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Cuban Forgery Sting in Miami

August 16, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Ramon Cernuda is a Miami art dealer who knows his Cuban art. According to the Miami Herald, he was approached by a 78-year-old man who offered to sell him seven paintings for $85,000. He recognized the works as similar to ones reported stolen last month from a storage facility. Those 32 paintings have not been confirmed as authentic but Cernuda, who set up a sting to capture the pair offering the paintings when he realized the works were listed on an FBI report of stolen art, says at least four of the works offered to him are fakes:

Cernuda said he would have considered buying one of the paintings under different circumstances. Had one of them — “Ravanet” 1969 by Domingo Ravanet — been real, it would be worth $10,000, he said. The abstract oil-on-canvas painting used fluid greens, browns and oranges and “gives you the sense you’re imagining a dream,” Cernuda said. All seven paintings, also by Cuban modernist vanguards from the mid 1900s, would be worth about $90,000 if they were all originals, he said.

Probe into Theft of Cuban Paintings Continues (Miami Herald)

On the Lam

May 26, 2010 by

With only 5 lots carrying mid-estimates of $1 million or more, the Latin American sales this week aren’t going to be hotbed of record-breaking activity. There is, however, potential for at least one major upset: This week’s most highly estimated Latin American art work is Wifredo Lam’s Sur les Traces (est. $1,200,000-$1,800,000), which is offered at Sotheby’s on Thursday.

Since it was exhibited for the first time at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1945, the black and white composition has made its rounds among other members of the trade and comes to us now from a private collection in Aspen. If Sur Les Traces sells within its estimate, it will likely establish a new record for Lam. The Cuban artist’s existing auction high of $1,322,500, is now over a decade old—in part because large-scale Lam paintings like Sur les Traces rarely appear at auction.

So Sur les Traces has rarity going for it, but does it have any other attributes that suggest it will best Lam’s existing record? To find out what Sur les Traces has in common with other top-dollar Lams and for more on Lam’s market in general, see

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