“Forgeries” of Parajanov’s work removed from auction

Published: Saturday June 20, 2009

Sergei Parajanov at home in Tbilisi . parajanov.com

Hours before artwork attributed to famed Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov was scheduled to go on sale in London on June 11, it was withdrawn.

MacDougall Arts Ltd Auction withdrew the works to be presented under Russian Art after extensive correspondence with parajanov.com's Martin M. Vartanov. The site serves as a reference and educational resource and includes photos of the artwork whose provenance is still unknown. According to Mr. Vartanov, they have not been able yet to determine who created the "forged" Parajanov pieces, nor the names of the present or past owners of the works.

MacDougall Arts Ltd do not accept the view that the pieces are fake, but "err on the side of caution and only include works in which they are very confident."

Mr. Vartanov, in e-mail correspondence with the Armenian Reporter, said that they are currently investigating several collages in London, France, and Russia, which they believe to be fake and "hope to expose the people behind the operation and most importantly stop these works from being manufactured."

The withdrawal of the artwork in question will undoubtedly help prevent future sales of unauthenticated art claimed to be by Sergei Parajanov. The six collages that were to go on auction included, "Lady Serving Tea," "Lady with Vase with Flowers," "Lady with a Mirror," "Princess with Butterflies," and "Princess of Taj Mahal." The auction house listed the works as belonging to a "private collection" from France. Mr. Vartanov apparently received an anonymous letter from France informing him that the collages were brought from Tbilisi, Georgia. On March 25, 2009 an apparently fake Parajanov collage titled "Composition I" was sold at the Aguttes Auction in France for 10,201 euros.

On June 15, 2007, a collage, "Last Supper," claimed to be by Parajanov sold for 89,950 pounds ($178,000) at the MacDougall Arts Ltd Auctions in London.

In 2003, parajanov.com reported about a large exhibition of "fake" Parajanov collages on display from December 1, 2002, to March 16, 2003, at Rutgers University's Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum. The artwork apparently had come from the collection of Norton and Nancy Dodge, collectors of Soviet nonconformist art. The Zimmerli Museum's catalogue stated that some collages in their exhibition were jointly made "by Sergei Parajanov and Valerii Boyakjian," and several were "attributed" to Parajanov. When asked by parajanov.com to confirm when and where the Dodges had acquired the works, the Zimmerli Museum didn't provide that information.

The specialists at parajanov.com believe that there are several persons involved in making forged collages in the United States, Russia, Georgia, and Armenia. As there are few artworks that can become available and as the number of fakes continues to increase, they strongly recommend doing very extensive research before acquiring any work said to be by Sergei Parajanov.

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info@parajanov.com
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macdougallauction.com