A painting of Hanoi's Old Quarter by Bui Xuan Phai, whose paintings have been copied and sold at high prices in and outside the country. (Photo: redsvn.net) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Details on the biographies andcreative careers of painters and photographers should be compiled and publishedin order to ease the task of checking copyright and authenticity of theirworks.
That’s a common idea shared by dozens of participants at aworkshop held on July 18 the task of authenticating fine art and photographicworks.
The event, which was hosted by the Ministry of Culture,Sports and Tourism’s Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition Department, wasattended by culture managers, painters, photographers, fine art and photographyresearchers.
“Checking the authenticity of fine art works is a new taskin Vietnam,” said Vi Kien Thanh, director of the department.
“Staff at the Centre for Expertising Fine Art Works set uplast year have almost no experience in the field while the centre has no properequipment,” he said.
“In the meantime, domestic fine arts have developed withlots of exchange and trading activities,” he said.
“Hence the increasing demand for checking authenticity ofthe artworks by collectors, museums and individuals,” he said.
Thanh admitted that the task of checking authenticity offine art works is challenging, including the lack of proper legal articles onthe task.
“Vietnamese people tend to doubt or don’t want to recogniseothers’ capabilities. They also do not want to recognise referees, which isanother hindrance,” he said.
The centre has no proper equipment, so the task relies onhuman beings and machines owned by the Ministry of Public Security’s CriminalScience Institute.
“These are great obstacles that cannot be overcome soon,” hesaid.
Data bank on artists
Deputy Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum Bui ThiThanh Mai said the success of the art market depends on the trust in theauthenticity of art works.
“Recent scandals caused by fake paintings damage Vietnamesefine art,” she said.
Mai said one of the main reasons for the appearance of morefake paintings is that there are not enough materials to prove the paintingsare originals.
“There is no lab in the country to analyse details of thepaintings to examine the authenticity of the work,” she said.
“For a long time, many painters did not pay attention topromoting their styles or frequently used materials, so other people could notfigure out whether a painting was original or not,” she said.
“The lack of information has increased the number of fakeworks,” she added.
“I think materials on the origin of art works are veryimportant for checking the authenticity of artworks,” she said. “This is thefirst step in the task of expertising fine art works.”
Mai suggested painters and photographers themselves shouldcontribute information on their works to a data bank, which people can easilysearch.
“It’s a way to ensure their property and wisdom as well as away to advertise their name to the public most effectively. It’s likeinternational artists have been doing,” she said.
Collector Son Truong agreed with Mai’s opinion on setting upa data bank on painters and photographers to protect their copyright.
He suggest the centre should use the State budget to trainstaff in authentication.
He set up the website vanlangcentre.com.vn, offeringinformation on 32 Vietnamese contemporary artists, whose paintings hepossesses.
Duong Thu Hang, owner of Hanoi Studio Gallery, also agreedwith Mai’s suggestion.
She spoke about her own experience working with Koreancollectors.
She said many of her Korean friends said collectors boughtall paintings by Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1988) in Vietnamese galleries in the 1980sand 1990s, and there are now no more authentic paintings by the artist in Vietnam.
At the end of the workshop, Thanh confirmed that thedepartment will continue to run the centre until some individual ororganisation takes up the task.
“A State-run agency like our department should not do thistask to ensure objectivity and transparency,” he said.
“The department will immediately gather artists’ informationfor the data bank to ease authenticity of artworks in the future,” he said.
The department will also adjust the price for authenticationservices as in fact the expense is sometimes higher than the price of the painting.
The centre was set up in December 2018 to act as a refereein the fine art market after more fake paintings were discovered.-VNS/VNA
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