Born in 1927 Xiamen, T‘ang Haywen left for France to study medicine. While traveling in Paris, he spent his time in the museums and galleries. Soon he decided to devote himself to art. When he passed away in 1991, the French government took over his estate for no heir was found. Three years later, the French dealer Philippe Koutouzis found T‘ang’s brother who was in China. Koutouzis appealed the French government to return T‘ang’s estate to heir and Koutouzis bought the copyright to T‘ang Haywen for solely one franc.
Today we look back to Sotheby’s Honk Kong “BOUNDLESS: CONTEMPORARY ART” in 2015, T‘ang’s abstract painting has sold for HK$ 340,000,000 (about NT$ 14 million), setting the artist record. Although Koutouzis said T‘ang Haywen’s works are valueless at that time, the price of his work increased drastically in just 20 years.
According to Vicent Noce of the Art Newspaper, “Koutouzi, who is also the author of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, has been involved in a series of legal disputes in Europe over works that he has denounced as fakes of T’ang. His fiercest opponent, the Parisian dealer Enrico Navarra, filed a complaint against Koutouzi in France in 2011 accusing him of organised fraud.”
As the report said, Enrico Navarra cliamed Philippe Koutouzis fabricated the story about the heir in order to steal the copyrights. After seven years, a criminal investigation concluded that there was no evidence to support this claim. Hence, the the French government granted Philippe Koutouzis copyrights in this February.
Undoubtedly, the turnout allows Philippe Koutouzis to put his influence on the certificate of authenticity of a work of T'ang Haywen. The owner has to apply a certificate of authenticity from T’ang Haywen Archives which is owned by Koutouzis.
However, it was not the very first time that Koutouzis involved in lawsuits. According to Hong Kong press, Koutouzis was sued by artist Chu Teh-Chun and his wife in 2012. Chu Teh-Chun committed Koutouzis to exhibit and sell his 32 pieces of artworks. After that, Koutouzis didn't explain the profits and return the works. In the same year, oversea cooperation Harreld Investments Ltd accused Koutouzis of encroaching Chu Teh-Chun’s 108 pieces works which were valued 22 million Euros from them.
Even though Philippe Koutouzis has involved in numerous lawsuits, he is still a crucial influencer in Asia art market. Particularly, Koutouzis is the main spokesman for the certificate of authenticity of a work of T'ang Haywen. In addition, Koutouzi says he saw the first T’ang forgeries on the market before 2010, claiming that his suspicions have been confirmed by technical studies. For instance, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich carbon dated the fibres of some sheets of paper, up to 23 years after T’ang’s death. In several cases, the Chinese characters in the signature were wrong, and, Koutouzi said that there are still hundreds of counterfeits out there. This message has recently caused an uproar in Asia art world.
However, these whole incidents have affected many collectors of T'ang Haywen’s works. How can we address the problems of counterfeits of T'ang Haywen? And we still expect that there will be a happy ending as soon as possible.
Resources:
French dealer awarded rights to Chinese artist T'ang Haywen's work, The Art Newspaper.
Link: https://goo.gl/m5vC5Q
French dealer granted copyrights to late chinese artist's work, Artforum.
Link: https://goo.gl/HYCmtz
法華裔畫家妻告藝廊「落格」Link: https://goo.gl/mXKtr9
Figure 1: Untitled, 1968, ink & watercolour on card, 70x50cm. ©Guimet Museum Collection
Figure 2 top left: Orphée, 1971, oil on canvas, 128x98cm. ©Sable-d'Olonne Museum Collection
Figure 2 top right: Red sun, 1967, gouache & watercolour on card. ©Guimet Museum Collection
Figure 2 bottom left: Untitled, 1964-66, ink and acrylic on cotton canvas, 209.5 x 175.8 cm. Price realized HK$3,400,000. ©Sotheby's
Figure 2 bottom right: T‘ang Haywen in his Parisian apartment, 1991, photo by Yonfan Manshih
