How to Distinguish an Authentic

Phi from a Fake?

In Viet Nam, there are as yet no art
experts trained in a regular
academic programme or qualified in
this domain. Prospective buyers of
paintings of famous Vietnamese
artists, especially of Bi Xun Phi,
cant help getting anxious about
deceits if they fall across a fake?
This is in fact a not infrequent
occurene in the current art market.
Then, how to tell original paintings
from copies? This has actually
become a real know-how which is
based upon some essential
elements: experience and intuition;
in an instant, a real connoisseur can
tell which is authentic and which is
fake in a scientific and equitable
manner. To reach such an insight,
you must understand Bi Xun Phi
thoroughly, know well his different

stages of creation, each of which

corresponds to a specific frame of
mind in a particular circumstance of
his life, this requires of you a very
refined perception, a personal
experience of the ups-and-downs of
the last century, that is to say, you
must be the artists contemporary to
get in communion with his
experiences and his themes of
creation. Only so can you unmask
Phi fakes, basing yourself on
slightest, most unexpected details.
Almost all Phis works spring from
sincerity and realities of lfe, it is why
they always move the viewer, which
fakes can never do. A true
connoisseur of Phi, in looking at a
portrait done by him, could tell
whose likeness it is, when it is
painted; looking at a Phis
streetscape, he could tell which
street corner it is, when it is done, on
what spot of the painting the artist

would like to put his signature (Phis

signature also forms part of the
composition of the painting and the
way hed sign it depends on how he
paints it and on its size and the
medium used as well). A pecularity
easy to notice: Phi is possessed of
an artistic style of his own, a very
personal, unimitable and impossibleto-hand-over one that contributes to
his success. It is also appropriate to
remind that the artist died more than
20 years ago (1988), so every
painting of his people can see dates
back to decades earlier and thus
bears marks of time. Another thing
no less important any prospective
buyer of a valuable painting had
better know about: its pedigree
who it has belonged to? how and
where its present owner has
acquired it? the reputation of its
owner?... Vietnamese professional
art collectors only need to know the

identity of the owner of some

painting of some celebrated artist to
decide whether it is worth interest or
not. This means that the repute of
the owner answers for the quality of
the painting.
The Traffic in Forged Paintings as
I Know
Everybody knows well that a forged
painting does not come from
nowhere. There must be some faker
painstakingly copying from some
original or simulating the style of
some famous artist to bring it about
with a false signature with a view to
making money in a crooked manner.
I dont believe there are any artists
whod deign to do such a
contemptible job, since every artist
is conscious that ince being borne
into the world, one must leave some

good name with the mountains and

rivers . If an artist cannot attain this
objective, hed be nothing more than
a walking skeleton, his lifed be a
mere moving from the cradle to the
tomb, whether it lasts 75 or 95 years
makes no difference! What I means
is this: the forgeries of Vietnamese
celebrated artists, in general, and of
Bi Xun Phi, in particular, are
mainly the products of incompetent
draftsmen or of some jobless art
students, just worthless stuff easily
identified as fakes by professional
artists. Counterfeits appear with the
emergence of the market economy. If
you chance to buy a bottle of false
wine and drink it, you may have
belly ache, but eventually, it will be
egested through digestive process,
and then, theres no evidence left of
it. It is not the same with fake
paintings. Just take a sucker who
unluckily gets beguiled into buying a

fake. Back home, hed hang it at a

place of honor in his house, exulting
at having acquired a work of a
master at such a cheap price. But his
jubilation is short-lived: a few days
later, an art connoisseur happens to
drop by and unveils the hoax; and
then the poor host blows his top,
arms himself with a stick to go get
the gallery owner to have a serious
talk with him. In most of the cases,
if the sold fake is unmasked, the
gallery owner would swallow the pill
and pay back the deluded buyer to
smooth things, otherwise this local
customer would threaten to set fire
to the racket right away. To avoid
such incidents, in case a galleryowner wants to palm off fakes on
some customers, hed pick some
foreigners or overseas Vietnamese,
its safer because these people know
next to nothing about Phis style.
On the other hand, when the buyer

brings the piece back home, there is

no chance that some connoisseur
friend of his would drop by and
reveal the truth. Another tell-tale
point: forged paintings are generally
sold at very cheap price (For
instance, the average price of an oil
painting by Bi Xun Phi, size
60cmX80cm, usually ranges from
US$15,000 to US$25,000, wheras a
fake Phi of the same medium and
same size would only goes at
US$2,000 or US$3,000, sometimes
even a mere few hundred).
To my knowledge, pratically most of
the well-known art collectors of the
second generation such as Trn Hu
Tun, Bi Quc Ch, Huy Bc,
Dng Vnh Li, Danh Anh have got
to pay study fees for their
inexperience in their early days as
collectors: at least 2 or 3 times, they
got forgeries on their hands and had
to incur the ensuing consequences

(professional collectors know well

that sooner or later, fakes would be
exposed and troubles would follow).
These lessons served them well
and at present, they have become
specialists versed in Phis paintings.
The heyday of the traffic of forgeries
in Vit Nam started in the early
1990s Lets mention some names
Vietnamese professional collectors
only know too well: Mme Hui, the
owner of L Vng gallery in
Hongkong, Mr H Thc Cn, an
overseas Vietnamese in Hongkong,
the South Korean collector Sambon
Koo (each of these people have a
group of Vietnamese guide). Each
of them had bought and sold at least
50 Phi fakes, both in oil and in
gouache. On what evidence do I
base myself to affirm that? Simply
because they profusely printed those
forgeries in reviews and books in
their home country. And during my

stay in the U. S. in 1995, the

collector Ph B Quang, a banker in
the U.S., showed me about 20
paintings he had bought, all of them
fakes, lamentable, ugly botcheries!
For these counterfeits, Mr Ph B
Quang had paid Mr H Thc Cn a
tidy little sum! Some time later, I
received a thank-you letter from the
collector in the U.S. who said he had
flown to Hongkong with all those
forgeries to give them back to Mr H
Thc Cn and had recuperated the
whole sum. Some more about the
collector H Thc Cn: After this
incident, he once again came to Vit
Nam to see me.What is unexpected
and interesting as well is that
instead of picking a quarrel with me
as I had suspected, he unbosomed
himself to me: Im also a victim.
And that was the last words I heard
from the mouth of thatscandalous
collector! It is said that he died a few

yeas ago after a very costly yet

hopeless attempt to change kidneys.
Since Bi Xun Phis death, I lost
count of the numberless cases when
I had been confronted with forged
paintings and consulted by victims of
the fakers. Many customers came to
me for advice before buying some
expensive paintings. I always follow
an unshakeable principle: to say the
truth. If the painting is fake, Im
intransigent, no matter who is the
seller. Once I affirm that such-andsuch piece is authentic or false, I
willingly hold myself responsible for
my statement. I do that as my duty
without receiving a cent from
whoever comes to ask me to
authenticate a Phi. The number of
such consulting callers amounts so
far to more than 50, including
Vietnamese. French, Koreans,
Japanese, Americans And in nearly
20 years after Bi Xun Phis death,

I identified no less than 100

paintings of all sizes and media as
counterfeits. By so doing, I helped
those Vietnamese and foreign
customers who consulted me avoid
the blunder of squandering at least
US$.200,000 on fakes. The Hanoian
art collector, for one, I spared him an
aggregate waste of at least
US$20,000 which otherwise would
be expended for nothing. from time
to time he would bring some
painting to ask for my advice and
after being told that its a fake,
would hurry up to give it back to the
seller and recuperate the advance. In
the end, he brought over an
authentic Phi with the same
question: is this a genuine Phi? And
this time, my answer is yes.
However, the collector showed no
sign of elation, he owned that it was
not for sale, they just want you to
assess it. Well, do you know what

enables me to tell the truth from

falsity? In addition to the knacks I
revealed in my previous article, there
are another tip which seems
insignificant but which would permit
you to distinguish truth from falsity
without scrutinizing the painting; it
consists in watching the reverse
side. You may be unaware of it, but
the reverse side of a Phi has its own
language that speaks volumes.