Former PM to withdraw artworks from Bucharest Art Museum exhibition after claims of forgery

Adrian Năstase, prime minister of Romania between 2000 and 2004, recently decided to withdraw several artworks from the Victor Bauer exhibition hosted by the National Museum of Art in Bucharest following accusations that some of them are forgeries.

Paintings from Năstase’s family collection were exhibited at the National Museum of Art, or MNAR, as part of the "Victor Brauner, Between the Oniric and the Occult” exhibition. Two art historians and critics, however, said that some of them were forgeries.

Art historian Adrian Buga posted a message titled "Public Protest" on Facebook in which he states that “it is known that works from the collections of Adrian Năstase, Andrei Năstase, Mihnea Năstase have major authenticity problems.”

“I recommend that the MNAR urgently conducts a counter-expertise carried out by international experts on Brauner's work, to confirm or refute the allegations regarding the authenticity issues of the works from the collections of Adrian Năstase, Andrei Năstase, Mihnea Năstase. I have always fought against the sale of fake art objects, dedicating my time, professional activity, and experience to discovering only original works, and an original work, unlike a fake one, has an uplifting effect on the viewer's spirit and greatly aids the national culture, and in the case of Brauner - international,” Buga said, cited by HotNews.

“If counter-expertises prove that works with authenticity issues were knowingly introduced in the exhibition, then a committee must be established in which the exhibition's curator and the general director of the MNAR must argue the reasons for introducing these works in the Brauner exhibition. A serious error, especially when refusing to collaborate with museum experts or international experts, is to be the curator of exhibitions for painters you do not know and do not master," stated the art historian.

Buga also asked for the public release of the expert assessments of the artworks from Adrian Năstase's family collections, the research of the museum's experts who dealt with the Brauner exhibition, and the studies related to the provenance of the artworks from the collections of Adrian Năstase, Andrei Năstase, and Mihnea Năstase.

Earlier, art historian Pavel Șușară also said that three exhibitions at the National Museum of Art, the one dedicated to Victor Brauner among them, included fakes.