As of today 05.03.2022 – 7 days from Kevin Vương’s initial Facebook post [1], 4 days from Art Republik’s article featuring Trần Tấn Lộc’s detailed, billingual biography by Kevin Vương [2], and 5 days from my article [3], the auction house Aguttes has displayed three questionable behaviours:

Firstly, Aguttes has amended the artist name for “Jeune élégante se coiffant” (1932) to Trần Tấn Lộc [4], but still with Trần Bình Lộc’s birth and death years (1914-1941). More importantly, the price estimate is still maintained at 80,000-120,000EUR, which was originally intended for a work by Trần Bình Lộc (historically, the hammered price could go up to 3-5 times of such).

According to an Aguttes representative, the in-house experts already had doubts on the work’s identification as a Trần Bình Lộc, but not yet knowing who the actual artist was. The right thing to do should have been to write “Attributed to Trần Bình Lộc”. Instead, Aguttes strongly confirmed it as a Trần Bình Lộc with the 80,000-120,000EUR estimate, featuring it on the catalogue cover – an intentional oversight. Upon knowing the answers now, the fact that Aguttes still maintains the same estimate is all the more a symptom of a questionable financial motive and a lack of respect for the customers.

Secondly, in their official notice [5], Aguttes has not only shaken off all responsibilities by highlighting that it was the previous auction houses’ mistake to “mislabel” (“gắn mác”) Trần Tấn Lộc’s work [see screen capture], but also positioned itself as the front-running party to take “a major step forward in the knowledge of 20th century painting” by “discovering the artist Trần Tấn Lộc” via “research conducted in concert with Vietnamese historians” [see screen capture]. The similar content is prominently featured on press articles on the upcoming sale, including Hongkong’s The Value [6].

This is entirely untrue. The front-runner in the correct identification of Trần Tấn Lộc was Kevin Vương (and his research team – none of whom is commissioned by Aguttes), and the only completed biography for the artist to date is written by Kevin Vương, with inputs and sign-offs from the artist’s surviving family members. Aguttes has copied 90% of Kevin Vương’s version [7, 8] to use in their latest catalogue [9], a) without attributing the source (from Kevin Vương and/or Art Republik), and b) despite a written note from Kevin Vương barring them from copying without approval. The auction house quietly and unilaterally amended the lot’s information, but because such was only copied and pasted without original knowledge production, the published biography still contains editing and factual mistakes in Kevin Vương’s original draft. Such actions on Agutte’s part are a violation of intellectual property, all in the name of “cultural enlightenment” in a rather condescending, neo-colonial fashion.

Moreover, Aguttes’ shifting the blame to previous auction houses is no fair play, because up until 16.02.2022, according to an email by an Aguttes representative in replying to Kevin Vương’s doubts on the work’s identity, it was Aguttes to cite these four auction houses to “strongly confirm [Trấn Bình Lộc’s] attribution” [see screen capture]. Such citings have been scrutinised in my previous post [10]. Now that the mystery has been solved by Kevin Vương, Aguttes has swiftly professed itself as the sole auction house to “discoverer” the artist, while all the other houses are mistake-bearers. Such a value system is arbitrary at best, borderlining on unethical.

Thirdly, during this very week, Aguttes continues to distribute the old printed catalogue with the misidentification without any correction note or sticker [see image]. These catalogues are still being given out at Aguttes’ presale exhibition at the time of writing, and have been sent off to potential bidders worldwide. According to our sources, the customers have received no additional communication from Aguttes to warn them on the misidentification. Moreover, the incorrect information has been quickly spread to other third-party auction information portal, e.g. Lot Art [11].

Therefore, on behalf of Vietnamese art community and the research community in particular, we hereby seek the immediate actions from Aguttes:

Firstly, to correct all wrongly published information on artist Trần Tấn Lộc and his works, on all communication channels on Aguttes’ upcoming 14.03.2022 sale, including: its website, e-catalogue, official notice, social media, and the third-party information portals.

Secondly, to amend the price estimate for “Jeune élégante se coiffant” to an appropriate level.

Thirdly, to issue an apology to scholar Kevin Vương for publishing his research results without citation or approval. If Aguttes has arrived at the same information independently, with other “Vietnamese historians”, you could name them.

Lastly, to recall all printed catalogues with the wrong identification of Trần Tấn Lộc to prevent market confusion.

At this juncture, we again emphasise the constructive response from another auction house, Asium, for their swift response to admit the error within 24 hours, with immediate correction of the past lot’s information.

According to trust sources, another highlight is that there have been at least 5 potential Vietnamese bidders who have withdrawn their intention to bid on this lot out of the lack of appreciation for Aguttes’ behaviours, and out of the disagreement with the price estimate. These collectors have sent their personal thanks to Kevin Vương, for without his timely research, they will have easily paid 400,000-500,000EUR for “Jeune élégante se coiffant”, thinking that that is a fair market estimate for a Trần Bình Lộc.

It seems like this is the first time in Vietnamese auction history for there to be a concerted effort by collectors to boycott an auction house based on ethics grounds. And it is high time for foreign auction houses in general to take a pause in their marathon chasing price records, to lend a listening ear to the collective voices from a culture once colonised by their nation(s), now turning around to help feed their economy in this new era.

Regards,

Ace Lê

04.03.2022