5 Art Scams Every Art Buyer Should Know—and How to Avoid Them

Art Market

Whether we like to admit it or not, scams are present in virtually every corner of the art world. As an industry beholden to few regulations and where significant amounts of money are exchanged, opportunities for unscrupulous behavior abound.

Scams can come in all shapes and sizes, like the infamous scandal at the 165-year-old Knoedler Gallery, which closed in 2011 after it was revealed that they had sold dozens of forged artworks. But they can also be less obvious and mirror the tactics used by scammers in other industries, such as phishing for personal details and sensitive information.

Thankfully, there are ways to self-educate, as well as trusted professionals who can help instill confidence in the art-buying process. Here are five of the most common art scams and how to avoid them.

Forgeries

Forged artwork is perhaps the best-known art world scam. This can include fake works purporting to be real, copies of known pieces, and even larger works cut into multiple smaller ones. Forgeries can even come with fake certificates of authenticity.

Cases of forged art have been documented worldwide. In 2024, Italian officials seized over 2,100 fake artworks of artists like Gustav Klimt and Salvador Dalí. Together, the forged works were estimated to be valued at over $265 million. This past spring, police shut down a workshop in Rome that was discovered creating forgeries of pieces by Banksy, Andy Warhol, and others. Examples abound, and entire books have been written on the topic.

While buyers can avoid forgeries by doing diligence, asking questions, and working with reputable dealers, artists can also protect themselves by keeping an inventory of their artwork. They can work with their gallery or a scholar to create a catalogue raisonné, a comprehensive list of art with details of materials and dimensions, as well as its ownership and where it was shown.

Forgeries can also extend to real artworks where value is inflated, which can happen when a print is claimed to be a unique work, for example, or when false provenance is added to make something seem like it has historical importance. “I had a client once call me thrilled about an Andy Warhol he bought at an upscale boutique in Vegas for a ‘great’ price,” Rachel Greene, founder of Art & Advisory WEST, told Artsy. “Upon investigation, it was a piece of Warhol’s wallpaper, which values very differently from a print, but my client didn’t know this. It was stamped, but not signed.”

To avoid this, Greene emphasized the importance of asking questions and working with a reputable advisor. Read more about how to make sure you’re not buying a forgery here.

Phishing

In the internet age, phishing—sending messages purporting to be from a reputable figure in order to extract information such as passwords or credit card details—is a problem that extends far beyond the art world.

Scam emails pretending to be popular marketplaces like Amazon and Apple, asking to update credit cards, are commonplace. When buying art, this can take a similar form with emails pretending to be from a gallery containing links to payments. Some galleries advise buyers not to send sensitive information like wire details in writing and request that they call to share it verbally.

Phishing can also occur on social media. “I recently was contacted via LinkedIn about a significant Pablo Picasso painting that needed to be sold discreetly,” said Greene. “The person contacting me had a LinkedIn page but was not in the art world,” Greene asked for more information, and the person said he was close friends with the seller’s advisor. “Red flag. I was out.”

Several details, she explained, felt off. “I had the sense his messages were written by ChatGPT,” Greene said. “Then dinner invitations followed; each correspondence was wildly off-key. A sea of red flags.”

Paying attention to red flags or anything that feels remotely off is the best way to avoid a phishing scam. When in doubt, ask the person you’re corresponding with to speak on the phone–everyone can appreciate the need for caution.

Read more about how to keep an eye out for phishing in the art market here.

Fake buyers

This summer, The New York Times reported on a scam that the artist Emma Webster faced when she was contacted by someone claiming to be Lady Gaga asking to purchase a painting. Webster asked for proof of identification, and “Lady Gaga” sent a selfie, which satisfied the artist, and the deal was made. A few years later, Webster saw that the painting was headed to auction, which she’d explicitly asked her buyer not to do.

The article reveals a series of issues from the transaction, including a different recipient’s name on the original pickup forms. To her credit, Webster questioned the discrepancy, but her buyer, “Lady Gaga,” assuaged any doubt by saying the inconsistency was to protect the singer’s identity. Upon contacting the real Lady Gaga’s team, Webster learned the sale had been fraudulent. Webster reported the work as stolen, and its ownership is currently in limbo.

While a remarkable public example, this kind of fraud happens to various degrees behind closed doors and can come in many forms—duplicitous emails like “Lady Gaga’s” and fake websites, to name a few.

Indeed, a search for scams on the popular “Contemporary Art” board on Reddit reveals just how often questionable circumstances arise for both artwork owners and artists, with several users posting requests for commissions and other financial opportunities that they’re skeptical of. These interactions follow similar formats: flattering comments, vague or no specific references to the artist’s work, handsome price points, and poor grammar.

Often scams offer what seem like dream scenarios: guaranteed sales, swift transactions, and famous clients. These rewards are precisely what make someone go against their better judgment. As Bridget Moore, president of New York’s DC Moore Gallery, aptly explained: “If someone offers you something too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.”

“My advice to buyers is to work with trusted, reputable galleries and get referrals,” she added.

Bait-and-switch

Baiting buyers—advertising goods at a low price with the intention of substituting them for inferior alternatives—is a practice any industry is susceptible to. The art world is no exception. “A few times a year, we receive emails from people claiming to represent galleries, trying to sell works they likely don’t have,” said Rachel Cole, founder of Rachel Cole Art Advisory. “In some cases, these emails appear legitimate, even mimicking prior correspondence threads. When that happens, we always err on the side of caution—alerting the actual gallery in a separate thread and cc’ing known contacts. Thankfully, we’ve been able to catch these situations early and avoid any serious fallout.”

One New York–based collector shared a story about a scenario they faced in both a bait-and-switch and a pricing scam. The buyer met someone claiming to be an advisor while visiting galleries, and the advisor offered to help them find a painting by an artist they loved, but in their desired color of silver. The advisor said they had access to the piece they wanted, but when it came time to finalize the deal, the silver piece was no longer available (and, in fact, had never been on offer).

The buyers were set on making a purchase, and the advisor convinced them to acquire a similar piece in blue, essentially offering them the inventory they’d seen and previously passed on. At this point, the buyer had already agreed on a price for the silver piece and paid the same for the blue one. When it came time to collect the work, the buyer picked it up, asked the gallery about insuring the work, and found out they’d been charged $80,000 for a $70,000 painting.

Unfortunately, dangling the prospect of a silver piece had clouded the buyer’s judgment.

To be wary of these situations, ensure that you’re vetting the seller in question and contacting the gallery to be certain of the price.

Pricing scams

In an industry where negotiations are common, pricing is susceptible to unscrupulous practices.

This is particularly tricky when it comes to prints and multiples. While print publishers typically maintain a list of market values of their editions, dealers selling the prints can charge whatever they like, which can lead to a range of prices for the same edition. At times, there can be reasons for discrepancies, including whether the dealer has paid to frame the work. Reaching out to dealers to understand the nuances can help protect you as a buyer, and, when possible, the original publisher is the best source to confirm the market value.

In a global industry, there is also a potential for sellers to pad their prices with shipping, packing, and customs fees. While asking for proof of what the dealer paid for these services can help, this can be a gray area. If a dealer puts a painting on a consolidated shipment, it’s easy to obscure the cost of the individual work’s space on the shuttle.

In most situations, building trust and asking questions can avoid making a poor choice. “Don’t skip the due diligence,” cautioned Cole. “If you’re unsure where to begin, work with professionals who can guide you. The art world runs on relationships— knowing what to ask and who to ask makes all the difference. If a seller can’t answer basic questions or provide proper documentation, that’s a red flag.”

With so many pitfalls, it’s unsurprising that scams occur. Vetting the people you buy from and doing diligence with resources like online price databases, advisors, dealers, and a catalogue raisonné can help protect against scams. Ensure also that you’re buying from reputable entities and marketplaces: Artsy’s guarantee, for instance, offers a full suite of buyer protections on all transactions.

It’s also important to take your time. “Buyers who rush into deals or don’t ask the right questions are easy targets,” said Cole. “Impatience and lack of proper research only increase the risk.”