ENACT CLEARER PENALTIES OF ART FORGERY--ANGARA

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara is urging the Senate to legislate for and define the offenses and penalties constituting forgery as a crime, particularly addressing the rampant circulation of counterfeit art materials in the domestic market.

Angara, father of the laws that instituted the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and a known patron of the arts, laments, "We have recently witnessed controversial, even sensational cases of art forgeries. Since art is within the purview of intellectual property, theft of art is among the most difficult to prosecute or ascertain."

Senate Bill 910 seeks to create an Art Authentication Board to authenticate works of art and ascertain their originality, and certify works of art for registration as mandated by the intellectual property (IP) law.

Covered are all original works like paintings, sculpture, drawings, and art work produced in multiples such as graphic and photographic works and sculpture casts. However, it will not include works intended to be mass-produced for commercial use.

Along the increase in demand for works of fine art in the country came a surge of counterfeit materials in the black market and, to an extent, some of the galleries. In turn, with growing concern over the plunge of the value of art materials produced by Filipino artists and of the impact to their reputation and potential revenues, the judiciary is flooded with forgery cases.

However, the existing laws on intellectual property and relevant legislations are not sufficient, hence very few of such cases are resolved. It is then the aim of this bill to give more exacting definitions to the crime of art forgery. Specific acts that would constitute art forgery include affixing forged signature or sign on any work of fine art and selling them; and imitating and reproducing original signatures intended to deceive the public or the buyer as to the authorship of a work of art

Individual violators will be punished with imprisonment of six to 12 years and a fine ranging from P5,000.00 to P50,000.00. In addition, art dealers and operators of art galleries found violating this act will, aside from such penalties, have their licenses business permits revoked.

Sen. Angara, worried of the increasing circulation of counterfeit art materials in the country, hopes that "this bill would erase most of the vagueness, misinterpretations and loopholes that have plagued cases of art forgeries. It will strengthen and make clearer provisions so our artists are assured that their works are respected and their rights to intellectual property upheld. After all, we are a nation of creative people; we must safeguard our arts and culture".