Art Fraud In Australia

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What are the elements of the crime of fraud?
For there to be an art fraud investigation or prosecution proceeding there must be three elements that are needed to be present. There needs to be a level of deception from the defendant that shows a proof of deception. In the case of art fraud, the deception used by O’Loughlin was that he falsely attributed paintings to Clifford Possum, who had not painted them, showing the paintings were not authentic. The second element, requires there to be harm suffered by the victim from the deception. By O'Loughlin selling those paintings, there would have been a direct monetary loss for the buyer who had paid for a work that was thought to be by Clifford Possum. The third element, needs to show there is a level of intent and dishonesty, such that the defendant intentionally claimed the object was authentic when it was not. It was suggested O’Loughlin made the deception dishonestly, he knew the paintings were not produced by Clifford Possum. (Chappell & Polk 2008)

Why are so few cases of art fraud prosecuted in Australia?
There have only been 5 known cases of art fraud processed by the Australian court since 1977 to present. One reason for such low art fraud cases could be, difficulty of proving a case, which requires various elements to have proof, before a case can even be processed by the courts. One of the …show more content…

It illuminates the object with ultraviolet, which makes the object fluoresce out a longer wavelength of light, which can be used in the determining the pigments, and assist in the authentication of the object. Such a technique was used in the analysis of a of painting, ‘Village Scene with Horse and Honn & Company Factory’, that was suspected to be a forgery of the original (Smith et al. n.d). Ultraviolet fluorescence like chemical analysis also can be destructive, as a sample of the object is usually

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