The Faun

"[1] For a decade the sculpture remained on display, and was part of a major joint exhibition on Gauguin with the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

However, following revelations about its existence at Greenhalgh's trial in 2007, The Faun was tracked down by The Art Newspaper to Chicago and exposed as a fake.

In October 2007, the Art Institute removed the statue from display, and announced that it was seeking compensation from Sotheby's.

Forgers typically focus on the lower priced artworks of major artists, for though they offer fewer returns, they are subject to much less scrutiny.

[7] Moreover, Gauguin himself had left just enough of a record to indicate he may have been interested in producing such an item, a drawing of a faun sculpture in a sketchbook from 1887.

[8] Greenhalgh was adept at obtaining and working in a wide variety of materials,[9] and not only used a stoneware that fitted in well with what Gauguin demonstrably used, he managed to produce something "which had no obvious features to reveal it as a modern fake".

Their catalogue raisonné had not yet been published when the sculpture was sold on 30 November, but the auction house had received a letter two weeks beforehand indicating The Faun's incorporation.

When the curator for the Art Institute of Chicago, Douglas Druick, saw The Faun he was reportedly "intrigued"[2] and "very keen to acquire it".

[8] What is known is that the purchase was funded, at least in part, by the Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment[1] and is associated with the estate of Suzette Morton Davidson.

In 2001, The Art Institute sculpture curator, Ian Wardropper, said it was one of the most important acquisitions in the last twenty years.

[2] On September 21, 2001, The Faun became part of a major exhibition, "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South".

Funding was unprecedented, with support from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and a $1.5 million grant from the Ameritech Foundation.

[13] The exhibition brought together works from "63 public and private collections around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, Japan and Russia".

[15] Joseph Harriss wrote in the Smithsonian: New findings from the archives and technical research using microscopic study, x-radiography, thread counts, and fiber- and paint-sample analysis have allowed curators to piece together an almost day-to-day picture of the ... collaboration [between Gauguin and van Gogh].

[1] The Art Institute was quick to emphasise, in a statement on its website, that the sculpture came with provenance from respected sources, and The Faun was "never a principal focus of the [Greenhalgh] investigation".

Because Greenhalgh's trial finished before the sculpture was revealed as a forgery, it was not impounded by police, but the Art Institute was reportedly in discussion about compensation with Sotheby's and the private dealer.