Criminals are using the Internet to take advantage of art lovers by selling forged or stolen paintings online. 

An art collector bought more than 20 paintings on eBay from someone. The paintings were advertised as lost masterpieces signed by famous artists. the art collector researched many of the pieces before buying them. But after he had spent approximately $60,000, he found out that many of the treasures he had bought were fakes. Two examples:

One of the forgeries was a painting of E.L. Blumenschein [1874-1960], a western landscape scene. The level of technique, the amount of style, was not near what a master artist like Blumenschein would have used.  Another telltale sign was hidden on eBay, but it is clear to experts that it's a sign of obvious fakery. In the lower left-hand corner is a Blumenschein signature, but Blumenschein's name is written backwards. So, whoever did this might have been trying to, in a rather amateurish way, copy Blumenschein's style, but even the person that created it -- or at least the person that put the signature on it -- did not intend that it ever be represented as a Blumenschein work. But in fact, that is how it was sold.

The professionals at Pretection are very experienced in analysing photos of products (paintings), or finding out the origin of the piece, on the Internet. Art lovers or the artists themselves can use Pretections services to identify copies or prevent them from being offered on the Internet.