For snart halvandet år siden gik www.artfakes.dk i dvale. I de foregående ca. 18 måneder afsløredes på artfakes.dk hundredvis af groteske forfalskninger fortrinsvis på ebay.com. Her 17-18 måneder efter den midlertidige lukning (overvejer at starte igen, da der fortsat sælges grove falsknerier) besøges siden dagligt af 300-400 unikke læsere. Og så godt som dagligt skriver læsere til artfakes.dk. Et af brevene, modtaget 20.12. 2007, gengives herunder.
Hi - just wanted to thank you for your website, and the fact that you do name some of the worst offenders.

I recently made the winning bid on a watercolour listed by c20th-paintings on Ebay. There were a few red flags (private buyer ID, wording of the listing, quality of the painting), but I decided to go ahead and bid, out of curiousity, so I could find out who the seller was. Once I won I got their contact information: Palm Beach Gallery (not listed in the Melbourne phone book).

A simple google search also led me to who Palm Beach Gallery may or may not be aka, Benton Beauvasi Fine Art, also in Melbourne http://bentonbeauvasifineart.com/paintings.html where the art is listed as....you got it....c20th paintings! At least on their own website they're honest enough to admit the art they sell is "in the manner of" - for 10x the prices on Ebay, of course! (Benton Beauvasi - if I'm wrong to make these connections, please let me know, and I'd be more than happy to retract these comments).

Is Melbourne really a hot bed of fake artists, or are Palm Beach Gallery and Benton Beauvasi Fine Art one and the same?

A bit more digging led me also, more happily, to artfakes.dk

I've made a fraud report to Ebay (funny that Ebay doesn't actually list "art fraud" as one of its "complain to us and we'll fix it" options, though).

Thanks again - you just saved me a good bit of money!


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