Faux Phai Fiasco

Anyone considering getting out of Vietnamese stocks in favor of alternative investments should think carefully, especially when it comes to the art market.

As many have known for some time and as a recent case has exposed the art market in Vietnam is full of fakes...

Fee, Phai, faux…

The problem is that the market is inundated with fakes, or ‘faux Phai’ paintings, as they are now known. Nobody can be sure how much work Phai produced, but by the mid-nineties every gallery and art shop in Hanoi seemed to be selling Phai street paintings, most of which had not been painted by him. According to Phai’s son, Bui Danh Phuong, also an artist, Sotheby’s, the world’s second oldest auction house, in Hong Kong has been taken in after auctioning off faux Phais earlier this month and also last April.

Phuong has sent five letters to Sotheby’s but has yet to receive a reply. He is now making a stand and threatening legal action. “I have known about this for a long time, but I have to speak up now,” says Phuong. “I feel disappointed as Sotheby’s claims to have experienced painting appraisers, yet they have been deceived by forgeries.” Sotheby’s recently had five Bui Xuan Phai pictures listed on its website, four of which were fakes, says Phuong.

There were two pictures of Cheo (Vietnamese opera) and two streets scenes. The sole genuine picture was named Red Cat, which Phai drew on a post-card for his friends during Tet Nguyen Dan (Lunar New Year festival). In my amateurish opinion I imagine Phai’s simple and rugged style leaves his work susceptible to forgery but Phuong is dismissive of the fake Cheo paintings.

“The artists don’t understand anything about Phai’s paintings. They drew awkwardly,” he says. Yet these paintings were put up for sale at a Sotheby’s auction recently and sold for a combined fee of $40,255. After Phuong announced his intention to sue the auction house all information about the five pictures was suddenly removed from the firm’s website. In April Sotheby’s auctioned six paintings by Bui Xuan Phai, which Phuong also claims were fakes, for a total price of more than $232,500.

According to Phuong one lacquer painting, which sold for $106,571, is just a knock off version of an oil painting titled Before performing Cheo, which is sitting in Vietnam’s Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi. He says another picture Tran Thinh, which sold for $64,841, is a copy of a piece owned by Tham Don Thu, a Viet Kieu living in France. “The fake picture is dated 1971, but I saw the original drawn in 1974 with my own eyes,” says Phuong.

The son of the artist has promised to pursue his case against Sotheby's but this could be a messy and expensive proposition.

Meanwhile under a cloud of suspicion the works of Bui Xuan Phai and ALL Vietnamese artists are now declining in value due to significant "market risks."

Looks like the son has even launched a couple websites to support his crusade:

www.buithanhphuong.com

Official site of Bui Xuan Phai

Stay tuned...