From very high sales through galleries, to appearances in Oscar-winning films, the paintings that came out of the Zaks Collection - named after the surname of the original owner - have been removed from the walls of museums and internet sites due to incredible research carried out by the BBC.

The suspicions of a small group of specialists and historians led the BBC team to investigate the origins of the Russian collection whose works had been sold for high numbers and reached art catalogs through false names of specialists who allegedly recognized the authenticity of the collection. Some went to private collections and others to important museums, which seriously affects the art world.

The collection consisted of approximately 200 canvases that brought together the best artists of Russian modern art and the avant-garde, names such as Kazimir Malevich, Alexandra Exter, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, Ivan Kliun, among others.

According to the story given by the original owner of the collection, Leonid Zaks, this collection was formed from the works that his grandfather bought at the beginning of the 20th century. Afterwards, his daughter Anna obtained several canvases as a gift from the Belarusian peasants, soldiers and their families that she attended as a military doctor during World War II. Later, in the mid-1950s, Moses Zaks, Anna's brother, bought dozens of works by Soviet artists and exported the entire collection to Europe. It remained practically hidden until Leonid Zaks, Moses' nephew, inherited the collection in 1990.

This story was presented by Leonid Zaks in a letter to the National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus, however, the story had many contradictions and errors that raised suspicions. In addition to avoiding Zaks, he avoided the National Museum of Art of Belarus in a very obvious way.

After the start of investigations, the alleged recognition of authenticity was found by an agent called "N. Selezneva" of the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. However, no records were found that a person with that name had worked in that museum. After that discovery, the works stopped being exhibited in galleries and their article was even removed from Wikipedia. However, the works continued to circulate in other galleries, he even changed the country in which he moved his works, pointing to Switzerland, then private collectors bought works from this collection without knowing that no work was authentic.

When these works entered the art circuit, they were gradually polluting different spheres of it, from the market to history. Collectors who thought they bought high-value cultural heritage, the prestige of auction houses and specialists whose names were used without their consent, as well as the history of modern Soviet art. It was believed that the Zaks Collection represented valuable additions to the history of art, however, when the lies about the authenticity of the works were uncovered, the damage was the only thing that remained.

The BBC research team followed up on several parties involved in the series of damages made by the passage of the Zaks Collection through the art circuit, even contacting Leonid Zaks himself. According to the BBC article, the collector was elusive during the interview, declaring that he had no responsibility for the sale of the works, he repeated "I didn't sell anything." He held his story that the works were acquired or reached his family in time of war, so it was obvious that it was difficult to have real receipts or legitimate evidence.

Finally, he was asked if he considered that he owed an apology to the scammed collectors and replied that he cannot apologize, only empathize with them, maintained his position on not apologizing and said that he never saw sums even close to the figures for which he was told that his works had been sold in Switzerland.

Regardless of the ethical and moral nature behind Zaks' participation in this whole story, it is a fact that this is not the first or the last time that counterfeits damage historical records and the value of the name of certain artists, movements, as well as the prestige of auction houses and galleries. Specialists consulted by the BBC during the investigation of this story declare that it is worrying how counterfeits can easily enter the collections of museums, textbooks and with it the new generations of art historians grow.

It is certainly worrying how the legacy of artists and the legitimacy of the institutions can decay by these acts. This time, the history of avant-garde Soviet artists was mainly affected, but that does not mean that the rest of the artistic periods are free of such a threat. Even if we cannot prevent characters who seek to enrich themselves selfishly at the expense of humanity's artistic and cultural legacy from continuing to appear, it is a battle that has to be fought, even if the end of the road is not seen.

Source: BBC