Authenticity of African Art and Oriental Carpets

Hello,

Recently on www.turkotek.com Mike Tschebul and Steve Price commented on the subject of authenticity and Steve related it to African art. I was intrigued when I found an article on the subject and wondered how our museums or our collections would do if subject to the same scrutiny.

The Saint John Museum hired a consultant, Marc Félix, to review it's African Art Collection. Marc Félix summed up the collection when he said, "I would... recommend that you no further spend any money on this embarrassing collection which is an insult to your museum, your staff and the people of Africa." Felix described 1/3 of the collection as "absolute fantasies. They are not even copies of types of figures and masks that exist."He went on to say, "20 percent of the items -- about 140 -- are real; that is, they were used in rituals."

What then is real? What is collectable? Does anybody care? Therefore I put out for comment is there or should there be a standard for authenticity in the determination of valuation and collectability.

Best wishes,
Barry

Sources:

Canadian art museum contains numerous fakes (Aug. 29)

Tschebul/Price thread http://www.turkotek.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=Salon39&Post=2&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session=

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