Time to Jump the Experts

The high panjandrums of the art world are the so-called "experts"--the men who authenticate paintings. Like baseball scouts and wine tasters, they are paid not just to guess, but to guess right.. The best of them admit that it is an uncertain art, often humbly change their judgments. But when an opinion can determine whether a painting is worth $10 or $100,000, some modern experts try to envelop their trade with the accouterments of more exact sciences, strive to test problematic works with a chemist's lofty calm. Some refuse to see the picture itself, arguing that an emotional response may confuse their judgment, and rely on analysis of paint and photographic blowups that show telltale idiosyncracies of style. Others claim such infallibility that they authenticate paintings just by inspecting a black-and-white photograph. Last week such arrogance was called to account.

Two years ago an art buyer named Etienne Cazals bought $30,000 worth of paintings from Brussels Dealer Jacques Trussart on the basis of authentication by, among others, Paris Art Historian Louis Reau and Art Expert Nino Cordovado. The pictures proved to be deliberate copies, and Trussart & Co. were charged with fraud.

At the trial, Art Historian Reau admitted that he had authenticated a Fragonard on the basis of a photograph. This was current procedure, he pleaded. Snapped the public prosecutor: "When Reau and Cordovado betray their mission to protect the public, which is their moral duty, we have a twilight of the art critic gods."

Finding the art dealers guilty (with sentences as high as four years), the court turned on the experts, declared them guilty as accessories. Reau got a sentence of eight months, suspended, and 20,000 francs fine on the remarkable charge of "delivering numerous certificates without formulating doubts or nuances, based solely on black-and-white pictures." Cordovado, tried in absentia, was sentenced to one year. In effect, the art experts had been held legally responsible for carelessness. Said France-Soir: "Professor Reau's condemnation has caused a profound stupor in university and artistic milieus." Reau professed himself "profoundly troubled."

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