As Latin American Art Prices Rise, So Does Forgeries

          By CRISTINA CARLISLE

               Ramón Cernuda, a Miami-based publisher and passionate collector
               of modern Cuban painting, recalls his first encounter with the
          shadowy world of art forgery. But there was nothing murky about the
          setting: it was the mid-80's, in an elegant Miami home whose owner was a
          private dealer from one of Cuba's most patrician expatriate families.
          Therefore, he had no reason to doubt that the painting by Wilfredo Lam
          (1902-82) being offered to him for $200,000 was anything but an original
          by the acclaimed Cuban artist.

          But even as he was negotiating the purchase,
          he sent a photograph of the work to the
          artist's widow, Lou Lam, to have it
          authenticated. The work turned out to be a
          copy, and Cernuda learned that the dealer
          had tried to force Lam into accepting money
          in exchange for her endorsement. He was
          outraged.

          Over the years, however, Cernuda's anger
          continued to mount as he saw fake paintings
          inundate the Latin American market. Despite
          the traditional secrecy with which most
          collectors like to shield themselves, Cernuda
          decided to speak out, and he has become
          one of the leading crusaders against forgery.

          "In the 80's the fake market was restricted to the occasional imitation of
          works by Lam, but now there is a veritable epidemic of fake paintings by
          Cuban masters from the 20's through the 60's," Cernuda said.
          "Unfortunately, extortion and bribery are very much a part of this
          universe."

          Indeed, many collectors, dealers and museum curators agree that the
          recent boom in prices for Latin works has created a parallel fake market,
          particularly for modern Cuban masters. Mary-Anne Martin, a Manhattan
          dealer who founded Sotheby's Latin American department in 1977 and
          was its head until 1982, said that a growing demand from affluent
          Cuban-American families in Florida for modern Cuban paintings was
          accounting for their dramatic rise in value. "As soon as art starts to get
          valuable, the fake market begins," she said.

          But it's not just Cuban art. Martin said she had detected a number of
          forgeries of Mexican works. There is some Mexican art so obviously fake
          that she is identifying the different hands of specific forgers, she said. "I am
          offered at least one false Frida Kahlo a month, and I have more copies of
          Diego Rivera in my files than real ones," she said.

          The forgers are apparently getting bolder: even the sloppiest imitations
          find their way at times into auction houses in Spain and the United States,
          and across Latin America. Last November, for example, Christie's
          opened an evening sale of Latin American art in New York by
          announcing the withdrawal of six lots, all by Cuban modern masters,
          because there were doubts about their authenticity. The questioned works
          involved two paintings by Mario Carreño, two by René Portocarrero and
          two by Esteban Chartrand.

          "One of the forged works was dated four years after the artist's death,"
          lamented Cernuda.

          "Another carried a false authentification certificate."

          Christie's had previously been embarrassed, in 1993, by having to print a
          new catalogue after its cover turned out to be a picture of a copy of a
          painting by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero, rather than the original.
          Botero insisted on having the copy destroyed, and a videotape was made
          of the artist and Martin taking a knife to it at a lawyer's office in New
          York.

          Many Boteros are said to be copied in Asia. Martin said a friend traveling
          through Saigon had come across a workshop where skilled craftsmen
          were reproducing Boteros from photographs.

          "We try to investigate as thoroughly as possible," said Fernando
          Gutiérrez, director of the Latin American department at Christie's. "But
          sometimes we receive information after the works are published in the
          catalogue. This is regrettable but can happen at any auction house."

          Both Christie's and Sotheby's withdrew works by Antonio Berni, an
          Argentine artist, from their November 1996 catalogues when they proved
          to be false. Since Berni works are reaching the $1 million figure, Ruth
          Benzacar, the Buenos Aires dealer who handles his estate, has just
          established an authentification committee.

          Some experts point to Cuba as the origin of many of the forgeries
          detected in the market. El País, the Spanish daily, recently reported that
          the Guardia Civil had broken up a ring of con men last December who
          were smuggling forged paintings into Spain from Cuba. Four are under
          arrest. Among the 22 paintings uncovered by the police were works,
          deemed fake by experts, that were supposedly by Picasso and Miró and
          Cuban masters like Pelaez, Víctor Manuel, Carreño and Mariano
          Rodríguez.

          "Works sold with the authorization of Cuba's National Museum of Fine
          Arts carry an authentification certificate, and our customs officers are very
          strict," said Lilian Llanes, director of the Wilfredo Lam House of Havana
          and president of the Havana Biennial. "The problem is that international
          interest in treasures of Cuban art has generated a huge unofficial market of
          false works that may find their way abroad."

          Finally, some experts conclude that a lack of in-depth knowledge of Latin
          American art is a major factor . "The Latin market has become too huge,
          and expertise is fragmented; there just aren't experts who cover the entire
          art spectrum," said Mario Gilardoni, a leading Buenos Aires art market
          consultant.