Several key pieces in a huge art collection offered by a Polish art collector for permanent display in Malta have been deemed to be potential fakes, The Times has learnt.
I think the Government is dismissing the collection too quickly
Works ostensibly by Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo, Henri Lebasque, John Constable, Chaime Soutine and Odilon Redon, belonging to collector Zdzislaw Bieganski have failed attribution tests set by art scholars from some of the world’s leading museums.
Experts must now study the pieces further to determine whether the paintings were created by members of the artists’ workshops, painted by their followers or even possibly forged.
Two other works by art masters that form part of Mr Bieganski’s huge collection have passed the tests and are most likely authentic, although their provenance must first be confirmed before they can be announced.
Amassed over a lifetime of collecting art, Mr Bieganski, 92, has offered to leave his collection of some 2,000 pieces to the self-named Bieganski Foundation on permanent display in Malta. His offer is conditional on the Government finding a suitable venue to house the collection.
Some months ago, Mr Bieganski told the Government to “hurry up”, warning that if he passed away before a venue was found, Malta’s chance of hosting the collection would be lost.
‘These things take time’
The Government insisted it first needed to assess the collection before it could accept Mr Bieganski’s offer.
News that some of the collection’s key works are not authentic would appear to vindicate the Government’s initial caution.
However, a Heritage Malta spokesman insisted it was still too early to say whether the collection merited national exhibition.
Bieganski Foundation curator Ryan Pillow said the Government was being too hasty in dismissing the collection’s worth.
“You cannot analyse a painting simply through photographs,” he said. “These things take a lot of time and effort. I think the Government is dismissing the collection too quickly.”
Mr Pillow argued that the collection included hundreds of authentic paintings, including works by Jean Renoir, Emile Bernard and Anders Zorn.
And while he himself had doubts about the authenticity of a Vincent van Gogh piece, he noted that “a van Gogh expert who’s started looking into the piece seems excited by it”.
“It takes more than a couple of months to decide these things.”
Heritage Malta has analysed about 1,000 works in the collection so far. A significant number of paintings are still in the UK, with experts ready to catalogue them as soon as they are shipped to Malta.
Mr Bieganski first came to Malta more than 40 years ago, with an eye to expanding his engineering business. What he described as a “pursuit of the beautiful” led him to obsessively buying art, sometimes entire collections in one go.
He has never hidden the fact that he bought art based on whether he liked it aesthetically, rarely bothering to verify works or trace back paper trails.
“I understand the Government’s concerns,” Mr Pillow said, “but they need to look at the collection in its entirety. There are so many beautiful paintings that deserve to be seen by the public.”
He hinted that the Bieganski Foundation would look to the private sector if the deal with the Government fell through. “All we need is a vacant space in Valletta to exhibit the confirmed works. But if that doesn’t happen, we’ll find other ways of doing it.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to get the collection to the public. Then they can judge for themselves.”