Thinking of buying art online? Maybe don't. (Thursday 27 May 2004 #3)

compiled by Liz Aders

Seems there's no end of gullible art buyers out there in online-auction land. A Dutchman was duped out of US$135,805, buying a fake Richard Diebenkorn through auction heavy-weight eBay back in 2000. And yesterday a Californian man received the very first conviction for online art fraud and was sentenced to almost four years in prison.

eBay became suspicious of Kenneth Fetterman when he offered a Richard Diebenkorn for sale and upon further investigation uncovered the American had adopted a system known as 'shilling', where several users coordinate their biddings in order to push up prices for the work. In this instance, the luckless online bidder from the Netherlands concluded the Diebenkorn work must have been an original due to the heavy bidding taking place.

An example of Richard Diebenkorn's authentic art: Albuquerque #9, 1952, image held here

Fetterman, who had previously worked as a pizza delivery man, a volleyball coach and a soldier before trying his hand at art fruad, had made more than $450,000 from the scheme. The slippery fraudster had been evading authorities in the USA for nearly two years and was finally identified through his fingerprints, having been arrested in Kansas for marijuana possession.

Don't buy art from this man: Fetterman, the first to get caught for faking art on eBay, image held here

After his sentencing on Tuesday, Fetterton proffered this apology to his victims:

I deeply regret the deceitful actions that have brought me here today. I apologize to the victims and I detest the person I was.

And will Fetterman's fraud have an impact on buying original artwork through eBay? Well, it appears they have developed new software that detects shill bidding as it occurs. But that doesn't stop many talented copycats depicting the works of the greats and selling them off as fakes. There is even website that can teach you how to fake it yourself: www.artbusiness.com/faketutorial.html is a step-by-step guide of 'How to sell fake art on eBay and make big money'. It states:

Tired of working same old job? Ready to give up that nasty commute and work from home? Want to be your own boss? Need extra income? Well, fret no more because now you can make big money selling fake art on eBay.

You say you know nothing about art? Not a problem. The morons who'll be bidding on your fakes don't know anything either. But unlike you, they think they do, which makes bilking them out of hundreds, thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands of dollars per fake, that much easier.

But nobody's that stupid, you're thinking. Well, guess again. In the old days, experts on stupidity used to believe that a sucker was born every minute. That was before eBay. Now researchers into imbecilic behavior can go onto eBay, watch real bozos get ripped off all day long, count them up, and easily verify that far more than one sucker is born every minute. So are you ready to ascend to the next tax bracket? Of course you are. Let's get started!

And can you buy decent, original art on eBay? Well, today (27 May 2004) eBay presented 18,330 Prints, 9640 Paintings, 5,347 works by Self-Representing Artists, 2,815 Posters, 2,597 works of Folk Art, 1,604 works of 'Other Art', 1,088 Sculpture, Carvings, 1,079 Photographic Images, 642 Drawings and 564 Wholesale Lots. A quick browse will reveal the standard of art - click through to the "Self-representing artists" for daisies, cats, zebras, lavander rain and the odd erotic nude. Of the original artists, there are plenty of "Picasso, or Rothko-style" paintings, but not an original in sight. Perhaps a warning of those looking for an art bargain online: don't bother.

(The summer of issue of CIRCA, due out early next week, is themed on 'Collectors and Collecting'. It includes an article by Gemma Tipton on the 'digital collector' - handy sites and tips for those looking into art-purchasing online. Want to buy a copy? E-mail us here with your request and we'll tell you how to proceed.)

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