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The Ant and Dec Art Scandal. · Mark and Pete

• 0:05
  The Ant and Dec art scandal Welcome to Mark and Pete and
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  this episode we're looking at anti Dec reportedly getting
• 0:15
  mixed up in something which raised a case questions about
• 0:19
  authentication and profits. In other words, a real scandal.
• 0:23
  Yes, this is Mark and Pete 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. Popular art that is signed and
• 0:34
  named can be bought to be privately claimed until you're
• 0:38
  conned and then ashamed. It's then that you know that
• 0:42
  you've been framed Well indeed. Yes, Ant and Dec Yes, The famous
• 0:48
  TV presenters have been asked at a High Court judge to help them
• 0:53
  obtain information about deals in which they bought and sold
• 0:57
  Banksy artworks after claiming an intermediary took secret and
• 1:01
  unauthorized profits. Now the TV host said that they
• 1:05
  paid £550,000 for one set of Banksy works, but the seller
• 1:12
  apparently only received 300,000.
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  So the query is, Mr. Pete, what did you do with the £250,000?
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  Yes, good question. Yes, I don't worry, I'm keeping
• 1:24
  it safe for expanding user. Base it is extraordinary, isn't
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  it? So I ask you when you come in
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  with something like this Ant and Dec famous celebrities, of
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  course, and this is sort of what's raised the the point, but
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  they are not the only ones that have been scammed in this way.
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  There are many others that we can talk about, but the fact is
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  is that substantial sums have gone missing and it's about the
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  being hoodwinked, isn't it? We all like art.
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  We all get embroiled with with names like Banksy and many
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  others, but somewhere down the line some people see this as an
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  opportunity for. Fraud.
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  Yes. Why is that?
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  Yes, Well, I, I think it's a natural tendency, often called
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  avarice. When there's an opportunity to
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  make more, especially money effectively for nothing, people
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  are going to want to take advantage of it.
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  And The thing is that this is, is a serious problem, not
• 2:27
  because of just because of people being duped to money
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  going missing, but because truth matters.
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  Authenticity, authenticity rather matters.
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  Integrity matters. Once it grows, then you, you
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  don't see it straight away, but you get more and more of it.
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  And the whole of the trust factor and also the joy of, of
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  art disappears when you just don't know whether you're being
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  conned or not. The whole, you know, the whole
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  of society could crumble and your enjoyment of life can
• 3:00
  dissipate away when there's too much lying and untruthfulness.
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  They, it just does matter. I mean, it seems like I may be
• 3:09
  over egging it, but it, it, it, it does matter.
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  I've seen seen it happen time and time again when people have
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  have been enjoying maybe some art or maybe a performance, but
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  when they see a lack of integrity or extreme poor
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  morality of the person involved that suddenly the, the joy
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  evaporates from it. So this, this is very important,
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  you know, yes, in terms of a financial integrity level, but
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  also just for the good of society as a whole.
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  Well, indeed, now Ant and Dec enlisted the consultant who was
• 3:42
  not named in the chord but referred to as X.
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  Now I just rather unfortunate name, not the former Twitter
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  oddly, although I think the name X on that front is a bit weird
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  in itself, but called X and simply to be able to help them
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  buy and sell the artworks. Now the fact of the matter is
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  intermediary is I guess a very common place in artworks.
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  I mean, obviously they're very well known firms.
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  There are very well known consultants throughout the world
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  and they are specialists in their field.
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  But what is I think really unfortunate here is that it's to
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  your point, it's the integrity of the industry because we've
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  seen and we've talked about this before, that although this is a
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  slightly different form of fraud, we focus on things where
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  we've had, you know, paintings which are basically false.
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  They're they're, they're basically fake artwork.
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  But in this particular case, we've clearly got an
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  intermediary that is creaming off some money which should be
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  going to other people, IE the Jews are meant to be going
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  somewhere else. What do you do?
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  How do you claw back that money? And I suppose the other thing,
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  and we do need to be clear on this, is that we don't know who
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  the name of the intermediary is because they haven't been named
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  yet. Maybe that will surface.
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  But either way, there's also the other point, which is the devils
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  in the artwork, the detail. What was the contract because we
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  now need to know well, what was the Commission?
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  Because of course, obviously commissions can vary.
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  There are some standard ones, sometimes big, you know, art
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  dealers will you know, possibly charge up to 20% of a of a
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  transaction, whereas others might only charge ten, 5%
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  etcetera. So I think that maybe this this
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  is a little bit of a sensational mix.
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  I mean, this is great for, I guess bringing antidep back to
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  the yet again in the media. They're very good, aren't they
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  at at sort of a high profile activity?
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  I know that in this particular case, it appears as though
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  they've paid all in, in all good faith.
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  But somehow this this hasn't really worked out very well for
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  them, has it? No.
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  And, and, and I suppose what we can, what we can see here is
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  the, it's when business takes over part, you know, where,
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  when, as soon as there's a lot of money involved, you're going
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  to get intermediates as you intermediaries, as you've just
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  discussed. And when there's a lot of money
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  involved, even more, you're going to get fake intermediates
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  or intermediaries who are able to, you know, inflate the
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  amounts needed or have them funnelled in the wrong
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  direction. You could, I mean, it's almost
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  as though you can end up with an intermediary selling a, a Banksy
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  painting and going through all the procedure that you don't
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  actually, you don't actually involve the one person who you
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  thought might be involved and that is the artist.
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  You have endless chain of intermediaries and it doesn't
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  well like right, maybe it has got that.
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  Far but. You know, this is the issue with
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  any sort of artistic endeavour. Once you get money involved, it,
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  it, it, you end up intermediaries getting in the
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  way. Maybe, maybe we should stop
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  paying for art and, you know, just make it ourselves.
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  Well, indeed. Well, interestingly the judge
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  has said that they will rule very soon on whether the order
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  is there to disclose the actual intermediary.
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  But at the end of the day, however we look at it, art and
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  deck are in. The dock.