Attribution error at Christie's for a $20,000 cabinet to René DROUET

On November 2002, auction house CHRISTIE’S, located in Paris, listed a wooden cabinet for an estimated price of $20,000, and falsely ascribed the artist as René Drouet. We fixed this!

 

At DOCANTIC, we investigate the proper identification of 20th Century furniture, and provide accurate documentation. Here’s an example from our case files!

 

CHRISTIE'S got pulled over by DOCANTIC PATROL for Identity theft violation: wrong artist!

On November 18th, 2002, G.A. Hufschmid’s creation was hijacked by world’s leading auction house CHRISTIE’S. The DOCANTIC PATROL investigators first asked themselves: “Was this simply a misspelling error, or an outright theft?” Since CHRISTIE’S is well known for its high reputation and professionalism, there was absolutely no way for DOCANTIC to determine the source of the incident. 

 

Hufschmid cabinet at Christie's

So what was it? Incompetence? Bet loss? Collective blindness? This mystery will remain unsolved.

However, DOCANTIC dealt with another offense; faster than the speed of light, our detectives found proof of identity theft violation, and rectified a glitch on the behalf of art-justice’s, by simply querying DOCANTIC’s database.

 

 

 

This specific case has a huge symbolic value to DOCANTIC, since it triggered the creation of the world’s primary online services for 20th Century furniture identification. Sick of seeing so called “art experts” getting away with art offenses that slip through the cracks of the art market, the founding fathers unanimously decided to stand up for the art community, and launch DOCANTIC in 2003.

For this reason, when on November 25th, 2014, the exact same piece appeared on the market at ARTCURIAL, and was still falsely assigned to René Drouet, the DOCANTIC PATROL team had to act immediately to avoid a new crime. Thankfully, a new catastrophe was avoided shortly before the auction took place, as ARTCURIAL trusted DOCANTIC’s word, and instantly rectified their error. DOCANTIC high-fives ARTCURIAL and is confident that CHRISTIE’s miscalculations won’t slip past ARTURIAL’s highly qualified experts again.

The DOCANTIC PATROL’s Special Forces are scanning the area on a daily basis to ensure that no copycats will try to ruin Hufschmid’s reputation ever again by assigning his work to someone else.

DOCANTIC patrols the market to make sure that 20th Century furniture and works of art receive proper attribution and accurate documentation, so that collectors may sell and/or purchase works at the correct price. To protect and to serve the art community, that's out job!

 

 

How do we classify our files? Find out here.

 

Book ’em! The auction house or the art dealer provided little or no corroborating evidence in the form of documentation for this item.

 

Time Off!  The expert made a significant mistake on this item. His attributed period came in way off. No early parole!

 

Missing persons alert! The auction house or the art dealer failed to uncover and identify the artist for this item.

 

Identity theft! They’re guilty of the worst crime of all: mislabeling the artist with another alias. And Picasso painted the Mona Lisa, right?!

 

 

 

The Fact Sheet on DOCANTIC PATROL

 

The obsessive, nitpicky and no-holds-barred investigative team at DOCANTIC maintains an unparalleled database of original documentation for 20th Century, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco & Design furniture and works of art.

At DOCANTIC we believe that designers deserve proper identification for each work they have created, and that any art lover should confidently pay the right price for his or her purchase. We see the art world filled with both talented artists and con artist and, therefore, also riddled with innumerable attribution errors and outrageous pricing mistakes. By supplying authentic period photographs, DOCANTIC catches and apprehends the undervaluation (or overvaluation) of furniture and works of art. That’s our mission. We stop errors dead in their tracks. We serve and protect 20th Century furniture’s reputation.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, DOCANTIC sets the bar for the identification of 20th Century furniture, and shares with every art lover the information that has been kept under wraps by a handful of experts for far too long!