Eastbourne auctions has too many hidden treasures

Eastbourne auctions, from England, has a "Two day fine art sale" on 10 and 11 May 2018. It includes 360 paintings and prints.

What is amazing is the number of poorly described works, with unrecognised signatures, which, if genuine, would make this one of the best modern art sales of the year. How unlucky that both the owner(s) of the works, and the "Auctioneers & Valuers of Fine Art, Antiques & Collectables" (as they describe themselves) had so much trouble deciphering the signatures and attributing the paintings.

Unless of course they knowingly are selling fakes and are careful not to attribute the fakes to actual artists, hoping that the poor description and low estimate will dupe people into thinking they have uncovered some sleepers, some hidden gems, which the stupic auctioneer and seller didnt recognise. Could it be? No, of course not, knowingly selling fakes with such malicious intent would be criminal, so it must be that the auctioneers are simply extremely incompetent.

Some examples (the list, sadly, is not exhaustive).

Lot 1435 is "bearing a signature Goldbeg", estimated £100 to £200. Michael Goldberg, American abstract expressionist, comparable real works sell for $50,000.

Lot 1467 is "bearing a signature Kurt Schwithing", estimated at £150 to £250. Obviously signed "Kurt Schwitters". His abstract works fetch £100,000 and more.

Lot 1657 is "bearing a signature A L Hote", estimated at £50 to £80. You really have to make an effort not to see A Lhote (André Lhote) in this signature. No idea what this one would fetch if it was real, I haven't really found comparable works during my short search, but other works fetch 10s of thousands and more.

Lot 1648 is "bearing a signature A Han '59", estimated at £50 to £80. Hmm, could this be Jean-Michel Atlan (French, 1913-1960)? Value £20,000 to £30,000 (for a real one, that is).

Lot 1632 is "bearing a signature Marie", estimated at £80 to £120. It is made to look like a painting by Picasso from 1937 of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. While I can imagine an auctioneer not knowing Atlan or at a stretch Lhote, I have a hard time seeing a "valuer of fine art" not knowing this style or being unable to make the link. Another portrait of Walter from 1937 was the leading painting in a Sotheby's sale in February of this year, with an estimate "upon request" and a sale price of just shy of £50,000,000...

Lot 1627 is "bearing an indistinct signature Misse" and estimated at £200 to £300. The "indistinct signature" is rather clearly "H. Matisse"... A standing nude by Matisse starts at £500,000 or thereabouts.

Lot 1617 is  "bearing a signature De Komina", estimated £80 to £120. It is supposedly by Willem de Kooning, and worth some 100K for a real one.

Lot 1595 is "bearing a monogram Muntn" and estimated at £200 to £300. The signature is of Gabriele Münter, and if she really had pâinted something like this, it should be worth £100,000 or more.

.

If you want to, you can create your own blog post describing their "Carelle" (Corneille) "Bouher" (François Boucher, demonstrating that a major old master is more obviously a fake at first sight), "Feining" (Feininger), "Stilan" (Steinlen), "Jan...sky?" (Von Jawlensky), "a signature" (Chashnik),...

For some reason, they didn't bother to "misread" the signature on their "Munch", "Nolde", "Magritte" or "Jorn".

Misreading or not recognising an artist or signature happens at many auctions, and especially with older works the addition of aprocryphal signatures afterwards is commonplace. But I have never seen such a display of misreading signatures from truly major modern artists in one auction; if these were real, you would get a very, very nice start towards a museum of modern art for a few thousands pounds in total.

An auction house which claims to have fine art expertise but is this incompetent should probably just close its doors, as both buyers and sellers would be best advised to stay away from it at all costs.

It's also weird that some works which have been sold at the previous auction, are now again for sale. Like a "Louis Wain" (right...) sold for £220 in March, and now again for sale with the same description for £150 to £250.

Looking at the results from that previous comparable sale, I note that luckily most items fail to sell (well, "sell" for £40 or so, no idea if any real sale happened then); but some works seem to have fooled a buyer anyway. A "monogram CK" (which aims to be a work of Cal Kylberg, but fails) sold for £5400, which is £5350 too much. They also sold 2 "Kurt Schwitters" (hey, they knew the name then) at £380 each.

In January they sold quite a few things using this tactic, including another André Lhote (then read as "Alha O?", whatever) for £1200. Oh, and another one, this time signed "A Chote", for £2,200. They must be laughing their pants of cataloguing  these things. Mind you, you could just as easily have fooled your self into buying an "E B-J" drawing (no, they had no idea who that could be, never heard of Edward Burne-Jones, sorry!) for £3200, or a fake Alechinsky for £680 (which is now again for sale for £100 to £200, or are the fakers simply making multiple copies of the same work?).

Looking through my older blog posts, I notice that I have highlighted some Eastbourne works in the past, sometimes with reservations, sometimes just as a bargain. In retrospect, this was stupid, as those sales all had more or less the same problems as this current one does (athough this one seems to be the most blatant and featuring the biggest names). My advice from now on is never deal with Eastbourne auctions in any way.

Arturo Moradei

More from Eastbourne auctions on 8 May 2015: an "A. Moradei 72" painting, 38 by 25 cm, estimated at £200 to £300.

This is easily found: Arturo Moradei (1840-1901), a typical fin-de-siècle painter of good, commercial pieces. His works, though usually larger, fetch usually around 5,000 Euro (in Italy), so even for this smaller work with some condition issues the estimation seems very low. The above painting (48 by 38 cm), well-painted but less charming, fetched 2,600 Euro in 1996. But again, interest will mainly be in Italy, so in England it may be harder to sell, certainly when the author and age isn't indicated any better than this. UPDATE: sold for £370, above top estimate but still way cheap.

Publio Morbiducci

At Eastbourne auctions, they sell on 7 May 2015 a "political military interest" oil on canvas with a lot of inscriptions, including (according to the description) P Morbi DUCCI. Estimated at £30 to £50.

This turns out to be the name of the artist, Publio Morbiducci (1889-1963), an Italian sculptor, medalist and illustrator who seems to have worked for many organisations, mainly the Italian fascists between 1930 and 1945 (illustration pictured above), but the painting here is probably post-war and anti-war. It is a weak, probably later work by a good artist, and should fetch considerably more than the estimate based on his name alone, but his buyers are mainly Italian so whether any of them will find this painting tucked away in an English auction remains to be seen... A sculpture by him would be rated a lot higher though! UPDATE: sold for £25 only. I wonder if the buyer knows what he bought.

Copy of Carlo Dolci

At Eastbourne, they sell on 8 May 2015 a "Continental School" young woman, estimated at £2,000 to £3,000.

It is a copy of Carlo Dolci, "An allegory of poetry". A much better copy, attributed to the Studio of Dolci, fetched £9,375 at Christie's in 2014. But the one for sale now is highly decorative as well, and the estimate seems spot on. UPDATE: sold for £4,000, so the estimate was even a bit low.

Monamy marine

At Eastbourne Auctions, they sell on 8 May 2015 a "View of British warships, bears a signature" estimated at £80 to £120. It's relatively small, only 28 by 38 cm, which may account for its relative lack of detail.

The question is: haven't they recognised the signature, or do they believe it to be fake? The first seems unlikely, and the second a bit dishonest not to give any attempt at attribution. The signature clearly reads "Monamy", which can only be (intended to be) Peter Monamy.

A real similar Monamy scene fetches thousands of pounds: the above pictured was sold for £19,000 at Woolley & Wallis in December 2014. It was considerably larger, at 91 by 122 cm. Another one, midsized between these two, sold at Christie's in 2014 for £8,750.

The above sold at Christie's in 2010 for £109,000.

So, the subject is exactly right for the name given, and the painting is certainly well executed. The small scale may point to a final preparatory version before the large scale more polished one is undertaken. But of course, it may also be a reasonably skilled copyist with an added signature. Looking at the details in the background of the one for sale, it looks to be a really good work. The signature doesn't seem correct, from what I can glean from other websites, but it wouldn't be the first time that a fake signature has been added afterwards to a correct work, as a form of attribution.

In any case, the estimate is very low (unless they suspect that it's really modern in fact), even for an anonymous "style of Monamy" work of this quality one should pay closer to £500. UPDATE: amusingly, this sold for exactly £500!