Norval Morrisseau paintings of Questionable Authenticity
on ebay and in Auction Houses Around the World
Auctions continue to be the favorite outlet for
Morrisseau paintings of dubious
authenticity. The people selling these paintings can unload them without having
to look the buyers in the eye.
I will be adding to this page as the items come up.
January 2015
This painting was in an auction house in California. They contacted me to see if
I was interested in bidding on it. It is titled. signed and dated with black
drybrush
on the back. The date on the painting is 1988. Morrisseau lived and worked at my
studio. Coghlan Art, from the fall of 1987 to the spring of 1990. During this
time I
was his business manager and I saw all the paintings that he did. He did not
paint this
one in 1988 or any other time for that matter. I have said before that during
the time that I
worked with him. 1987 to his death in 2007, I received hundreds of paintings
from him.
Not one of them was signed with black paint on the back. When I relayed this
information
to the auction house they agreed to drop the painting from their auction.
January 2015
This painting was on ebay and was sold to an unsuspecting
buyer. It is dated on the back as
being done in 1989. Again it is signed. titled and dated with black dry brush on
the back of the
painting. Norval personally told me that he did not sign his work in this way.
Why would someone
sell a painting for less than 10% of it's value (an authentic painting on paper
of this size goes for
$6000 to $8000)?
April 2015
This painting was listed on ebay where it did not recieve
any bids.
It is now listed on Kijiji.
The ebay listing stated that it was done in 1988. Again this is when Morrisseau
lived and worked at Coghlan Art Studio. He did not paint this painting at our
studio or any where else.
The image on the top right is the original authentic painting offered at
Waddington Auctions.
The one on the left was offered on ebay. It would appear that a projector may
have been
used to copy the authentic image as the questionable image fits almost exactlly
over the
authentic one.
May 2015
This painting from Hungry is for sale on ebay. The bidding starts at $560 usd
and has a buy it now
for $800 usd. An authentic painting of this size sells in galleries for $6500
usd (about $7500 cdn).
why would someone want to sell it so cheaply?
The forgers are branching out. The painting below is an original Carl Ray
that is published in the book "Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of
the Image Makers". Beside it is a painting being offered on an online auction.
I am happy to say that Consignor.ca has removed this painting from their online
auction.