Heller fake – Expert: “Damage to art market is irreversible”

Counterfeits are “a huge problem for the art market, comparable to corruption in politics. That undermines trust and spoils the enjoyment of art,” auctioneer Otto Hans Ressler explains his verdict to the APA. He sees part of the problem as “that the courts are handling these cases in a totally inappropriate way, even though the amounts involved are often high”. Proceedings in case of counterfeiting are regularly stopped. In any case, you can’t turn your nose up at Basquiat expert Dieter Buchhart, who convinced Heller with his story: “Any one of us can be wrong. Sometimes counterfeits are so good that even the artists themselves fall for them.”

Currently no summary proceedings at the Public Prosecution Service
Buchhart, whom Heller said he wanted to check his expertise, emphasized in a statement to APA: “During an interview with Mr. André Heller on June 1, 2016, Mr. Heller stated that the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat himself made a list of small fragments of drawings by Basquiat. I have not authenticated the frame and have never claimed to have done so.”

Attorney Oliver Plöckinger, who works in Linz and has been charged with “piracy and art forgery,” gave the APA a legal assessment of the current case. If you have made a work yourself and sold it under the pretext that it is from another artist, then the crime of fraud can be met, Plöckinger said in principle. Deception about facts, such as provenance, is necessary for fraud – for example, if one claims that the self-made work is a Basquiat. On the other hand, a mistake must have been made, such as buying a Basquiat and receiving a heller, and financial loss must occur. In addition, an enrichment resolution is required. “It may be enough to mislead the buyer,” Plöckinger said.

However, since Heller repurchased the frame, the grounds for waiving the “active remorse” fine could have been met. Here too there are conditions: full compensation for damages, which must be done voluntarily and in a timely manner – namely before a law enforcement agency is aware of the event. Then the criminal liability that had arisen would be lifted, there could be no more punishment. Indeed, in this case, that could be the case, as the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office has no ongoing investigations into the cause.

Initially drawing in the frame, later this one also sold
The “Falter” revealed on Wednesday that in 2017 a frame allegedly created by Basquiat in 1987, along with a portrait of the artist called “Untitled”, was offered for one million euros at the New York art fair Tefaf. While the painting’s authenticity is undisputed, Heller’s frame — which he presented in conversation with the expert Buchhart — came differently.

In the end, Heller admitted that it was about cheating on Buchhart. “Buchhart gave the impression of being the best Basquiat expert in the world. After he talked me and everyone else out of what he knew about Basquiat, the day came when I wanted to test him,” Heller told Falter: “In hindsight, it’s all a childish joke in the first place. Secondly, it is, of course, showing off.” At the time, there was no buyer in New York. “I wouldn’t have sold it either,” Heller claims in the “Falter” interview. Nevertheless, the Basquiat-Heller combo soon changed hands. Viennese artist manager Amir Shariat first bought the drawing for a customer, while the frame went back to Heller – until the customer bought the fake frame in 2018, according to “Falter” for 800,000 euros.

In any case, Heller has since repurchased the frame, as he confirmed to the “Kurier,” “because I didn’t want my reputation to be damaged by claims being called into question.” In “Falter” he had said, “I am a blessed man, and do not endanger me with an accusation of forgery.”