Art Prints: The Michigan Art Multiples Sales Act

You might like to have a look at expert  Skip Natzmer’s comments on this Michigan law dealing with art prints.  It includes this paragraph:

This clause forces the seller of ‘‘limited edition’’ ‘‘giclee’’ prints, now the most common form of reproduction, to disclose that they are not original prints. ‘‘Giclee’’ is simply a French word for ‘‘ink spray,’’ or another term for the ink jet printer. The fraud and misrepresentation in marketing these reproductions is surpassing the earlier abuses described above. To make a giclee print one merely scans the existing artwork, or a photo of it, into a computer and then prints it. Next, it is signed and numbered on the margin. Giclees are also being printed on canvas to resemble paintings. The creative input of the artist is limited to perhaps altering some colors, then pushing the print button. Discussing these prints one author states: ‘‘But these are not ‘prints’ in the way anyone in the professional art community would define them. These are reproductions—nothing more than fancy photocopies.’’ ‘‘The signed-reproduction market is a ruse,’’ says Toronto art dealer Donald Robinson, ‘‘and the problem is convincing the uninformed art buyer that these are not original prints.’’¹⁷ At prices often exceeding $1,000 per print, it is an expensive ruse.

Giclee Fraud Circles the Globe – What Can Be Done?

The News from Vancouver

Yesterday Andy MacDougall, longtime professional screen printer and Print Workshop Central‘s correspondent/sleuth in Royston, Vancouver Island, B.C., in Canada sent us a link to an article published a couple of weeks ago in the Vancouver Sun on one of our favorite subjects: giclee fraud. The author, David Baines, says, “I think I have found the perfect fraud. Perfect because, even though there is a mound of circumstantial evidence suggesting it is a fraud, I can’t prove it.”