Artworks pulled from auction as late painter's family claims they are fakes

Police are understood to have visited the South Yarra auction house on Thursday morning after Wood's 80-year-old daughter, Ann Grocott, alerted Leonard Joel that 16 of the paintings for sale under her late father's name may be copies of those hanging in her home.

Wood gained international renown as "the Robinson Crusoe of art" during 60 years living and painting on Bedarra Island, in far-north Queensland.

"I was shocked to see that at least 16 of the works are owned by me. I have had them on my wall at home for 40 years," Ms Grocott wrote to the auction house.

"In my opinion ... the works you will be auctioning tomorrow are fakes."

She said she had had some of the works for 70 years, as they were given to her as a child by her father.

"They do not look like my father's individual way of painting and I know 16 of them are definitely frauds."

Speaking from her Bundaberg home, Ms Grocott said she was disturbed to see the works still for sale on the house's website on Thursday morning after she reported her concerns to the auction house on Wednesday.

"They were very reluctant to stop the auction, when I had already told them [many] were fakes," she said. "They have been in my family for years ... yet here they are up for sale."

Ms Grocott, also a painter, said the style was clearly not her father's.

"They are too bright, they're too loose, they're just not my father's brushwork which I know backwards and forwards. "It's obvious to anyone who knows Noel's work they would know this is not Noel's."

Artist Jannie Pugh, who lived with Wood on Bedarra for seven years, and became aware of the Leonard Joel auction on Wednesday, said she was "thrown off my balance" by the discovery. "I was just devastated," she said.

"The brush strokes are totally different, not as considered, the colouring is totally different, the names they've given the paintings are not the original names. The whole things its peculiar, it just doesn't ring true."

Respected Queensland art expert, Ross Searle, also emailed Leonard Joel on Wednesday voicing serious concerns about the authenticity of works.

Leonard Joel managing director John Albrecht confirmed the works had been withdrawn from auction on Thursday. He said the vendor was selling a deceased estate, but would not elaborate on the identity of the seller.

"The family have expressed concern ... we are happy to discuss it with the family if we have a situation where any third party expresses concerns about something we are selling. As long as they provide us with information. We are co-operating," he said.

He said the paintings would be off sale at least until discussions with the artist's family had concluded. "Our decision to withdraw the works is not under duress. It's because the family have provided us with enough information that we should look into their concerns."

He said "the usual checks" for authenticity would have been carried out on the works.

Mr Searle said he owned an original Wood painting, a duplicate of which appeared in Thursday's scheduled auction.

"My interest is in a work I currently own, which I saw a copy of in the Leonard Joel auction coming up today. I was concerned about that work, and one I owned previously [also in the online catalogue]; those works have been copied I believe, and presented for sale as original works by Noel Wood.

"I have curated quite a few shows about artists who painted around Dunk Island, for whom Noel was the champion. I have identified six works owned by public collections that reappear as paintings in that auction today."

Mr Searle said only 12 Noel Wood works had come up for sale since 2007, each fetching around $3000 to $4000.

Potential buyers told The Age at the Leonard Joel premises on Thursday that they felt the prices on the Wood works, which were in the low to mid-hundreds, were "suspiciously" low.

According to his daughter, Adelaide-born Wood drove with his artist-wife, Eleanor, to northern Queensland in the 1930s seeking an island life. The couple purchased a piece of Bedarra for 45 pounds.

Eleanor and the couple's two daughters were relocated to Victoria during World War II and did not return to Bedarra, where Wood's notoriety attracted occasional, unannounced, visits from celebrities of the day.

- SMH/The Age