In a saga that began with the disappearance of one of Australia’s most visible art dealers, the Sydney Morning Herald now voices suspicions of wide-spread fakes having traded through Australian auction houses for some time during the boom:

Detectives are investigating potential widespread forgeries relating to some of Australia’s most celebrated artists, including d’Arcy Doyle and Norman Lindsay.

The art world is bracing itself for further damaging revelations after an auctioneer claimed he and others were aware of valuable fakes that were passing through auction rooms.

“It’s been common knowledge for a while – we knew this was going to blow,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“Nobody wanted to undermine confidence in the industry. Like it or not, the truth is now going to emerge.

“Of the dozen or so d’Arcy Doyle works that came in over the past year, I could only be certain that he painted four. There were three or four which he most definitely didn’t.

“d’Arcy was not a prolific painter and yet in recent times, there has been a never-ending stream of fresh works. We suspected then, as we do now, that they are coming in from China.”

The Art World Braces for a Flood of Fakes (Sydney Morning Herald)