Aboriginal art Aussie blog

The sender of the email mentions what is purportedly her name, Mary ------, as well as the name of her Balinese friend, Benjo -------.

“Mary” states: “Benjo has sent me an email asking for assistance as he has not had any work orders for 3 months and this is putting his business under financial pressure.”

The email was sent from an Australian ISP email address and according to IP addresses, appears to have been sent from Perth (through an ISP in Perth), then via a reseller ISP in Melbourne.

Australia Gift Shop receives email offers similar to the abovementioned one on an almost weekly basis from suppliers of dodgy Aboriginal-style art made in South-East Asia.

This practice is a serious threat to the Australian Aboriginal art market because of the extremely low prices offered by the suppliers. In fact, 12-inch hand-painted boomerangs are priced below one dollar ( both Australian and American dollars ) and 20-inch ones are priced under two dollars. Prices are listed in the email and an image of five of the authentic-looking fake Aboriginal art boomerangs is attached to the email.

 To view true blue authentic Aboriginal art, begin browsing product displays in our online gift shop are at www.australiagift.net/categories.asp in US$ or at http://www.australiagift.net/australia/categories.asp in Australian dollars (AU$).

Customers can either place an order through our online shopping cart or order and pay over the phone with their MasterCard or Visa credit card or debit card.Those in the latter group of customers usually phone us while they are browsing our online shop. This allows for instant answers to queries about our products that they are viewing in the online shop product displays. To cater to customers who prefer not to use their credit card, debit card or an online PayPal account, we provide the option of paying by Direct Deposit or Internet Banking Transfer (usually within Australia only).

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After speaking with the owner of an Alice Springs art gallery, he then phoned me several times to discuss some of the details of email offers Australia Gift Shop receives almost weekly from suppliers of dodgy Aboriginal-style art made in makeshift factories across South-East Asia.

 

After publication of his news article on Christmas day, he gave me permission to put it up on our website. The article is titled “Ridgy-Dodge”.

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THE owner of a leading Alice Springs-based art gallery has urged people to beware fake indigenous artworks -- many of which imitate Central Desert designs, but are created in Asia.

The alert from Gallery Gondwana's Roslyn Premont follows an investigation by the Centralian Advocate into a push by Asian factories making fake art to sell to Aussie art retailers.

Ms Premont said yesterday: ``It is simply robbing people of their livelihood -- art is really the only main way some indigenous people manage to earn an income.

``This practice is not respectful of the artists, the consumers or gallery owners who make an honest living.''

Ms Premont said she had seen a village in Indonesia with factories making fake Aboriginal art.

But, she had thought Australian Customs had cracked down on the trade and it was now much smaller, if it existed at all.

One online art retailer told the Centralian Advocate the fake Aboriginal art trade was thriving and ``a crying shame''.

Australia Gift Shop owner Adrian King ( www.australiagift.net ) said he regularly received offers of fake products from Indonesia, Vietnam and The Philippines. The exporters offer bulk supplies of everything from souvenir didgeridoos to boomerang key rings.

He said he got emails almost weekly from suppliers of dodgy Aboriginal-style art made in makeshift factories across South-East Asia.

Mr King said: ``There is a lot more coming through now.''

``There's a lot of these little weird websites that replicate fairly accurately authentic Aboriginal art.

``It's a serious threat and we don't know how much it has infiltrated the Australian market, but it is definitely a threat.''

He said one email said it had already sold products to Australian businesses.

Mr King said he had emails from several Asian operators who claimed to be wholesaling genuine works, but had no contact details for them other than emails -- some of which were under a free web-based email network.

One such email stated: ``We are based in Indonesia, hand-painting Papua (New Guinea) and Aboriginal-style paintings better than the ''locals'' can produce.

We only have a small team, maybe maximum 300 paintings a month, we are not up to factory scale and we do not copy anyone's paintings.''

The email said the supplier could sell 100cm by 75cm unframed acrylic-on-canvas artworks for $10 to retailers.

The list showed a fake 135cm didgeridoo could be bought for just $9.82 Australian -- a price that no authentic Australian Indigenous art supplier could compete with.

It also listed a round eight inch plate with familiar Central Desert designs wholesaling for $1.27 in Australia.

Ms Premont said she had similar plates, but they were authentically hand-painted by artists from Keringke Arts at Santa Teresa in Central Australia, which would sell at retail price for about $132.

She said: ``There's no way anyone who actually supplies real Aboriginal art can compete with such prices.''

The Trade Practices Act 1974 prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct by Australian corporations.

But another part of the Act deals with the ``country of origin'' of products, such as a piece of Indonesian wood, carved into a boomerang, painted in Australia and sold as Aboriginal art.

Ms Premont said retailers and art centres needed to take responsibility and refuse to buy such products.

Most consumers would pay more money if they knew -- and had evidence -- that such work was original and authentic.

``To tackle this, it's going to take a duty of care from everybody in the industry as well as consumers.

``Maybe it is an indicator that the indigenous art sector has come of age when people start making fakes.''

© Copyright. All rights reserved. Centralian Advocate. Edition 1 -FRI 25 DEC 2009, Page 001: news article “RIDGY- DODGE” by Daniel Burdon.

To view ridgy-didge (NOT ridgy-dodge), authentic Aboriginal art, begin browsing product displays in our online gift shop are at www.australiagift.net/categories.asp in US$ or at http://www.australiagift.net/australia/categories.asp in Australian dollars (AU$).

Many of our customers use our online shopping cart to order while others prefer to place their order and pay over the phone with their MasterCard or Visa credit card or debit card.They usually phone us while they are browsing our online shop. This makes it easy for us to discuss products that they are viewing in our online shop displays. For customers who prefer not to use their credit card, debit card or online PayPal account, we provide the option of paying by Direct Deposit or Internet Banking Transfer (usually within Australia only).

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