Zimbabwe

_{Posted on Monday 25-06-2007}

Fake art fake dealers

By martin chemhere

Harare, Zimbabwe

_{Internationally well connected and rich art pirates, who have long known the importance and value of Zimbabwean stone sculpture have once again targeted leading names in the industry thereby threatening the future of the world famous and internationally acclaimed art form.}

_{The pirates, who work with the assistance of local and usually unknown and emerging artists, target established names due to their marketability in far off corners of the globe such as Europe, USA and Australia. Emerging markets for fake contemporary Zimbabwean art are now known to exist in the Asian belt countries namely China, Indonesia and Hong Kong.}

_{Zimbabwe’s leadings stone sculptors, Dominic Benhura and Colleen Madamombe, are the latest to have their work pirated out of the country by crooked means. This is happening at a time when the visionary artist (Benhura) is at his peak, creating some of the most beautiful and original works in the history of local sculpture, winning accolades at home and abroad, and earning unprecedented recognition among leading contemporary names of the world. Normally, the international art dealers, who are wicked in all their dealings, work in cahoots with hungry young sculptors in Zimbabwe, most of whom are oblivious of the dangers posed by the act of dealing in fake art. According to Dominic Benhura, the fake dealers come to the country, identify young artists normally those who would have worked at his studio in Harare as assistants –then go away to do their own work or be at the disposal of the fake sculpture promoters.}

_{The vastly talented Benhura expressed anger at the way some international art dealers have turned out to destroy Zimbabwe’s renowned art of sculpture. “Some one who knows me tipped me that there was a buyer from Europe who was working with some local sculptors to produce my work. I was told that they had made photocopies of sculpture photographs in one of my published books. I then went around with the police and we managed to discover about 30 pieces but to my surprise the art works were released to the same person who is involved in the promotion of the copied works.}

_{“It is disturbing that the local police could actually do that when I was trying to bring the culprit to book through legal action,” he said with a sorrowful voice. Benhura said he had identified the pieces as copies carefully produced to resemble his creations. The 39-year-old artist has made a big name overseas such that his work is now much sought after by art dealers worldwide. Because of this, his work has over the years attracted art dealers who among them have decided to use unethical means – paying young artists in foreign currency to lure them to reproduce it. It is saddening that these copied sculptures end up being traded as genuine art to some unsuspecting buyers eager to acquire works by leading Zimbabwean sculptors.}

_{On the other side, young artists who have failed to make it or are impatient to make it in the often-challenging art market are readily available to be used for a payday in foreign currency, a scarce and attractive resource in Zimbabwe for some years now.}

_{In the same period, Benhura had to alert one of Zimbabwe’s top female sculptors, the legendary Colleen Madamombe of the same art dealer who had planned to visit her. “They want to purchase few genuine ones so that they can later claim in court that they are all genuine because the fake art dealer is fully aware he is engaging in procuring our art using unethical and illegal means”, he said. According to Dominic Benhura the fake dealer whom he identified only as “a Belgian” was planning to use a local person to buy from Colleen Madamombe.}

_{The re-emergence of the copy sculpture business of late could be attributed to the harsh economic challenges persisting in a country hard hit by declining tourist arrivals from the traditional art market strongholds of USA, Germany, Holland, UK and France. The Asian market, which looks promising, has not yet begun to yield good results and from the look of things may take long to match the appetite posed by “westerners” in the 90s.}

_{Furthermore, the proliferation of a fake sculpture sector bodes badly for the international acceptance of stone sculpture. Dangers are that the international markets will be flooded with fakes, normally produced in thousands, thus devaluing the value of genuine contemporary sculpture as so called collectors of the contemporary would not be able to distinguish between fake art and genuine one. In this regard, it is important for local artists, art galleries, promoters and the government and not for profit institutions to start educating emerging visual artists about the dangers of copying other artists’ works.}     

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