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December 20, 2007
Is it for real?
Salvador Dali, apparently, was told, by unscrupulous aids, on his deathbed, to sign hundreds of blank sheets of paper. Thus armed with authentication the unscrupulous aides proceeded to create their own Dalis and flog ‘em. The moral here, clearly, is to make sure there are no unscrupulous aides on your deathbed.
The man in the Netherlands, whose name escapes me, painted fake Rembrandts and Vermeers so good that even the experts were fooled. Where lies the worth? In the skill – in which case the forgeries are worth as much as the originals, or in the reputation?
In China they have all this well in hand. So well in hand they have an entire village geared up to produce paintings of the Masters.
What amazes me is not that a whole village is doing it, but that a whole village seems to have the ability to do it. Is it something in the water perhaps?
thanks Kevin Kelly
Posted by john at December 20, 2007 12:06 PM