Thawan’s son urges collectors to check authenticity of paintings

The son of the deceased national artist Thawan Duchanee on Monday called for owners of paintings reputedly done by Thawan to have them verified to ensure that they were genuine.

Doytibet Duchanee said he has learnt that some people were lured to pay large sums of money for fake paintings out of the belief that they were Thawan’s work.
 “I would like to call on those who bought the paintings of my father to come out to check whether they are fake or not. Information I have received suggests some were sold fake paintings claimed as works of my father for large prices ranging from Bt100,000 to Bt1 million.”
Thawan’s Baan Dam Museum will verify the paintings for them, he said.
Doytibet was speaking during a visit to Bangchan police station in Bangkok to submit additional evidence to back up his complaint that a total of 113 paintings of his father went missing from a Bangkok house.

He said that police have confiscated six paintings from people and told him to come to examine them and to verify them. 
He said he was accompanied to the police station by Woranan Chatchawaltipakorn, a national artist on visual arts (photography) who would check whether they were works of Thawan or not.
Woranan spent about an hour checking the paintings and later confirmed that they were Thawan’s artworks.
He added that anyone who wished to buy Thawan’s works should purchase those with certification issued by Baan Dum Museum.
In his allegation that the 113 paintings went missing from a Bangkok house, Doytibet has pointed a finger toward his stepmother, who lived in the house.
Thippachat Wannakul, 71, Thawan’s common-law wife of 30 years, dismissed the suggestion.
Doytibet and Thippachat have been feuding since Thawan died in September 2014, as each separately sought a court order to be appointed the executor of Thawan’s estate.
The son told reporters that he also informed police about two possible Thawan paintings he found posted last year on the Facebook page of a photo-framing shop.
He thought that a customer had asked the shop to put the painting into a frame, with the shop’s owner taking the photo for reference.
“I believe that a Buddha amulets expert in Pathum Thani province and a paintings collector in Chon Buri province have my father’s paintings,” he said.