So it has come to this, eh?
Georgina Adam reports that the authentication issue has become so fraught that a dealer just this week attacked the Giacometti Foundation’s director in a fit of frustration over a pair of lamps:
A Parisian art dealer took two lamps to the Giacometti Foundation to have them authenticated. He was told they were counterfeit and at a meeting the whole thing degenerated into verbal and physical aggression. The dealer, along with two companions, are now facing charges of attempted theft and violence. Véronique Wiesinger, the foundation’s director, said this was typical of “tension in the art market, with enormous financial pressures, and which will only increase”. She will be hiring extra security staff as a result of the incident.
