The Faun
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''The Faun'' is a
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
by British
forger Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdict ...
Shaun Greenhalgh Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) is a British artist and former art forger. Over a seventeen-year period, between 1989 and 2006, he produced a large number of forgeries. With the assistance of his brother and elderly parents, who fronted the sale ...
. He successfully passed it off as a work by
Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
, selling it at
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
for £20,700 in 1994. Three years later, in 1997, it was bought by the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
for an undisclosed sum, thought to be about $125,000. It was hailed by them as "one of its most important acquisitions in the last twenty years."Bailey, Martin (December 12, 2007)
"Revealed: Art Institute of Chicago Gauguin sculpture is fake"
''The Art Newspaper''. December 12, 2007. Archived fro
the original
on December 15, 2007.
For a decade the sculpture remained on display, and was part of a major joint exhibition on Gauguin with the
van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened o ...
in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. However, following revelations about its existence at Greenhalgh's trial in 2007, ''The Faun'' was tracked down by ''
The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...
'' to
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and exposed as a fake. In October 2007, the Art Institute removed the statue from display, and announced that it was seeking compensation from Sotheby's. What the ultimate fate of ''The Faun'' is to be has not yet been revealed.Vogel, Carol (December 13, 2007)
"Work Believed a Gauguin Turns Out to Be a Forgery"
''New York Times''. Accessed December 14, 2007.


Background to the forgery

In the early to mid 1990s, Shaun Greenhalgh was predominately involved with paintings. He sold a
Samuel Peploe Samuel John Peploe (pronounced PEP-low; 27 January 1871 – 11 October 1935) was a Scottish Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the ...
, but in particular he was successful with his
Thomas Moran Thomas Moran (February 12, 1837 – August 25, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family, wife Mary Nimmo Moran and daughter Ruth, took ...
s. He sold one to
Bolton Museum Bolton Art Gallery, Library & Museum is a public museum, art gallery, library and aquarium in the town of Bolton, England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The museum, Bolton Museum, is housed within the grade II listed Le Mans ...
in 1994 and at
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
auctions in 1995 he sold seven, and is reckoned to have produced as many as 40. Yet at the same time, he must have been researching the possibility of at least one Gauguin work. As well as ''The Faun'', he is known to have also forged a Gauguin vase, possibly at a later date. Gauguin is significantly less well regarded for his sculptures than for his paintings. It is likely that Greenhalgh was aware of that, and saw it as an opportunity. Forgers typically focus on the lower priced artworks of major artists, for though they offer fewer returns, they are subject to much less scrutiny. Moreover, Gauguin himself had left just enough of a record to indicate he may have been interested in producing such an item, a drawing of a
faun The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts ( genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before t ...
sculpture in a
sketchbook A sketchbook is a book or pad with blank pages for sketching and is frequently used by artists for drawing or painting as a part of their creative process. Some also use sketchbooks as a sort of blueprint for future art pieces. The exhibiti ...
from 1887. This was backed up by suggestive historical events: at a Gauguin exhibition in 1906, a "faun
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
" was displayed, and another listing for a work entitled "Faun" was found for a 1917 Nunes and Fiquet gallery exhibition. Scholars in the 1960s dutifully recorded these possibilities. Even in 2007, experts were still uncertain about how many ceramic sculptures Gauguin had actually produced. Estimates range from 55 to 80. Of these, between 30 and 60 are thought to be lost or destroyed.Storch, Charles; Artner, Alan (December 21, 2007)
"Taken in by a complete fake"
''Los Angeles Times''. Accessed December 24, 2007.
Greenhalgh was adept at obtaining and working in a wide variety of materials, and not only used a
stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...
that fitted in well with what Gauguin demonstrably used, he managed to produce something "which had no obvious features to reveal it as a modern fake". At 47 cm, it was modest, yet typically sized for a Gauguin. The gallery caption of ''The Faun'' read "unglazed stoneware with touches of gold
gilding Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
".Art Institute of Chicago
''The Faun'' (slide 02)
in ''Slideshow: Van Gogh and Gauguin: The studio of the south''. Art Institute of Chicago. September 22, 2001. Archived from the original on June 12, 2007.
Use of the gold gilding was deft; it was similar to investments Greenhalgh had made on previous forgeries. In 1991, for example, he is thought to have melted down genuine Roman silver coins when reconstructing the Risley Park Lanx.Chadwick, Edward (November 17, 2007)
"Antiques rogues show: update 3"
''The Bolton News''. Accessed November 30, 2007.
Any anomalies in ''The Faun'' that were detected were explained away.


Sold twice over

In 1995, ''The Faun'' was sold at
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
for £20,700. The Greenhalghs, who worked together as a family, had constructed a
provenance Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...
based around Olive Greenhalgh (Shaun's mother), using her maiden name "Roscoe". She claimed to be a descendant of Roderick O'Conor, a friend of Gauguin's purported to have bought the sculpture at the 1917 exhibition, and known to have bought at least one other. Legitimising their ownership through inheritance was a typical ploy of the Greenhalghs, as was forging documents to go with it.Kelly, James (November 16, 2007)
"Fraudsters who resented the art market"
BBC News. Accessed November 17, 2007.
In this case, Olive produced a copy of the sale invoice. There were no concerns about authenticity. As well as being well received by Sotheby's itself, ''The Faun'' was authenticated by the
Wildenstein Institute The Wildenstein Institute was a French art institute that published ''catalogues raisonnés'' and scholarly inventories. History The institute was founded in 1970 by Daniel Wildenstein as the ''Fondation Wildenstein'', and it was renamed the Wil ...
in Paris. Their
catalogue raisonné A (or critical catalogue) is an annotated listing of the works of an artist or group of artists and can contain all works or a selection of works categorised by different parameters such as medium or period. A ''catalogue raisonné'' is normal ...
had not yet been published when the sculpture was sold on 30 November, but the auction house had received a letter two weeks beforehand indicating ''The Faun's'' incorporation. The first buyers were experienced London
art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...
s Howie and Pillar. They lived with it for years and described it as "a wonderful object". When the
curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...
for the Art Institute of Chicago, Douglas Druick, saw ''The Faun'' he was reportedly "intrigued" and "very keen to acquire it". Subsequently, the Art Institute carried out their own research into the authenticity of the item and purchased it in 1997, for what was thought to be about $125,000. However, to this day, the Art Institute has refused to reveal actual details of the price it paid. What is known is that the purchase was funded, at least in part, by the Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment and is associated with the estate of Suzette Morton Davidson. At any rate, the Art Institute plans to seek compensation from Sotheby's."Art Institute's statement regarding Paul Gauguin's ''The Faun''"
Art Institute of Chicago. Accessed December 24, 2007.


The "good sculpture"

Purchase of ''The Faun'' was proclaimed as a great success. Chief curator Douglas Druick declared it Gauguin's "first ceramic". In 2001, The Art Institute sculpture curator, Ian Wardropper, said it was one of the most important acquisitions in the last twenty years. ''The Faun'' was included in a publication of Chicago's "Notable Acquisitions". It was accepted by a specialist in Gauguin ceramics, Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark. The consensus of analysis was that the half-man half-goat fitted with Gauguin's known exploration of
primitivism In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...
, and various attempts were made to provide a detailed interpretation of ''The Faun's'' sexuality in terms of Gauguin's relationships. Druick noted "the absence of the often flaunted sign of a faun’s
virility Virility (from the Latin ''virilitas'', manhood or virility, derived from Latin ''vir'', man) refers to any of a wide range of masculine characteristics viewed positively. Virile means "marked by strength or force". Virility is commonly associ ...
, resulting in an aura of
impotence Erectile dysfunction (ED), also referred to as impotence, is a form of sexual dysfunction in males characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain a Human penis, penile erection with sufficient rigidity and durat ...
". Even after it was exposed as a forgery,
James Cuno James "Jim" Bash Cuno (born April 6, 1951 in St. Louis) is an American art historian and curator. From 2011–22 Cuno served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Career A native of St. Louis, Cuno received a ...
, the director of the Art Institute, still described it as "good sculpture".


The "Van Gogh and Gauguin" exhibition

On September 21, 2001, ''The Faun'' became part of a major exhibition, "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South". Organised as a joint venture between The Art Institute of Chicago and the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the event ran for four months in Chicago before shifting to Amsterdam. Funding was unprecedented, with support from the Federal Council on the
Arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...
and the
Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
, and a $1.5 million grant from the Ameritech Foundation. The exhibition brought together works from "63 public and private collections around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Japan and Russia". It took years to prepare. Kimmelman, Michael (October 4, 2001)
"Critic's notebook: irritation as inspiration"
''New York Times''. Accessed December 24, 2007.
Joseph Harriss wrote in the '' Smithsonian'': Promoters described the exhibition as "extraordinary" and a "serious and very beautiful show." Art critic Suzanne Hoefaerkamp felt viewers were "unified by their experience of great art."Hoefaerkamp, Suzanne (January 16, 2002). "Studio of the South". ''The Christian Century'' 119(2). Of the 134 items on display, most were paintings, plus three Japanese prints by
Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Gr ...
,
Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...
and Korin."List of works in the exhibition"
Art Institute of Chicago. September 22, 2007. Accessed December 24, 2007.
The focus of the exhibition, and the critics, was very much on the interplay between the paintings. In fact, there were only seven sculptures, all by Gauguin. The others were ''Portrait Vase of Jeanne Schuffenecker'', ''Cleopatra Pot'', ''Leda and the Swan'', ''Self-portrait Jug'', ''Self-portrait Jar'', and ''Female Nude with Flower (known as Lust)''. The slideshow for the exhibition was arranged chronologically, so that ''The Faun'' (slide 02) could be clearly seen as Gauguin's first ceramic. Equally self-evident is how well the forgery fitted in thematically.


Exposure and reaction

In 2007, Shaun Greenhalgh was convicted for
money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
, predominately over the ''
Amarna Princess The ''Amarna Princess'', sometimes referred to as the "Bolton Amarna Princess," is a statue forged by British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh and sold by his father George Sr. to Bolton Museum for £440,000 in 2003. Based on the Amarna art-style of a ...
''. However, during the trial, the variety and number of his other forgeries were widely noted. Scotland Yard admitted that many were likely to be still undetected. Picking up on references to the Gauguin faun, ''
The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...
'' launched its own investigation and tracked ''The Faun'' down to the Art Institute in Chicago. The Art Institute was quick to emphasise, in a statement on its website, that the sculpture came with provenance from respected sources, and ''The Faun'' was "never a principal focus of the reenhalghinvestigation". Douglas Druick, the chief curator, described ''The Faun'' as "creative ndwell-researched". James Cuno, the director, said it was "a crafty concept". According to Ian Wardropper, then the sculpture curator, the provenance was "completely believable". Melaine Clore from Sotheby's described ''The Faun'' as a once-in-a-decade forgery. On the process of obtaining artworks, Cuno added: "We make thousands of decisions like this annually. Once in a lifetime something like this happens." However, other commentators speculate that as much as half of the art market is made up of forgeries.Sharp, Rob (December 10, 2007)
"The counterfeiters: Inside the world of art forgery"
''The Independent''. Accessed September 3, 2012.
In October 2007, ''The Faun'' was removed from Art Institute where it had been on permanent display as part of its
Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...
collection. It remained on the website as part of the "Studio of the South" exhibition slideshow until mid-December. Because Greenhalgh's trial finished before the sculpture was revealed as a forgery, it was not impounded by police, but the Art Institute was reportedly in discussion about compensation with Sotheby's and the private dealer.


Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faun, The 1994 sculptures Sculpture forgeries Works by Shaun Greenhalgh Fauns in popular culture