A 22-year-old student bought unknown work from the French cubist André Lhote for a few hundred euros on Marktplaats. The work has since been recognized by the Association André Lhote and is included in the catalog raisonné.
For a moment, doubts struck when Bob Scholte (22) saw the painting for the first time in real life in June. There was a haste, the recently graduated historian realized. Two hours earlier he had found the painting of a sitting woman on Marktplaats. It seemed real and therefore had to “get off the internet as soon as possible”.
Now he stood in a living room in Bloemendaal with owners who asked a few hundred euros for the work of art from their family property. They said: “You may want to buy something nice, but we don’t know about it.”
Did Scholte know enough about it? After the summer he would not start his master’s degree in art, market and connoisseurship at the VU University in Amsterdam, but the photos on Marktplaats were convincing, he thought: “It was in an authentic frame and on the back was original old paper.”
It could therefore be a real work of art by the French cubist André Lhote (1885-1962). But what were those white dots that he saw in Bloemendaal? Damages? Cavities? And wasn’t it overconfident, he now says, to think that he could discover a Lhote, moreover one that had been offered on Marktplaats for two weeks?
Scholte grew up with art, his grandfather traded in art and antiques, his mother too. They did not recommend the profession to him: too insecure. That is why he initially went to study history: “Not that you necessarily find a good job with it.” He eventually went on to do art history anyway. This spring, he enrolled in the Amsterdam master’s program, which he describes as “a stepping stone to becoming an expert, as with Between art & kitsch”.
The student also registered with the Chamber of Commerce as Bob Scholte Art. He decided to visit auctions and antique shops more often and also regularly checked eBay and Marktplaats. Caution is advised on such advertising sites, Scholte knows: “There are many forgeries to be found. The canvas or panel is not old, the varnish layer is not yellowed, the frame is new. There are always mistakes. ”
But Marktplaats had also brought him luck, because here he had discovered artist André Lhote with the search term “cubism” (his favorite period). Admittedly thanks to a drawing that turned out to be a forgery, but still.
The Dutch mainly think of Picasso and Braque when it comes to Cubism, but Lhote is well known in France. For some time it even ran its own art academy in Paris, where, for example, Henri Cartier-Bresson was taught, just like Louise Bourgeois and Tamara de Lempicka.
Despite those white dots, Scholte bought the painting. Now he had a signed work from Bloemendaal, “but it was not yet real. You cannot expect that for this price. I like to watch Fake or Fortune (a British TV program about assessing and appraising works of art, ed.) And there you really see the most beautiful forgeries. In that program, the highest achievable is to get a work of art in the catalog raisonné, the oeuvre catalog. I thought, I’m just trying. ”
That is how it happened that Scholte traveled to Paris that same month with “a nice suitcase” with his purchase. He dared not hope for anything. The Frenchwoman with whom he had an appointment, Dominique Bermann Martin, probably didn’t have too high expectations either. Most of the works of art that she gets to judge as director of the Association André Lhote are forged. She has approved all works that are hammered at renowned auction houses, such as the work that was recently auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for 423,000 euros.
The meeting took place in the afternoon in the lobby of Scholte’s hotel. First of all, Bermann Martin studied the painting, she admired “the accurate brushstrokes”. She wanted to take a look at the back of the work. Because the list was nailed shut, Scholte tried to get hold of a pair of pliers at the hotel reception: “ They didn’t know the English word pincers, I didn’t know the French word. ” Armed with a heavy toolbox, he returned to Bermann Martin, who was amused himself at the young Dutchman. “She said,” Aha, are we going to play dentist now? ”
Once unpacked, she quickly finished her judgment: “Mister Bob, I need high-resolution photos for the oeuvre catalog.” Suddenly, Scholte had an unforeseen problem: he was staying in the Student Hotel with a work of art that was suddenly worth tens of thousands of euros. So he took his nice briefcase and contents with him to dinner that evening in the Marais.
Scholte’s master’s program has now started. The first week that he was back in class, he received the certificate of authenticity from Paris. Lhote’s oeuvre is extensive, the oeuvre catalog includes some four thousand painted works, Dominique Bermann Martin said when asked. When she will publish the book, she does not know yet: “I am far from done with my research.”
For example, together with Scholte she tries to find out who the woman in this portrait is. The student doubts whether to keep his artwork or to sell it to recoup his investments, such as the trip to Paris and its restoration. “The memories of this find will never be lost.”
During the restoration it became clear what the white spots were: latex paint. Apparently someone had once whitened a wall without protecting the painting. “Fortunately, that can simply be removed with water.”
