Fake calligraphy and painting are sold at sky-high prices, and the level of counterfeiters is confusing.

Under the command of the Ministry of Public Security, Zunyi police in Guizhou cracked a case of counterfeiting famous paintings and calligraphy. With the investigation of the case, the shocking chaos in the calligraphy and painting market was also unveiled.

A large number of counterfeit famous paintings were found in the fake dens, and the profit was more than 7 million yuan.

20 15 a Swiss businessman in Taiwan Province spent more than 30 million yuan to buy more than 20 landscape paintings of Wu Xiu, which were later identified as imitations.

20 17 a criminal gang headed by Zhang emerged.

The police found a large number of fake paintings and calligraphy works, semi-finished products, seals and special Xuan paper, brush, paper and ink in Zhang's home and calligraphy shop. Because of Zhang's guidance in his early years, he has a better understanding of the characteristics of his paintings and is more convenient to copy them.

People who buy fake paintings from Zhang are mainly used to give them away, decorate their faces, or send them to auction houses after further packaging. In the past few years, Zhang illegally made more than 7 million yuan.

How does a fake painting become an "original"?

Link 1: The counterfeiters have a high degree of simulation.

Many people in the industry know that Zhang's paintings are matched with Zheng's words, and the degree of simulation is enough to confuse the painter himself.

Zheng is a "master" in the field of calligraphy counterfeiting, especially good at the calligraphy of famous artists such as Linyi, Liu Wenxi, Ouyang and so on. A businessman surnamed Li once paid him 6,543,800 yuan and took away more than 200 calligraphy works he imitated.

In the communication between Zheng and businessman Li, the only appraiser of calligraphy and painting is Xu. Because he was worried that Zheng's imitation of calligraphy was not good enough, Xu had to give him some advice.

Li, a businessman, bought 654.38 million yuan of fake calligraphy and painting from another "master" Wang who made and sold celebrity calligraphy and painting at a price of 654.38 million yuan.

Wang is in his fifties this year and was born in a senior intellectual family in Beijing. I have been obsessed with painting since I was a child and have received face-to-face instruction from many famous painters and painters. Wang is good at copying the works of famous contemporary painters such as Xu Beihong, Qi Baishi and Li Keran. Many of his works have been sold at high prices in many auction houses.

Link 2: The auction house added fuel to the fire.

Around 2000, with the rapid prosperity of auction houses in China, auction houses began to become an important channel for fake calligraphy and painting to whitewash their identities. According to the investigation of the task force, Wang sent hundreds of fake calligraphy and paintings through intermediaries, and successfully took 87 pictures. Wang illegally made tens of millions of yuan.

For these intermediaries around him, Wang will also agree on different sharing ratios according to their connections and abilities. For those who can sell their works at a high price, Wang usually gives them 40%-50% of the transaction price as a reward. According to Wang's account, a masterpiece of Li Keran that he forged was sold for more than 30,000 yuan in 20 16.

Because there is an exemption clause for the authenticity of auction house products in the Auction Law, many auction houses will also sell genuine products, which also makes many counterfeiters regard auction houses as an important way to wash away the identity of fake paintings.

In this case, some auction house staff take the initiative to participate in the crime of making and selling fake goods in order to increase their performance and seek illegal benefits. The suspect Zhou is an employee of a large auction company. He used his classmate relationship with Zheng to collect a batch of fake paintings and calligraphy works from Zheng and Wang, and illegally made hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Link 3: Specialization of making and selling fake goods

20 13, a landscape painting signed by Li Keran was sold at an auction in Beijing for more than 50 million yuan. Wang confessed that he copied the painting on 1992. How did such fake works enter the high-end art market through layers of packaging?

These fake calligraphy and painting packaging methods mainly include the following:

(1) Mounting skills: splicing genuine and fake paintings.

The real fake painting is to cut out the worthless calligraphy and painting of a famous painter, and then make up a copy of a valuable or marketable theme, and then the painter splicing the two together, which is commonly known as "Wang Zuo Brokeback" in the industry. Without special means, it is difficult for appraisers to find that this is a spliced fake painting.

(2) defrauding or purchasing an appraisal certificate.

Counterfeiters take high-value imitations to auction companies and fabricate stories, such as the certification of famous painters' families, the certification of experts and masters, and even invite some famous artists to inscribe on the imitations. According to the original price, the normal value of this auction is 500 thousand, and with the inscription of XXX, it may reach 800 thousand.

Take Wang's fake paintings of more than 50 million yuan as an example. Because the painting was completed more than ten years later than the original, in order to imitate it more realistically, he specially asked someone to mount it. Mounting plays an important role in calligraphy and painting fraud.

In 2009, Wang asked his friend Ye Moumou to take this painting, found Li Keran's family and defrauded the relevant appraisal certificate.

Later, Wang handed the fake painting and the appraisal certificate to a businessman for shooting. Two days later, the businessman reported to Wang that he was going to sell it at the price of 1 1 10,000 yuan, and Wang got 5 million yuan. And this painting, after changing hands layer by layer, sold for a sky-high price of 52.32 million yuan in 20 13.

Forgers are not ashamed of making fakes, but proud of making fakes.

During the investigation, the police found that many people involved in the case generally lacked legal awareness, and the chaos in these industries was the unspoken rules of the industry by default, and they were not ashamed of counterfeiting. On the contrary, they are proud of their superb level of fraud.

The person in charge of the public security organ said that in order to stop the forgery of calligraphy and painting, it is necessary to further strengthen the supervision of laws, regulations and policies in the market, educate employees in the legal system and raise people's awareness of the dangers of forgery, which not only hurts the order of our China cultural market, but also affects the international reputation of our calligraphy and painting market.