Sotheby’s Hires Fraud Expert to Start New Research Department

The scientist James Martin — who for 20 years conducted art fraud investigations for the F.B.I. and played a central role in significant forgery investigations — is joining Sotheby’s. Credit via PR Newswire

Sotheby’s has hired a prominent art fraud expert to start a Scientific Research Department, the auction house announced on Monday.

The scientist James Martin — who for 20 years conducted art fraud investigations for the F.B.I. and played a central role in significant forgery investigations — will join Sotheby’s this week after the acquisition of his firm, Orion Analytical.

Mr. Martin’s firm helped Sotheby’s determine that a painting it sold privately to an art collector, “Portrait of a Man,” said to be by Frans Hals, was a “modern forgery.”

“Over time it became increasingly clear that rather than work on a one-off basis we could create something unique within Sotheby’s that would further distinguish us in the marketplace,” Tad Smith, Sotheby’s chief executive, said in a statement, “and at the same time help to make the art market a safer place.”

Mr. Martin — a scientist, art conservator and teacher — has taught at the Getty Conservation Institute, the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, and the F.B.I.’s Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit. He also holds academic appointments at New York University and Williams College.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/arts/design/sothebys-hires-fraud-expert-james-martin-orion-analytical.html