The bronzes sold as the work of Mihail Chemiakin (b. 1943) seemed legitimate. The Parisian dealer until recently had represented the artist, and each figurine bore the artist’s signature and an edition number. But on closer examination, it turned out that each was a fake. And so, in a solemn ceremony attended by the artist, his lawyer, journalists and art experts, the 14 statuettes were destroyed together with the molds. However, the remaining 140 fakes that had been sold by this dealer are still in circulation.

The art market is rife with bronzes of dubious authenticity and provenance. Before buying, consider the following points.

Casting Techniques and Molds
Bronze sculpture was traditionally cast with the lost-wax technique: The artist made a wax sculpture, around which a plaster cast was formed. The wax was then melted, leaving behind a mold for the bronze casts. This is just one of many techniques developed over the centuries, but when it comes to buying sculpture, there is a more important consideration: Who was in possession of a mold when the bronze was cast? In 1988, a New York auction house organized a sale of 263 plaster molds that were consigned by the Roman Bronze Works. The sale was

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, "Diana," bronze,  late 19th to early 20th-century.

controversial because it raised the prospect of renewed production of works by many important American sculptors. The estimate for the molds used to cast nine works by Frederic Remington was $2.5 million, half the total sale estimate. In the end, the most important molds were withdrawn, and the sale total was only $463,000.

Variants
Artists sometimes create variant versions of the same work. The best-known work by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) is “Diana,” 1886–91, which he designed originally as a weathervane. He viewed it as one of the highlights of his career and authorized its reproduction in versions that differ in size and other details. The 39-inch model sold at auction for $420,000 in the late 1990s. But some copies of “Diana” are outright fakes; they typically sell for a few hundred dollars.

Posthumous Casts
A posthumous cast is one that was made after the artist’s death. Such works were never seen or approved by the artist, though they may—or may not—have been carried out in accordance with his wishes. There can be a significant difference in value among the casts made during the artist’s lifetime and those made after death. “L’Enfant Prodigue,” 1884, by Rodin was conceived as part of his powerful “Porte de l’Enfer.” Six casts of this work in this size were made during the artist’s lifetime. The first, which was made in 1913, sold at auction this spring for $2,928,000, which was twice the low estimate. After the artist’s death, the Musée Rodin authorized another limited edition of 12. One that was cast in 1963 failed to sell at auction in 2002; the estimate was $400,000 to $600,000.

For some artists, though, posthumous bronzes are the only ones available. Degas (1834–1917) modeled in wax small-scaled sculptures of dancers and laundresses. Although he considered having them cast, it was only after his death, beginning in 1919, that any bronze casts were made. This has hardly put a damper on prices for his work. His celebrated “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans,” which was conceived in 1879–81 and cast in 1922, sold at auction in London two years ago for more than $9 million.

Artist’s Wishes
It is important to consider how closely the work reflects the artist’s wishes. Some artists left explicit instructions on the subject of posthumous production. For example, in his will, Henry Moore (1898–1986) forbade any further castings.

In other cases, the artist’s intentions can be inferred. Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) had only a few casts made of his work, and these he personally finished. The executors of his estate nonetheless sued to produce posthumous castings of his work, some of which have been acquired by museums. Brancusi’s work is worth big money; one recent record-breaking auction price was for the “Danaïde,” which was cast shortly after its conception in 1913 and sold four years ago for more than $18 million.

Collecting Fashions
The production of forgeries reflects the fashions in collecting. During the 1880s, when the vogue for Japonism was at its height, one New York dealer was revealed to be selling fake Japanese bronzes. His method: filtering them through the auction houses, where they were bid on by an unsuspecting public. In the dramatic words of one journalist, the phony sculptures “seduced the unwary to their doom.”

In recent years, forgers have catered to the taste for 19th- and 20th-century French sculpture. Forger Guy Haines fabricated hundreds of bronzes that were passed off as genuine Rodin sculptures. Less conspicuous were the copies he made of 19th-century animal sculptures. These small works, usually by less well-known artists, were the bread-and-butter of the business. Altogether, 5,000 fakes at a value of more than $60 million are believed to have been put on the market by Haines.