The Real And The Forged

Authentic and counterfeit pieces by Kjarval and others on display at the National Gallery

In 1997, Iceland’s art world was rocked by Stóra málverkafölsunarmálið — the Big Artwork Forgery Case — the discovery of fake paintings, falsely attributed to Icelandic fine art masters like Jóhannes S. Kjarval. By 1999, the case made it to the Supreme Court, with a gallery owner sentenced to six months jail time for his role in the scheme. More than 100 suspect works were under investigation.

Some of these forgeries found their way into the National Gallery of Iceland, all linked to the infamous case. Now, the museum’s latest exhibition, The Mystery of the Lumpfish and Other Stories of Fakes and Forgeries, puts them back in the spotlight — reminding visitors that many fakes are still circulating. I sat down with the curators, art historian Dagný Heiðdal and conservator Ólafur Ingi Jónsson, to learn more about the exhibition.

What’s on

“You thought we were quite intellectual and we would not do things like this? Of course, I would think so myself! It was on the market for so many years and nobody really did anything,” Ólafur Ingi laughs when I admit I knew nothing about the so-called “Big Forgery Case” before we met at the museum’s conservation studio.

“It’s very suspicious that Nína Tryggvadóttir at the same time — in the 30s, early 40s — made all these paintings.”

“Ólafur has been investigating this since the 90s. Now that he is retiring, we hope to get more information from him,” says Dagný. “He thinks there are many more forgeries out there but we don’t know how many.”

Rather than trying to cover all known forgeries in Iceland, The Mystery of the Lumpfish and Other Stories of Fakes and Forgeries revolves around nine stories. “We are showing fake and real paintings — real works by the artists alongside forgeries attributed to the same artist,” explains Dagný.

The paintings on display, some authentic, others forged, are by four celebrated artists — Jóhannes S. Kjarval, Svavar Guðnason, Nína Tryggvadóttir and Ásgrímur Jónsson. “Not only are they the best known [Icelandic artists], both in Iceland and abroad, but also they were faked the most,” Ólafur Ingi says with a grin.

The forged paintings belong to three collections — the National Gallery’s own collection, the private collection of Þorvaldur Guðmundsson and Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir that was gifted to the gallery, and another gift from Íslandsbanki. One of the paintings comes from private ownership.

Every fake in the exhibition can be traced back to the Big Forgery Case. Ólafur Ingi breaks down the two types of forgeries on display.

“Some are fakes that were made from scratch or, if they’re supposed to be an oil painting, they were painted over existing work,” he says. By doing this, forgers could reuse old stretchers, frames, and canvases. “However, the paint itself is modern — usually a synthetic alkyd-based paint. Often, the original works already exhibited age cracking, and they were overpainted in that condition,” he adds.

“The other kind of fakes involve taking works by existing artists or unknown artists and manipulating them by overpainting or cutting off the original signature and applying a new one,” Ólafur Ingi says.

Beneath the surface

The exhibition isn’t set up yet, but Dagný opens her laptop to give me a sneak peek. On the screen, four still lifes are displayed, all said to be by Nína Tryggvadóttir. Three of them were sold by the same auction house. “When you look at it now, you probably see they are very different,” she says. “It’s very suspicious that Nína Tryggvadóttir at the same time — in the 30s, early 40s — made all these paintings. Óli has been looking very closely at the paintings and using ultraviolet light and X-rays and found out there’s another signature under the Nína Tryggvadóttir signature, a signature of a Danish woman called Herdis.”

Each story will be accompanied by a text and photos of how the forgery was revealed, photos of the back of the painting, the original signature discovered underneath.

Dagný and Ólafur Ingi tell me that all fakes that will be on display were sold in one auction house in Iceland or they were sold in Denmark by two international auction houses. This confirms that professionals were selling them.

“But the fakes in this case are not very good. And that’s also the problem — we are not dealing with fakes that are very well done, or you admire them,” Ólafur Ingi says. “It is quite the opposite. You are really disgusted by how bad fakes could be brought to the market and bought.”

The curators rely on five key criteria to determine an artwork’s authenticity: the artist’s intent, historical context, stylistic traits, material analysis, and documentation or provenance. “To authenticate a real artwork, it must meet at least four out of five criteria without doubt. Most of these don’t meet any,” says Ólafur Ingi.

Forgeries don’t just vanish

“Our main purpose with the exhibition is to make people think about this,” says Dagný. “Not that long ago, everyone in Iceland was talking about this case [Stóra málverkafölsunarmálið], but now there is a new generation that doesn’t know anything about it and is not aware of the fakes that are circulating. We want to remind people that the fakes don’t disappear by themselves.”

Ólafur Ingi nods. “We are telling stories of only nine works. I have said in public that many many more of them might still be in the ownership of people who don’t know what to do with them. If your mother or father bought a fake, that’s probably something they wouldn’t advertise.”

To deepen the public understanding, the National Gallery will offer an accompanying course on art forgeries. Held in Icelandic, the course welcomes anyone interested in history, visual art, or mystery of forgeries.

“A lot of people are fascinated by stories like this,” Ólafur Ingi adds with a smile. “In the art world, it’s often these stories rather than the real stories behind a real artwork that interest people.”

The Mystery of the Lumpfish and Other Stories of Fakes and Forgeries opens at the National Gallery of Iceland on April 12 and runs until September 14.