Refraction

African Arts, Spring, 2004 by Herbert M. Cole

In a First Word essay entitled "A Crisis in Connoisseurship?" in the Spring 2003 issue of African Arts, I made reference to unscrupulous dealers who sell bogus or suspect African tribal art for high prices, describing them as "frauds" and "presumably punishable." I accused shops selling such objects of giving great African sculpture a bad name, and I quoted William Fagg as saying "fakes are the work of the devil and a sin against art." I said "enlarged" and "crude" copies do aesthetic violence to venerated and venerable works of art.

   I then wrote the following:

   I saw a recent version of the famous
   Horniman Museum "Afo"
   (or Northern Edo) maternity figure,
   aggrandized and with an "antique"
   surface, in a San Francisco shop a
   few months ago. I wish I'd had the
   presence of mind to ask the price.
   I believe it was being sold as an
   authentic old piece, and I'd guess
   it was priced at over $15,000.

I did not mean to disparage any individual or the San Francisco shop in question, nor did I intend to imply that I had conducted any scientific investigation to determine the authenticity of the object. I apologize for any contrary implication, and I hereby make a complete retraction. I should not have included those sentences in my First Word essay.

Herbert M. Cole

Emeritus Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara