Acquisitions

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For information about exhibitions, loans, internships or other forms of collaboration, please email us via the contact us page.

Witness Collection works hard to bring together paintings that have become dispersed all over the world. We are always interested in Vietnamese art works that fit our collection criteria - whether for potential acquisition or just to know about them. If you are the owner of art works that you believe may be of interest to our collection or you can introduce us to anyone who keeps interesting works, we would love to hear from you.

In particular, we are interested in works by artists who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine between 1925-45 or those who graduated from the art schools in the south of Vietnam prior to 1975. We are especially interested in works by Tô Ngọc Vân, Nguyễn Phan Chánh, Nguyễn Gia Trí, Lê Văn Đệ, Nguyễn Tương Lân, Lê Thi Lưu, Nguyễn Sáng, Nguyễn Khang, Huỳnh Văn Gấm, Dương Bích Liên and Tạ Tỵ. The painter Nam Sơn, co-founder of the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine, is an artist whose works we are always keen to uncover.

Paintings created in Vietnam by those French artists who were teachers at the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine and the art schools in the south of Vietnam are also of great interest to us. These include winners of the Prix d’Indochine: Victor Tardieu (1920), Paul Jouve (1921), Antoine Ponchin (1922), Jean Bouchaud (1924), Jules Besson (1925), Paul-Émile Legouez (1926), Raymond Virac (1927), Henri Dabadie (1928), Lucien Lièvre (1929), Louis Rollet (1930), Évariste Jonchère (1932), Jean Despujols (1936), Louis Batte (1938), as well as teachers Joseph Inguimberty, Alix Aymé and André Joyeux.

With certain artists, such as Bùi Xuân Phái and Nguyễn Phan Chánh, we can only evaluate important art works that are accompanied with a detailed provenance that we can verify. Unfortunately, due to the large number of imitation works attributed to such artists - many being offered for sale to unsuspecting visitors at “galleries” or antique stores in Vietnam, as well as by some notorious collectors and unsuspecting auction houses - we always need to undertake extensive due diligence before any acquisitions. We maintain a substantial database of materials and resources and are able to use a wide range of scientific and analytical techniques, as well as historical research, to assess authenticity. Most works by these artists that we have examined have turned out to be either direct copies or copies ‘in the style of’.

If you know of art works that you believe might be interesting for us, please send us an email and, preferably, some photos. We will be delighted to hear from you! Email us here.

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acquisitions