An artist from Amsterdam says a Cobra painting in the Groningen Museum is a fake. The artist, Nico Delaive, says the picture called Bird by Karel Appel from 1951 hanging in Groningen must be a fake. He says he sold an identical picture with a certificate of authenticity from the Karel Appel Foundation and added that the Cobra painter never made copies of his own work.

Appel experts are also convinced that Mr Delaive is right. The Groningen Museum is shocked by the news and wants the two works compared to see which is the real Appel.  Bird has been on display in Groningen since 1976.

The Cobra movement was an artistic movement in the 1940s. Cobra stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam - the cities where the founders of the group came from. Corneille and Karel Appel were two of the Dutch artists and original members of the group. In spite of its short lived existence its child-like paintings exerted a great influence on modern art.  

Photo: Flikr Loreto Martin