Painting at Japan museum a suspected forgery by 'genius' Beltracchi

KOCHI -- A museum in this west Japan city announced on July 12 that a painting in its collection originally thought to be by Heinrich Campendonk is suspected of being a work by famed "genius" art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi.

Campendonk (1889-1957) was a painter who represented German impressionism. His 69-centimeter-tall by 99.3-centimeter-wide oil painting "Girl with Swan" was registered in a general catalog of works by name, but did not include a picture.

In 1996, the Museum of Art, Kochi purchased the painting from an art dealer in Nagoya for 18 million yen (approx. $167,000 at the time) after confirming the work's history of being passed from a German art dealer to a wealthy collector. It has been displayed at the museum 15 times and lent out to other facilities three times.

The Tokushima Modern Art Museum in the west Japan city of Tokushima announced the same day that one of the works in its collection would be pulled from an upcoming exhibition after information was confirmed that it could be a fake by Beltracchi. That facility reportedly became aware that "Girl with Swan," which it had borrowed from the Museum of Art, Kochi in 2020, was also listed as a creation of Beltracchi's and contacted the latter facility in mid-June of this year.

In addition to inquiring again to the art dealer regarding the work's provenance, the Museum of Art, Kochi also plans to commission an expert for a scientific investigation of the paints used in the painting. Following the investigation, the facility plans to report on its authenticity sometime around this fall. Chief curator Katsuhito Okuno said, "At this stage, we think it is highly likely to be a fake."

(Japanese original by Satoshi Kobayashi, Kochi Bureau)