From today's NY Times is this story of fake art hanging in many small town museums, such as the Terrus museum in Elne, France.
“It has become increasingly unsustainable for small towns to run museums, and it has become increasingly simple for fraudsters to trick municipalities with fakes,” Mr. Forcada said. “It is easy to buy a 5 euro canvas at a flea market and to sell it to a small museum for €3,000, while faking a Picasso or a Matisse and selling it to a great Parisian museum is impossible.”
What I thought was interesting is that experts estimate 20% of all art in museums is fake.
Saw that on CNN this morning!
I wonder about the source of those recently acquired 80 paintings, and how many of that batch are amongst the 82 imposters?
Didn't a museum in Genoa have the same problem last year and have to close temporarily? To be honest, it is no surprise; many of these provincial museums were created in the 19th century and didn't have great access to experts. I suspect there are small galleries around the world who would find they bought a pup. And a few big ones too.
It sometimes works the other way and a presumed "copy" turns out to be the actual thing. Occasionally it goes full circle. Last year Windsor Castle found a 16thC Cranach "original" bought by Victoria, which had long been assumed to actually be a fake, was after all an original.
Ah, Vicky had a good eye!
If it is pleasing to the eye and good enough to get past an 'expert', does it really matter?
OR
Buy your museum ticket with counterfeit currency to 'get even'
If it is pleasing to the eye and good enough to get past an 'expert', does it really matter?
My thoughts exactly.
