Beware, now you can find fake signed Ken Sugimori’s drawings (at my knowledge only from this seller uonar70095 for the moment)! (click to enlarge pictures)
On the left there is (a priori) a legit Ken Sugimori’s drawing which was sold on 18/09/16 (on YJA), on the right there is a fake Ken Sugimori’s drawing which was sold on 18/10/02 by uonar70095 (on YJA).
The right drawing is fake mainly because the signature was duplicated from the one on the left drawing.Indeed by superimposing the two signatures, you can see that they almost match perfectly (black = Meowth’s signature, red = Mewtwo’s signature):
I believe there are some very slight differences because the signature was duplicated using a low quality picture.
Moreover you can also notice on the Mewtwo that the drawing is “too clean” (there is no small mistake), the pen used for the signature is different from the one used for the drawing, it is not an unseen artwork, the drawing surfaced few weeks after the Meowth, among others.
This is just a personnal assumption based on observed facts, but they tend to show that the Mewtwo drawing is fake.
Today, there is a new evidence showing that the seller uonar70095 definitively sells fake Ken Sugimori’s drawing:
(click to enlarge pictures)
On the left there is a legit Ken Sugimori’s drawing (which was exposed in a Pokémon Center I believe), on the right there is a fake Ken Sugimori’s drawing which is currently sold by uonar70095.
The drawing on the right was obviously duplicated from the original one on the left (you can easily spot some slight differences).
So be extremely carefull when you purchase signed drawings or cards (this is not new but it is good to remind)!
What’s the method of reproduction here? Are they scanning and printing these pictures?
I would think that cases like this would make an inspection by a graphologist even more valuable here, making services like PSA/DNA authentication or Beckett’s autograph authentication even more appealing to both buyers and sellers. Although I’m sure they can only do so much, I have seen some very impressive descriptions of PSA’s concerns regarding suspected fake autographs. I believe it was @rayquazatcg who posted one at some point.
As someone who collects Pokemon illustrator autographs, this is unsettling.
Beware, a new fake Ken Sugimori’s drawing just appeared!
On the left there is (a priori) a legit Ken Sugimori’s drawing which was sold on 18/09/16 (on YJA), on the right there is a fake Ken Sugimori’s drawing which is currently listed by oyhpx94972 (on YJA).
The drawing on the right was obviously 100% duplicated from the original one on the left (which is currently safe in France in the collection of another collector).
Honestly, without knowing the “real” Mew drawing which was sold last year, it is very easy to be fooled with this one.I believe that we will see a fake Meowth drawing soon…
There’s no way to guarantee the authenticity of anything Pokemon artists sign or draw unfortunately.
People won’t stop falling victim to scams like these unless they stop signing at public appearances or they start giving out certificates of authenticity (which can be faked as well).
Anything you can add to a card is just too easy to fake.
I wouldn’t trust anything outside of signatures on graded card CASES with video evidence to prove it happened.
That Mewtwo illustration is to die for. Side question, but how much would real illustrations cost and what would be the best way to obtain them? Message owners directly? Yahoo auction?
Looking at everything about those two images, the reproduction definitely looks more “filled in.” You can see signs of pen strokes all over the original, but none on the top one. It looks like it came from a printer.