JR and Mopo This whole incident just spotlights the fact that it is getting damn near impossible for someone to authenticate a linen-backed poster (or a card stock-based poster that has had its original card stock backing replaced). This is a gross overstatement. To be honest, it is not at all "near impossible" to determine whether a linenbacked poster - or a lobby card, for that matter, is authentic or not. Now that I have handled a number of these forgeries, I feel confident that I know exactly what I'm looking at.
For example, the paper that was used to replicate so many of these one sheets is not at all hard to detect, as it is a thick stock laser copy paper! It is very, very different from a standard one sheet printed prior to, say, 1960. The process used to create the fake lobby cards and other formats are pretty obvious now, as well. That being said, it is certainly possible for the forgers to become more sophisticated in their methods. But, to accurately reproduce a one sheet on older stock with any degree of accuracy would surely cost the forger somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 or more, depending on the process perhaps a lot more. Of course, that's not a lot of money when one is talking about a poster with a fair market value of $30-$50,000 or more, but it is definitely a major investment. Therefore, the creation of a fake poster is not a process that someone undertakes lightly, I would think. In other words, the movie poster collecting hobby is currently alive and well (as I'm confident our upcoming Signature auction will demonstrate). The sky is NOT falling! Best, Grey Smith From: MoPo List [mailto:mop...@listserv.american.edu] On Behalf Of James Richard Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 1:30 PM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: [MOPO] DRACULA-gate and Profile's Part in it Steve, While I think Profiles did a poor job of presenting the poster with their low-quality pictures and initial sketchy description, they actually *did* take responsibility and do the right thing prior to putting it in their catalog -- they went to one of the most respected experts in the field and paid him good money to carefully inspect and authenticate the DRACULA poster and issue a certificate to that effect. The fact that the expert blew it isn't really their fault and they continued to behave responsibly once others started pointing out problems. Well, OK, the community actually had to beat them over the head about it, but hey, they had paid for a certificate of authenticity from a recognized expert, so why shouldn't they have stood by it as long as they did? I don't believe that prior to these revelations that anyone in movie poster collecting would have had anything but high praise for John Davis and his capabilities. So, PIH went to the best available, not some fly-by-night so-called "expert." This whole incident just spotlights the fact that it is getting damn near impossible for someone to authenticate a linen-backed poster (or a card stock-based poster that has had its original card stock backing replaced). This is why I've been saying that the restoration and backing operations have to police themselves, form an organization to determine standards and practices (including identifying seals and serial numbers in ink on the back of the linen which would be linked to public disclosure of what work is done). This organization would then issue an "underwriters laboratory" seal which a cooperating restoration operations would display, thus assuring their customers that they were complying with those standards and practices. But what about the forger who puts on a fake seal and serial number from some reputable restoration service? Thats why public disclosure is absolutely necessary -- because if anyone can look at that number on the back of the linen-backed poster, call up that operation to confirm the number and that it is the same poster they are looking at (and what work was done to it), then putting such fraudulent identifying marks on a fake would be useless -- and in fact would set off an immediate alarm that someone was trying to pull a fast one. The place to stop this fraud is on the restoration and backing tables. -- JR Steven F. Poole wrote: Bang up job on the letter, Rich. However, one area of all of this that I believe needs to be addressed is the responsibility of Profiles itself. The auction house is not a "victim," really, in this fiasco. As others have pointed out previously on this forum, the auction house which charges about 1/5 of the hammer price on an item MUST stand in the docket when the issue of fraud is raised. They (auction houses) wax enthusiastically about their offerings when it comes to advertising the wares that have been entrusted with on consignment. They (auction houses) take their pound of flesh on both ends in the form of consignment fees and buyer's premiums. They (auction houses) must be held accountable when they promote a poster that has a retail value of some $300 on the cover of their prestigious catalogue and estimate that same poster to have a possible auction value in the hundereds of thousands of dollars. Sad, Sad, Sad. state of affairs. Proclaimed "ignorance" of printing techniques is no excuse whatsoever as to their culpability in this thwarted attempted massive fraud upon the hobby. Steve Poole ( Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
