Word: goetze
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...time-honored way of deciding the authenticity of a work of art is to call in a few experts to pass on it. But experts may disagree, as Cinemagnate William Goetz knows all too well. Last week Goetz was the proud possessor of a Van Gogh painting which had been certified not by experts but by detectives-T-men of the U.S. Treasury...
Last week Owner Goetz, vindicated by the T-men, had the picture back in his possession, and back in a place of honor on his library wall in Los Angeles...
...Goetz's Van Gogh, entitled Sluay by Candlelight (TIME, June 6, 1949 et seq.), had been bitterly debated by top art experts of both the U.S. and Europe. Some declared it was genuine, others were convinced that it was forged. A jury of specialists appointed by Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum reported that the picture was suspiciously "strident in color, weak in drawing and uncertain in the modeling of the head" (TIME...
Such sniffs made Owner Goetz cross. He returned it to Europe for further study, then dumped the problem in the Treasury's lap by re-importing the picture and reasserting its genuineness-thus claiming free customs entry for it as an original work...
...accepted the challenge and applied finecomb methods of their own. First they determined that the paint was at least 60 years old. That was a major point for Goetz since it dated the painting from the days when the artist was alive, unknown, and of no interest to fakers or collectors either. Moreover, graphology experts ruled that the writing on the canvas was Van Gogh's-he formed his Vs, Ts and eights in peculiar ways that forgers could easily not have noticed. Finally, the T-men traced a mark of ownership on the back of the picture...