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Fake art dealers hit Zimbabwe
Martin Chemhere, The Herald (Zimbabwe)
January 29, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801290333.html

Once again, talented artists in Zimbabwe are facing a major threat from internationally well connected fake art dealers who have long known the value of Zimbabwean stone sculpture and created a market for fake contemporary Zimbabwean in Europe and the US as well as emerging markets in the Far East. Bringing these international and well connected culprits to book seem like an insurmountable task for the artists.

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 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 because of their marketability in Europe, US 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.

One of Zimbabwe's leading female stone sculptor, Colleen Madamombe, is the latest victim. In the past Dominic Benhura was the biggest victim.

Benhura's art was targeted at a time when the visionary artist was 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 work in cahoots with hungry young sculptors in Zimbabwe, most of whom are oblivious of the dangers of dealing in fake art.

According to Benhura, the fake dealers come into 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. "Someone who knows me tipped me that there was a buyer from Europe who was working with some local sculptors to reproduce 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.

Benhura said he had identified the pieces as copies carefully produced to resemble his creations.

The 39-year-old 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 hand, 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 in order to earn foreign currency.

The legendary Madamombe, who was alerted by Benhura of the fake art dealers' visit, said:

"They want to purchase few genuine ones so that they could 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." According to Benhura the fake dealer whom he identified only as "a Belgian" was planning to use a local person to buy from Madamombe.

The re-emergence of the copy sculpture business of late could be attributed to the decline in numbers of buyers from the traditional art market strongholds of US, Germany, Holland, UK and France and the emergency of Asian market, which looks promising.

Furthermore, the proliferation of a fake sculpture sector does not bode well for the international acceptance of Zimbabwean stone sculpture.

Dangers are that the international markets will be flooded with fakes, normally produced in their thousands, thus devaluing the value of genuine contemporary sculpture as so-called collectors of the contemporary art would not be able to distinguish between genuine and fake art.

In this regard, it is important for local artists, art galleries, promoters and the Government and not-for-profit institutions to educate emerging visual artists about the dangers of copying other artists' works.

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