. that offer legal recourse for buyers that believe they have been the victims of fraudulent or deceptive practices.
Additionally, many art buyers are new to collecting and don't know for example that a "giclée" (by far the most common form of reproduction multiple today) is not an original work (print or otherwise) and should never be represented as an original. It is fraud to make this misrepresentation intentionally. In fact, the word "original" should not appear in conjunction with the term "giclée". It is a photomechanical reproduction. Period. End of story. In Michigan for example, a dealer or merchant must specifically disclose to a prospective buyer that a giclée is not an original print.
Many art printers, publishers and dealers are equally unaware of the print disclosure laws and what these laws require of them. The ones that do have knowledge and fail to do anything about it will have to come to terms with a changing market eventually as Fine Art Registry™ fully intends to continue to raise public awareness about this serious issue so that the truth becomes broadly known. But it is also up to buyers and consumers to demand more from the sources from whom they purchase their art prints and multiples.
Dealers, printers, publishers and others involved in dishonesty and unfair dealings in the print and multiples industry have been taking advantage of an uninformed public. It's time that the pendulum swings in favor of the guys in the white hats. It's time for change.
2. Fraudulent Misrepresentations, Deceptive Advertising and Trade Practices
Number two on the list of contributing factors are the wild and spurious claims by print dealers that fall into the category of fraudulent misrepresentation and deceptive trade practices. Fraudulent misrepresentations and deception can be perpetrated by any of those involved in the process of producing, manufacturing, marketing or selling prints or multiples. In some cases, even the artist can be held to a standard of strict liability for the marketing and sale of prints or multiples they themselves produce and sell. All artists should become intimately familiar with the laws on the books where they reside to learn how to protect their body of work and to be sure that they are complying with the laws of their respective states. For example, in cases of art sales aboard cruise ships, the prints marketed and sold to passengers are in many cases being represented as "risk free investment opportunities." Other major intentional abuses include inflating the edition size, the production of unauthorized print runs without the artist's knowledge, counterfeiting entire editions, forging artists' signatures (deceased and living), and issuing print editions distinguished by different titles such as "American Edition" or "European Edition", or by simply interchanging Roman numerals for Arabic.
3. Print Edition Perversion
A significant affliction in the multiples mass market today is the perversion of the print edition, an area where artists and collectors can be profoundly exploited. It can’t be emphasized enough that all artists serious about their work should take responsibility for putting safeguards in place to preserve the integrity of their work by maintaining control over all aspects of reproduction, including continual audits on the size of the edition being produced and especially maintaining strict control over the image of the original work that is used to produce the print, or risk possible severe consequences, including the loss of copyright.
Everyone loses when print editions are perverted, but no one loses more than the artist and the collector when the market is glutted with worthless counterfeit poster art which greatly diminishes the value and reputation of the artist's body of work. Though there are hundreds of examples to cite, there isn't a better case in point than the Salvador Dalí print scandals that have been reported over the years. Dalí signed unknown quantities (a reported 350,000 sheets) of blank paper prior to his death that were later converted to unauthorized limited editions of prints which served to significantly dilute the value of Dalí's print market. Honest dealers of authentic Dalí prints were hit hard by these scandals that still resonate in today's market of authentic Dalí works. (See the article A Salvador Dalí Expert Comments on the Park West at Sea Dalí Prints).
Sadly, many Dalí forgeries are still circulating today, including thousands of counterfeit Dalí prints that were auctioned off by the United States Postal Service in 1995. Yes, that's right. A judge ordered that the United States Postal Service, who had seized the counterfeit Dalí prints from a Hawaiian gallery, in connection with an art forgery investigation, could recover the costs of its investigation by auctioning off the counterfeit prints. Incredibly, the auction sale moved forward and the prints, which had been marked as fakes in small letters on the back and accompanied by certificates specifying that the prints were fakes, raised nearly $350,000 for the postal service coffers. It's not a stretch to believe that the criminal mind would have no trouble covering up the verso of the counterfeit Dalí, destroying the paper certificate certifying that the piece was a fake, and voilà, passing off the once designated counterfeit Dalí for the real thing yet again. Other seized counterfeits in the same case were not marked at all and were returned to their owners.
The Solution
There's no question that the problems and abuses facing the print multiples market today (including sculpture multiples) are legion. What many in the industry do not know is that many states in the U.S. have adopted laws that address the ever increasing and rampant abuse in the multiples marketplace.
California was the first to pass a "Multiples Law" to protect its consumers from fraudulent and abusive practices concerning the sale of fine art prints. The California Civil Code in effect provides for civil remedies to buyers of prints if the dealers or merchants fail to disclose to the buyer, complete and detailed information regarding the print or multiple prior to the sale transaction and ultimate delivery of the print or multiple. Remedies to the buyer may include rescission of the transaction or contract with interest and treble monetary damages (three times the purchase price of the print or multiple, plus interest) for willful non-compliance, among other remedies. In other words, like it or not, dealers and merchants who advertise, market or sell prints or multiples in or from the state of California are held strictly liable for the information (or lack thereof) provided to a buyer. The dealer or merchant must supply written certification that the information given concerning the print is true and accurate, all of which forms the basis of the bargain for the buyer of the print. In California, the offending art dealer or merchant is also subject to a $1,000 fine and a permanent injunction against continuing sales without first providing written disclosures certifying the prints or multiples.
For example, if a buyer or collector purchases a print or multiple from "ABC Gallery" in San Francisco (whether sold only online or sold from a physical brick and mortar location), the dealer or merchant is required to provide the buyer with a written and signed disclosure which includes all relevant information, or risk the consequences (see below).
Information required by California law (probably the stiffest on the subject) to be disclosed by a dealer or merchant prior to the sale of a multiple:
- The name of the artist.
- If the artist's name appears on the multiple, a statement whether the multiple was signed by the artist personally.
- If the multiple was not signed by the artist personally, a statement of the source of the artist's name on the multiple such as whether the artist placed his signature on the multiple or on the master, whether his name was stamped or estate stamped on the multiple or on the master, or was from some other source or in some other manner placed on the multiple or on the master.
- A description of the medium or process and where pertinent, to photographic processes, the material used in producing the multiple such as whether the multiple was produced through the etching, engraving, lithographic, serigraphic or a particular method or material used in photographic developing processes.
- If the multiple is a photomechanical or photographic type of reproduction, or as to sculptures a surmoulage* or other form of reproduction of sculpture cases, of an image produced in a different medium, for a purpose other than the creation of the multiple being sold, a statement of this information and the respective mediums; and if this last statement applies, and the multiple is not signed, a statement whether the artist authorized or approved in writing the multiple or the edition of which the multiple being sold is one.
- If the artist was deceased at the time the master was made which produced the multiple, this must be stated.
- If the multiple is a "'posthumous" multiple, that is, if the master was created during the life of the artist but the multiple was produced after the artist's death, this must be stated.
- If the multiple was made from a master which produced a prior limited edition, or from a master which constitutes or was made from a reproduction or surmoulage of a prior multiple or the master which produced the prior limited edition, this must be stated as must the total number of multiples, including proofs, of all other editions produced from that master.
- The year the multiple was produced must be stated and whether the multiple is being offered as a limited edition, and if so:
- the authorized maximum number of signed or numbered impressions or both in the edition;
- the authorized maximum number of unsigned or unnumbered impressions or both, in the edition;
- the authorized maximum number of artist's, printer's, publisher's or other proofs, if any, outside of the regular edition; and
- the total size of the edition; and, finally, whether or not the master has been destroyed, effaced, altered, defaced or canceled after the current edition.
* Surmoulage: A second generation cast from an original
pattern or cast original; a duplicate of a cast. Used in sculpture, numismatics, etc.
Other states with similar laws on the books include New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Hawaii, Georgia, Oregon, and Maryland. California, New York, and Michigan have by far the toughest laws on the books to date. In essence, all of the multiples laws, though not uniform, require the art dealer or merchant to make certain disclosures in writing prior to a sale and in certain cases with the advertising or marketing of print multiples so that a buyer can make an educated and informed decision on a prospective purchase exceeding $100 (exclusive of the frame). It should be emphasized here that it is also the responsibility of the buyer to perform adequate due diligence to verify that the information disclosed by the art dealer is accurate prior to finalizing the purchase.
The laws regarding multiples are nothing new. The California code was enacted in 1971 and New York's in 1982. So why hasn't more been done and why aren’t these laws more publicized? Prior to the Information Age, or the advent of the Internet, it would have been an enormous and burdensome task to gather information, much less keep track of it all in one publicly accessible location. The multiples laws have lacked force until now primarily because there was no practical way of quickly and easily recording information about the production, manufacture, and sale of art prints or multiples. Until the founding of Fine Art Registry in 2000, no publicly accessible database or art registry existed and therefore no convenient, cost effective way to attempt to enforce the laws regarding print multiples.
The legislative intent behind the multiples laws was to eradicate print fraud. Fine Art Registry strongly advocates any measures which will abolish all of the fraudulent and deceptive practices in the trade. After all, the value of an art print does not turn on authorship alone. Rather it depends on a number of factors such as signatures, numbers, edition size, reputation of the artist and so on. Values are impacted significantly by these additional factors, making the unsigned and unnumbered print worth far less to a collector than a hand signed, numbered print.
Fine Art Registry™ Solutions
Tagging and Registration
The Fine Art Registry system of tagging and registering each piece of fine art or other collectible individually with a unique, tamper-evident tag and then registering that piece with a full description and photos lends itself perfectly to putting a halt to the abuses and deceit in the multiples market. If each artist makes a point of ensuring that every single limited edition print that he/she has made or authorized carries the Fine Art Registry tag and is registered in the Fine Art Registry database, both artist and buyers/collectors are protected. This alone adds tremendous legitimacy and value to a limited edition reproduction. Where this system is in use, there is no confusion, no abuse and no problem with the creation, marketing, selling and collecting of limited edition multiples.
However, this has now been taken one step further.
Fine Art Registry Multiples Certificate of Disclosure™
Fine Art Registry takes a keen interest in how the art market is affected by the ongoing abuse in the multiples market and is now taking steps to do something about it by enhancing our registration process to include a brand new, customizable, online multiples certificate of disclosure modeled after the California Civil Code (1740-1745.5). The new Multiples Certificate of Disclosure (MCOD) is offered to all printers, publishers, artists and other industry professionals who market, sell, produce and/or manufacture prints or multiples today. The MCOD will be available free of charge to Fine Art Registry members and the MCOD will only be valid when it is accompanied by the Fine Art Registry patented tagging system. (See the articles The Certificate of Authenticity: Rely on it at Your Own Risk and Certificates of Authenticity: Are They Worth the Paper They Are Printed On?)
The MCOD option will be activated for processing once a Fine Art Registry tag has been registered to the print or multiple for which an MCOD is required. In every case, each completed MCOD will be stored and permanently archived online in the Fine Art Registry database for future reference in addition to the MCOD created and printed by the member.
It is important that anyone who cares about preserving the integrity of the art print and multiples market be diligent about making proper disclosure and ensuring that the disclosure is indelible by using the Fine Art Registry tagging system, database, and Multiples Certificate of Disclosure.
Artists can now protect and have complete control over the production of their print multiples by making a permanent record of the work's existence, including tagging and registering each print produced in each edition at the time of its creation, prior to sale, or at the time of sale. Fine Art Registry is a powerful tool in the management of an artist's body of work because each individual registration record is date and time stamped the second it is processed into the database. Publishers and printers should consider adopting the same for their own commercial purposes by either adding the Fine Art Registry tagging system and MCOD to their business model or by requiring the artists they represent to take responsibility for their own body of work prior to the print leaving the printing or publishing facility. Retail galleries and other art industry professionals might also consider the same. In any case, the permanently recorded details of an art print bearing the applied Fine Art Registry patented tag, along with the accompanying Fine Art Registry MCOD is a sure winner for everyone involved in the often complicated process of producing and selling prints or multiples.
Look for a series of articles to be published in the future focusing on the nitty-gritty of the print and multiples industry, exposing the exploitation and abuse that plagues it, so that the general public, and artists and prospective collectors in particular, can take steps to arm themselves against what is occurring in the market, in order to protect against the illicit dealings and the rapid erosion and dilution of this vital and important sector of the art industry.
Coming in Part II of this series: Establishing the Fundamentals - What Constitutes a Print?
— by Theresa Franks
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January 14, 2008
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