A big interest of mine is art theft and art forgery. Experts estimate that 20%-50% of the art in the world’s major art museums and on the commercial art market is fake. How could this be?

Teddy Snyder

The value of evidence

Three types of evidence support or debunk the authenticity of art:

• Forensics — scientific testing that can prove the age of an object or if a work was created using materials that did not exist at the time the work was supposedly created.
• Provenance — the provable history of ownership of an object.
• Connoisseurship — expert analysis of the style of a work, looking at details like brushstrokes.

It is this last category that is the stickiest and the most instructive. Experts can render opposing opinions.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it

When art collectors fall in love with a work, they may be willing to ignore or rationalize evidence that conflicts with their idea of the work’s creator. They will insist on the work’s authenticity. One collector paid $17 million for a work supposedly created by Jackson Pollock. One problem: The last name in the artist’s signature was misspelled.

At the other extreme, some experts refuse to modify their opinion to accept a work’s authenticity in the face of overwhelming evidence. The BBC investigative television show "Fake or Fortune" confirmed the provenance and forensics of a painting supposedly created by Claude Monet. Eminent art experts examined the painting and the evidence and concluded that, yes, Monet was the artist.

The Paris-based Wildenstein Institute was the definitive worldwide authority on what works belong in Monet’s oeuvre. However, the Wildenstein refused to recognize the work as genuine because it believed the style of the painting did not match Monet’s other works. The British owner of the painting sued to force Wildenstein to include the work in its catalog raisonné of Monet’s works, but the French court declined to intervene. After several scandals, the Wildenstein Institute is no longer operating.

Confirmation bias

A well-known obstacle to meaningful negotiation is confirmation bias, the willingness to accept only information that reinforces a person’s already-held beliefs. Whether the issue is liability, damages or the authenticity of an artwork, the refusal to consider all of the evidence and adjust one’s position to account for it gets in the way of an accurate assessment of the circumstances.

Attorney Teddy Snyder mediates workers' compensation cases throughout California. She can be contacted through snydermediations.com.