Brisbane: Minutes Investigation and Art

brisbane: Brisbane company Birubi Art was found to have breached Australian consumer law and to have misled its customers by promoting products as genuine Aboriginal art when thousands of its pieces were in fact made in factories in Indonesia, according to Nine News Australia. The penalty is the largest of its kind ever awarded by the Federal Court and comes after a 2018 60 Minutes investigation that exposed the Australian businesses importing fake artefacts from Indonesia to sell in Australian souvenir stores. To improve your experience update it here News National Fake Aboriginal Art company slapped with 2.3 million fine By Sammi Taylor 60 Minutes Digital Producer3 47pm Jun 26, 2019Facebook Tweet Mail An Australian business caught selling fake Aboriginal art has been fined 2.3 million dollars in a federal court ruling today, highlighting a thriving black-market that exploits and expropriates Indigenous culture. Mass-produced boomerangs and didgeridoos made in Indonesia were marketed as an Australian product. 60 Minutes 60 Minutes went undercover in six different Balinese factories suspected of supplying to Australian businesses finding mass-produced boomerangs and didgeridoos being sold as hand-made Australia'. Today's ruling is likely to be welcomed by the Aboriginal art community, whose work is lauded in galleries from New York to Paris but which is largely sustained by the sale of works to tourists prepared to pay a premium for genuine pieces. Michael McGuane was emplyed by Birubi Art in Brisbane. 60 Minutes But the case also highlights the inability of the federal government to effectively combat fake art producers the firm at the centre of the ruling, Birubu Art, appears to have recently phoenixed its operation and may avoid liability.60 Minutes understands that Birubi Art is currently in liquidation and is unlikely to ever pay today's fine. This industry is also a lifeblood for indigenous communities across Australia. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.