Art detectives hunt for Jackson Pollock paintings in Lake Tahoe

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Art forgery expert Curtis Dowling has verified the authenticity of priceless works around the world. On Sunday, October 27, his team may have made their most intriguing find yet on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

“There are large art collections in London and Paris. People have really huge collections of famous paintings, Dowling said. “Then you come to a place like this and suddenly you meet someone who, in a normal house, could have 40 Jackson Pollock (paintings) worth a billion pounds (about $1,297,000,000). That’s the exciting part. “We don’t come anywhere unless we look at the toilet door and we’re sure it’s going to be okay.”

Dowling was ecstatic at the prospect. He has spent more than thirty years in the world of fine art and has spent 15 years exposing fakes and forgeries. Beyond his work as an art detective, Dowling has built a career as a lecturer, author and television personality investigating cases of art fraud around the world.

“If we go to Paris, New York, the brownstones… we expect to see fine art from some of the things we did in Beverly Hills,” Dowling said. “We hope to see maybe one when we get here. You say, ‘Oh my God, this guy has an amazing painting.’ There are 40 of them.”

“This is so crazy,” Dowling said. “That’s the fun part.”

If each Jackson Pollock is worth $100 million and there are 40 of them, that’s $4 billion, Dowling said.

The paintings were moved from the viewing home by the owners group to secure sites in a multi-state area. Then Dowling and investigator and digger Andy Smith began searching for the truth.

Dowling pulled out a flashlight and put on magnifying jewelers’ glasses to examine the front and back of the paintings.

He started moving the magnet over the pictures.

“There’s enough metal in some of these paints… to attract it,” Dowling said of the process. “Some of these new metallic paints will lift slightly if you put a magnet on them.”

Dowling explained that this was a crude way of doing a spot check.

Then he started to smell it.

“We had two Picasso paintings in Algeria seven or eight years ago,” Dowling said of a different art survey. “We took a needle and stuck it into the paint, but it was still wet. “It takes 20 years for oil to dry, and if you know what you smell, oil will smell for 20 years.”

These are actually simple things, Dowling said. It is a little more difficult when restored.

Dowling also checked the canvas.

“We spend our whole lives looking at thread count, materials, wear…,” Dowling said. “What I do in the beginning is look at a lot of pieces and just get an idea of ​​the canvas and the materials… We need to look at the simple things before we go into detail.”

Smith, meanwhile, focuses on the people and the story, not the actual artwork.

“I am the digger who went, so where did this story come from?” Smith explained. “Because there’s something not right about this. And you know, you get that itch in the back of your head… that’s my job.”

Dowling’s team charges every client the same fee; 140 pounds (about $181) per hour plus travel expenses.

When a work of art is sold, Dowling and Smith ask for nothing. Because if they got a dollar from that sale, that would be a conflict of interest.

“We’re just about done with this journey,” Dowling said as he examined more than 20 paintings brought to the property for his examination. “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think there was a good reason to be here.”

The owners group has been working to prove the authenticity of this art for nearly 22 years.

“We’ll finish it in the next 12 months, this journey will be over,” Dowling said. “…whether it is good or bad, we will see. But I guarantee you that when we all come into this hall next year, this will be completely over.”

Because of Dowling and Smith’s reputation, the entire art world will know when they say it’s real or fake.

Next step

The work began with Dowling and Smith examining the parts. They now need to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are real.

“Then we start talking to our network of people we’ve known and loved for over 30 years,” Dowling said. They help with background information.

It also includes police work.

“Watching it is theater,” Dowling said. “This is a stage play.”

The rest is writing and playing.

“Because at the end of it, it’s like, ‘I don’t know, why did you come there?’ You can’t afford to say that. ” Dowling explained. “You have to say yes or no. It is or it is not.”

There must be facts to support the findings.

“We choose pieces or collections that we think might be fun,” Dowling said. “We do Jackson Pollock a lot, oddly enough.”

selection process

This authentication project was suggested by Michael Klein, whom they worked with and admired.

Klein, who was the first curator of the Microsoft Art Collection from 1999 to 2005, connected the owners group to Dowling. Klein saw the paintings at the Los Angeles Art Fair.

“We will always do (authentication) first for obvious reasons,” Dowling said.

This verification has been going on for a long time.

“That always bothers me,” Dowling said. “You want to put an end to this… it shouldn’t take this long. “This is not fair.”

Dowling and Smith saw many Jackson Pollock paintings. Because of the value of the paintings, Dowling said you only need one.

“You just have to verify someone’s identity,” Dowling said. “Because we are all too old to even spend the money you earn from them. If you verify someone’s identity, you prove the validity of their entire journey.”

Dowling explained that if you verify the authenticity of one painting, other pieces may be easier to verify.

“Trying to do all of this is nonsense,” Dowling said.

art lovers

Dowling and Smith love art and their work.

“Nothing would give us more joy than telling you that you need to upgrade your home insurance,” Smith said. “Because that thing on the wall is worth a fortune. “This is the best feeling in the world.”