PRINT Salvador Daly ( Fake ) sad but TRUE!

The story behind the FAKE : Donald Austin owned and operated Austin Galleries, a chain of art galleries in Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco.   Austin, whose business grew from one Chicago gallery in the mid-1960s to over thirty galleries in the mid-1980s, was a “hands-on” manager who took an active interest in all facets of his business and in each of his galleries.   Austin Galleries specialized in modern and contemporary artists, including Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall, and sold mostly lithographic and serigraphic prints of their works.   Although the individual galleries had prints on hand, many customers purchased prints on a “to-be-ordered” basis;  a customer would see a copy in a gallery, and order the actual print from Austin's headquarters in Palatine, Illinois.

Lithographic and serigraphic prints can be divided into three categories for the purposes of this opinion.1  Lithographs and serigraphs are most valuable when they are part of an “original” limited edition print, a “category 1.”   Art industry standards require that an original be prepared under the artist's supervision.   The artist signifies his acceptance of the edition by signing and numbering them.   The artist may also reserve a small percentage of the edition for his own use or that of the publisher.   Called “artist's proofs,” such works are identified by the designation H.C., E.A., or A.P., usually in place of the edition number.2  Less valuable than originals are “afters” or “category 2” prints.   Afters are copies of an original work made by others with the artist's permission;  these copies have nominal value in the decorative art market.   Finally, there are “category 3” prints:  unauthorized reproductions of an artist's work (or independent works made to look like something the artist might have created), made without the artist's involvement or approval.   These works do not have an established market, and if they carry an artist's signature, they are forgeries.

Austin sold most of his art as signed original limited edition prints.   His customers thought they were buying originals.   The customers were wrong;  most of what Austin sold were forgeries.