CSUN ARTIFACTS COULD BE FAKE.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - A gift of ancient Chinese artwork valued at up to $24 million donated to California State University, Northridge, could be fake, a student newspaper reported Thursday.

Experts on Chinese antiquities cast doubt on the authenticity of eight jade, bronze and pottery artifacts donated by San Fernando Valley businessman Roland Tseng, the Daily Sundial newspaper reported.

The Sundial also cited a potential conflict of interest between an art expert hired by both Tseng and CSUN to authenticate the Tseng collection.

The works were authenticated by Frank Preusser, a senior research scientist for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Museum officials did not return calls.

Officials from Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles, called the practice of hiring an art consultant associated with a donor "highly unusual."

University officials defended the gift - part of a $38 million pledge by Tseng - as authentic.

"The student newspaper, they're often given to flights of fancy," said CSUN spokesman John Chandler of the nine-page Sundial investigative story.

"We've had these pieces authenticated. The person who authenticated them is a respected person in the field. The people who have criticized these pieces have not handled them and they have not put them under a microscope."

The Sundial cited seven experts - none of them on the record - who debunked the collection after seeing it in person or in photos on the CSUN Web site.

They said the works contained motifs and styles from different historical periods with a uniform surface suggesting modern manufacture.

Three of the pieces were exhibited as part of a Tseng collection at the Oviatt Library in 2004.

George Kuwayama, retired curator of Far Eastern art for LACMA, raised questions about the Tseng exhibit, including the three donated artworks.

"Many of the pieces seem misdated with serious questions of authenticity," he wrote in a Nov. 30, 2004, letter to CSUN President Jolene Koester, according to the Sundial.

"The Chinese objects on display ... are not commensurate with CSUN's academic reputation."

The university turned down an offer by Kuwayama and two other experts to authenticate the collection.

Chandler said the art experts often came to different conclusions about antiquities, that the "art world is full of these kinds of debates."

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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