The Faun is a sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 by British forger Shaun Greenhalgh

Shaun Greenhalgh

Shaun Greenhalgh is a British art forger. Over a seventeen-year period, between 1989 and 2006, he produced a phenomenal range of forgeries...

. He successfully passed it off as a work by Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

, selling it at Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

 for £20,700 in 1994. Three years later in 1997 it was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

 for an undisclosed sum, thought to be about $125,000. It was hailed by them as "one of its most important acquisitions in the last twenty years."

For a decade the sculpture remained on display, and was part of a major joint exhibition on Gauguin with the van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:...

 in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. However, following revelations about its existence at Greenhalgh's trial in 2007, The Faun was tracked down by The Art Newspaper

The Art Newspaper

The Art Newspaper is a monthly newspaper about the visual arts based in London.It is published in a newspaper, rather than a magazine, format...

to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and exposed as a fake.

In October the Art Institute removed the statue from display, and announced that it was seeking compensation

Damages

In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...

 from Sotheby's. What the ultimate fate of The Faun is to be has not yet been revealed.

Background to the forgery

In the early to mid 1990s Shaun Greenhalgh was predominately involved with paintings. He sold a Samuel Peploe

Samuel Peploe

Samuel John Peploe was a Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, noted for his still life works and for being one of the group of four painters that became known as the Scottish Colourists...

, but in particular he was successful with his Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist...

s. He sold one to Bolton Museum

Bolton Museum

Bolton Museum is a public museum and art gallery in the town of Bolton, Greater Manchester, northern England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council....

 in 1994 and at New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 auctions in 1995 he sold seven, and is reckoned to have produced as many as 40. Yet at the same time that he was involved with these he must have been researching the possibility of at least one Gauguin work. As well as The Faun he is known to have also forged a Gauguin vase, possibly at a later date.

Gauguin is significantly less well regarded for his sculptures than for his paintings. It is likely that Greenhalgh was aware of that, and saw it as an opportunity. Forgers typically focus on the lower priced artworks of major artists, for though they offer less returns, they are subject to much less scrutiny. As well, Gauguin himself had left just enough of a record to indicate he may have been interested in producing such an item, a drawing of a faun

Faun

The faun is a rustic forest god or place-spirit of Roman mythology often associated with Greek satyrs and the Greek god Pan.-Origins:...

 sculpture in a sketchbook

Sketchbook

A sketchbook is "a book or pad with blank pages for sketching," and is frequently used by artists for drawing or painting as a part of their creative process....

 from 1887. This was backed up by suggestive historical events: at a Gauguin exhibition in 1906 a "faun ceramic

Ceramic art

In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...

" was displayed. Also, another listing for a work entitled "Faun" was found for a 1917 Nunes and Fiquet gallery exhibition. Scholars in the 1960s dutifully recorded these possibilities. Even in 2007 experts were still uncertain about how many ceramic sculptures Gauguin had actually produced. Estimates range from 55 to 80. Of these between 30 and 60 are thought to be lost or destroyed.

Greenhalgh was adept at obtaining and working in a wide variety of materials, and not only used a stoneware

Stoneware

Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...

 that fitted in well with what Gauguin demonstrably used, he managed to produce something "which had no obvious features to reveal it as a modern fake." At 47 cm it was modest, yet typically sized for a Gauguin. The gallery caption of The Faun read "unglazed stoneware with touches of gold gilding

Gilding

The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

." Use of the gold gilding was deft, it was similar to investments Greenhalgh had made on previous forgeries. In 1991, for example, he is thought to have melted down genuine Roman silver coins

Argenteus

The argenteus was a silver coin produced by the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian's coinage reform in AD 294 to ca. AD 310. It was of similar weight and fineness as the denarius of the time of Nero...

 when reconstructing the Risley Park Lanx

Risley Park Lanx

The Risley Park Lanx is a large Roman silver dish that was discovered in 1729 in Risley Park, Derbyshire. Among the Romans a lanx was generally a large serving platter in size about 15 by 20 inches. Particularly ornamented ones were used to make offerings or sacrifices...

. Any anomalies in The Faun that were detected were explained away.

Sold twice over

In 1995 The Faun was sold at Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

 for £20,700. The Greenhalghs, who worked together as a family, had constructed a provenance

Provenance

Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...

 based around Olive Greenhalgh, (Shaun's mother), using her maiden name "Roscoe." She claimed to be a descendant of Roderick O'Conor,
a friend of Gauguin's purported to have bought the sculpture at the 1917 exhibition; and known to have bought at least one other. Legitimising their ownership through inheritance was a typical ploy of the Greenhalghs, as was forging documents to go with it. In this case, Olive produced a copy of the sale invoice.

There were no concerns about authenticity

Authenticity in art

Authenticity in art has a variety of meanings related to different ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic.Denis Dutton distinguishes between nominal authenticity and expressive authenticity....

. As well as being well received by Sotheby's itself The Faun was authenticated by the Wildenstein Institute

Wildenstein Index Number

A Wildenstein Index Number refers to an item in a numerical system published in catalogues by Daniel Wildenstein, a scholar of Impressionism, who published catalogues raisonnés of artists such as Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Paul Gauguin through his family business, Wildenstein & Company. In...

 in Paris. Their catalogue raisonné

Catalogue raisonné

The typical catalogue raisonné is a monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of artworks by an artist.The essential elements of a catalogue raisonné are that it purports to be an exhaustive list of works for a defined subject matter describing the works in a way so that they may be reliably...

 had not yet been published when the sculpture was sold on 30 November, but the auction house had received a letter two weeks beforehand indicating The Faun's incorporation.

The first buyers were also experienced, London art dealer

Art dealer

An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...

s Howie and Pillar. They lived with it for years and described it as "a wonderful object."
When the curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 for the Art Institute of Chicago, Douglas Druick , saw The Faun he was reportedly "intrigued" and "very keen to acquire it." Subsequently the Art Institute carried out their own research into the authenticity and purchased the item in 1997, for what was thought to be about $125,000. However to this day the Art Institute has refused to reveal actual details of the price it paid. What is known is that the purchase was funded, at least in part, by the Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment and is associated with the estate of Suzette Morton Davidson. At any rate, the Art Institute plans to seek compensation from Sotheby's.

The good sculpture

Purchase of The Faun was proclaimed as a great success. Chief curator Douglas Druick

Association of Art Museum Curators

The Association of Art Museum Curators was founded in 2001 to support the role of curators in shaping the mission of art museums in North America...

 declared it Gauguin's "first ceramic." In 2001 The Art Institute sculpture curator, Ian Wardropper

Association of Art Museum Curators

The Association of Art Museum Curators was founded in 2001 to support the role of curators in shaping the mission of art museums in North America...

 said it was one of the most important acquisitions in the last twenty years. The Faun was included in a publication of Chicago's "Notable Acquisitions." It was accepted by a specialist in Gauguin ceramics Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark. The consensus of analysis was that the half-man half-goat fitted with Gauguin's known exploration of the primitive

Primitivism

Primitivism is a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples, such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics...

, and various attempts were made to provide a detailed interpretation of The Faun's sexuality in terms of Gauguin's relationships. Druick noted "the absence of the often flaunted sign of a faun’s virility

Virility

Virility refers to any of a wide range of masculine characteristics viewed positively. It is not applicable to women or to negative characteristics. The Oxford English Dictionary says virile is "marked by strength or force." Virility is commonly associated with vigour, health, sturdiness, and...

, resulting in an aura of impotence." Even after it was exposed as a forgery James Cuno

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

, the director of the Art Institute could still describe it as "good sculpture."

The extraordinary exhibition

On September 21, 2001 The Faun became part of a major exhibition , "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South." Organised as a joint venture between The Art Institute of Chicago and the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the event ran for four months in Chicago before shifting to Amsterdam. Funding was unprecedented, with support from the Federal Council on the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 and the Humanities

National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...

 and a $1.5 million grant from the Ameritech Foundation

Ameritech

AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation , was a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System...

 The exhibition brought together works from "63 public and private collections around the world, including the U.S., Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

." It took years to prepare. Joseph Harriss wrote in the Smithsonian

Smithsonian (magazine)

Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.-History:...

:

Promoters described the exhibition as extraordinary and a "serious and very beautiful show." Critic Suzanne Hoefaerkamp felt viewers were "unified by their experience of great art."

Of the 134 items on display, most were paintings, plus three Japanese prints by Hokusai

Hokusai

was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...

, Hiroshige

Hiroshige

was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....

 and Korin

Korin

Korin may refer to:* Korin , a supernatural being in the Dragon Ball metaseries* Korin Japanese Trading Company, a kitchen knife brand* Pavel Korin , Russian painter and art restorer...

. The focus of the exhibition, and the critics, was very much on the interplay between the paintings. In fact there were only seven sculptures, all by Gauguin. The others were Portrait Vase of Jeanne Schuffenecker, Cleopatra Pot, Leda and the Swan, Self-portrait Jug, Self-portrait Jar, and Female Nude with Flower (known as Lust). The slideshow for the exhibition was arranged chronologically, so that The Faun (slide 02) could be clearly seen as Gauguin's first ceramic. Equally self-evident is how well the forgery fitted in thematically.

Exposure and reaction

In 2007 Shaun Greenhalgh was convicted for money laundering

Money laundering

Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...

, predominately over the Amarna Princess

Amarna Princess

The Amarna Princess, sometimes referred to as the "Bolton Amarna Princess", is a statue forged by British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh and sold by his father to Bolton Museum for £440,000 in 2003. Based on the Amarna art-style of ancient Egypt, the purchase of the Amarna Princess was feted as a...

. However during the trial the variety and number of his other forgeries were widely noted. As was the admission by Scotland Yard that that many were likely to be still undetected. Picking up on references to the Gauguin faun The Art Newspaper launched its own investigation and tracked The Faun down to the Art Institute in Chicago.

The Art Institute was quick to leap to its own defense. In a statement on its website they emphasised how the sculpture came with provenance from respected sources, and how The Faun was "never a principal focus of the [Greenhalgh] investigation." Douglas Druick, the chief curator, described The Faun as "creative [and] well-researched." For James Cuno, the director, it was "a crafty concept." According to Ian Wardropper then the sculpture curator, the provenance was "completely believable." Melaine Clore from Sotheby's described The Faun as a once-in-a-decade forgery. On the process of obtaining artworks Cuno added "we make thousands of decisions like this annually. Once in a lifetime something like this happens." However, other commentators speculate that as much as half of the art market is made up of forgeries.

In October 2007 The Faun was removed from Art Institute where it had been on permanent display as part of its post-Impressionist collection. It remained on the website as part of the "Studio of the South" exhibition slideshow until mid December. Because Greenhalgh's trial finished before the sculpture was revealed as a forgery it was not impounded by police, but the Art Institute is in discussion about compensation with Sotheby's and the private dealer. So how this affects ownership and ultimately what happens to The Faun is undecided at this time.