Auction house Ben-Ami Anders prepared to present in their 25.9.2008 auction three works of Shamir. They printed a colour invitations and noted the names of Shamir, Walish and others. Ben-Ami invited me to see the works before the official preview. He said he was minded to remove the works having been told that the seller was a suspect individual.

I checked the works: a “Moadim Lesimha” (High Holidays) stamps memorial sheet (private issue), two original sketches of Bank of Israel banknotes (5 pounds and 50 pounds) all bearing the signature of M. Shamir.

I told him that to my knowledge my uncle sold some signed works and sometimes works signed by the two brothers. The stamps were stamps of Israel Post (the memorial sheet was new to me but was in Shamir style). The sketches were very preliminary and I have no reason to doubt their authenticity, but I could not warrant that my uncle's signature was real.

Ben-Ami sent me pictures of the three works by e-mail and I forwarded them by e-mail to my cousin Gideon Shamir. Half an hour later I got the answer: the signatures were clearly fake. Ben-Ami thanked me and removed these Shamir Works from the auction.

Up to September 2008 Shamir Brothers won many honours: Winning competitions, publications in international journals, displays in exhibitions, publishing books, letters of appreciation, auctions, certificates of authenticity and even imitation by their professional peers. Now, 15 years after their death, they have been promoted to a level where their works and signatures are being forged!

Yoram Shamir 2008