Possible Frida Kahlo Fakes Are Investigated by Mexican Federal Prosecutors

Written by Dolores Carles Saturday, 28 May 2011 20:12

Mexico City - Representatives of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Trust have filed a criminal suit here against the two recently published books on the charges of forging 1,200 art works of renowned painter Frida Kahlo. “Most of them appear not to be by the artist, because connoisseurs of the artist’s works have said so,” attorney Jose Luis Perez Arredondo said Tuesday. The trust, which functions under the auspices of Mexico’s central bank, protects the legacy of Mexican painter Kahlo (1907-1954) and her husband Diego Rivera (1886-1957), also a world famous painter.

The suit was filed at the Attorney General’s Office, where the media persons met experts on the artist’s works and personnel from the Anahuacalli Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums.

Arredondo said that the trust’s technical committee decided to file the suit after consulting the experts on the, allegedly, reproduced art works in the two books- “Finding Frida Kahlo” and “El Laberinto de Frida: Muerte, Dolor y Ambivalencia” (Frida’s Labyrinth: Death, Pain and Ambivalence)- containing illustrated letters, drawings and personal notes.

“We’re not making personal accusations nor are we judging the conduct. That is the subject of the lawsuit,” the lawyer said.

Last month, Mexican antique dealers Carlos Noloya and Leticia Fernandez had said that the 1,200 works are authentic, while admitting that they were very different from other pictorial works left by the artist.

A 1984 decree in Mexico had established that every Kahlo work is a national artistic monument, which gives it the protection of federal law. Kahlo, who died in 1954, was known for her tortured self-portraits and a tumultuous relationship with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who she married.

Arredondo believed that now the AG office must determine the genuineness of the reproduced works and find out the owners and their responsibilities if they try to sell these. Members of the trust and some art history scholars hope the publishers will take the books off the market, saying at a news conference in Mexico City that the consequences could be severe if the books keep being sold.

Pedro Diego Alvarado, painter and grandson of Rivera, said that “what is said in the letters (that appear in one of the books) has no relationship with Frida’s universe”. His statement generated suspicions about these reproduced pieces.

US art critic and historian James Oles acknowledged that he has not seen the objects personally but said that as they appear in the books, they appear to be “forgeries done recently with old materials. This will infect all the studies of Frida Kahlo with a virus, with bad, inaccurate information," said James Oles, an assistant professor at Wellesley College who has joined with other art historians in criticizing the publications. Oles said items in the collection include significant spelling errors, low-quality paintings and other suspicious details.

"We must stop the commercialization of false works," said Hilda Trujillo, director of the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums.

(Associated Press writer Istra Pacheco contributed to this report.)