A fictional report by Euronews: No auction of Russian works to be destroyed

A video has gone viral on social media claiming that the German auction house Bolland & Marotz is organising an auction of Russian works of art that will be publicly destroyed. The money from the sold works will reportedly be donated to Ukraine as support against the Russian invasion. The 45-second video features English subtitles and the logo of the Euronews television network. A woman’s voice in Russian can also be heard. The video was published on October 30, 2022, on the Twitter account @Katarina_KDS. By the time of writing this analysis, it had 5,006 views and 178 reactions.

Moreover, 11 Facebook users shared the video on their profiles, and it was published in three more tweets.

What are the facts?

On October 28, 2022, the Euronews television network denied publishing a video regarding the auction of Russian works of art that would be publicly destroyed.

Euronews has confirmed that the video is fake and has been digitally altered by using Euronews font and graphics without permission. No such video exists on the Euronews website or social media channels. “A fake video that looks like a Euronews’ report about a Russian art auction has been shared online. Euronews did not produce or publish this video”, the statement said.

The same article also mentions the statement of the German auction house Bolland & Marotz, which is said in the video to be organising an auction of Russian works of art that will be destroyed. This company stated that it was a fraud and that they did not and would not organise such an auction.

“A video is circulating on the Internet and social networks connecting the name Bolland & Marotz with the auction of Russian art and antiques”, the announcement states.

“This video is fake, it is a forgery. There is no such auction and there never will be. We distance ourselves from such evil machinations and are outraged and surprised that our name is misused for this. Even worse, this video offends anyone associated with Russian as well as Orthodox art and culture. It goes against our philosophy of valuing and preserving art”.

Given all the facts, the claim that a German auction house is organising an auction of Russian works of art that will be publicly destroyed as a sign of support for Ukraine, presented in a video on the Twitter account @Katarina_KDS, is considered fake news. The video is a montage that looks like a Euronews’ report. We assess all subsequent publications of these claims as the distribution of fake news. (Author: Mladen Lakić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)