The Gallerist by Michael Levitt

Author:Michael Levitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

29. THURSDAY DECEMBER 5

Ray Clarke had been a journalist for over thirty years, an arts journalist for twenty-five of those, and now senior arts editor at the West Australian for a decade. Jonathan Bolton had experienced first-hand his boss’ insistence upon thorough fact-checking and grammatical precision, characteristics that had both irritated and inspired an entire generation of journalists under his guidance. Bolton couldn’t deny the excitement he sensed at the prospect of covering the potentially significant art forgery scandal that had been handed to him just half an hour earlier.

The West’s new chief editor, Jayne Lee, who had been in the job for barely two months, had first brought the story to Clarke as a matter of urgency. An irate Tony Peterson – who Clarke said he knew to be a successful businessman and a significant local art collector – had contacted the chief, calling upon their shared background in a major real estate firm, Peterson as a key business partner, Lee formerly an upwardly mobile head of marketing and public relations.

Bolton was trying to pull together the facts of the case with Clarke’s guidance. Bolton summarised. ‘Peterson says that he placed his trust in the gallery – belonging to a guy called Mark Lewis – but that there was no documentation of the original exhibition or purchase, only of a subsequent purchase of the same work through the same gallery. He quoted Melbourne-based gallerist James Devlin from today’s Age that there’s a new wave of high-quality fakes, including fake Dickersons. He was fully angry.’

Clarke frowned. ‘That might not be the precise phrase we include in the article, Jonathan. Now, I know Peterson, and everyone knows Devlin, but I’ve not heard of Mark Lewis. Sounds like he’s a small dealer so that could make it interesting. But running a story like this can ruin any gallery, even if there is no proof of forgery, so I want as much information as you can get. Have you got an image of the painting?’

Bolton explained that it was on Mark Lewis’ website as he accessed the site and the image on his mobile phone and showed it to Clarke. Clarke brought up the website on his desktop to gain a better view of the painting. Bolton knew that Clarke was an experienced arts reporter and was familiar with many of the artists whose works and exhibitions the West covered.

‘That Dickerson looks OK to me. I need you to speak to Mark Lewis, Jonathan. He will be able to explain the provenance of the painting and why he believes that it is genuine. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t already know that Tony Peterson is unhappy, so even how Lewis reacts to our approach might give us a clue as to what has happened. But we need to find out as much as we can before we run any story about this painting. Go speak to Lewis now.’

Jonathan Bolton was keen to expose the presumed forgery and concerned that he and the West would lose first bite at this story if he delayed.

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