The Art of Fakes
A short time ago, the police arrested a small-time artist in England because he had "forged" a large number of paintings by famous artists like Picasso and Degas which were sold for untold thousands, probably millions of dollars.
Now, if you are like me, you find this story a little puzzling. You think, whoa! I'll bet the first art expert that had a good look at these callous copies had a good laugh! I'll bet the first museum that tried to display one immediately unmasked the forger and had him arrested. I'll bet he only got away with selling them to foolish, inexperienced collectors, who were too lazy to check on a painting's pedigree before buying.
Nah.
The funny thing is, he wasn't very good at it. Not very good at all. He used acrylic paints that were produced in the 1960's, and he didn't actually copy any paintings carefully. He sort mimicked the style of a well-known artist. An acquaintance of his did the rest. He forged papers for each painting, catalogues, preposterous histories... The museum directors and collectors who purchased the paintings usually had an expert evaluate the purchase. In some cases, the seller was able to steer them into using a certain company in England that specialized in that sort of thing to verify the authenticity of the work. The seller, under a different name, was the only art "consultant" who worked for this company.
Years and years ago, a Dutch forger was unmasked and tried in court. He observed that one of his "Vermeers" had been worth millions only days before. Now it was worth nothing. What had changed, he asked. Not the painting.
In other words, what determines the value of a painting? We think that the Vermeer is worth millions because Vermeer was such a great artist. We think that Vermeer was so great that his paintings are worth way, way more than any painting by almost any other artist.
Vermeer was a very good painter. So was Rembrandt and Van Gogh and Monet.
When a museum puts on a show by a living artist, no matter how talented, we yawn and pass it by and head for the hot dog stand and the baseball game. But when a museum puts on a display of Van Goghs or Rembrandts, we hustle our butts onto those marble floors and gasp and ooo and awww.
The truth is, that there are many artists whose work is worth seeing purely on the basis of the artistic value of the works themselves. But we are deluded by the art establishment-- which profits from the delusion-- that certain artists are immeasurably superior to almost every other artist, and that only their works are worthy of serious study.
Think about that. Next time you hear that someone has paid $61 million for a Van Gogh, don't fall for this preposterous idea that this Van Gogh painting is actually worth $61 million, or that it is worth $31 million more than a Monet or a Picasso, or that it is one of the greatest paintings every made. Sheer nonsense. Forgery. Fraud.
Donovan Bailey was about one tenth of a second faster than the seond place finisher in the 1996 Olympics. Can you name the runner who finished second? Does the fact that Bailey received all the headlines and accolades and worship mean that the second place runner was slow? The truth is that even the runner who finished 25th was an extremely fast runner. We think that when we cheer and hoot and whistle for Donovan Bailey, we are admiring athletic achievement. But if that were true, we would remember the names of the other runners whose achievements were very, very nearly as remarkable.
The truth is that artists, like athletes, become famous and rich (if they are alive), because the art establishment chooses to confer upon them the self-serving myth of supremecy and divinity.
And the truth is that even the so-called experts couldn't spot the fakes. The forger was unmasked because the bitter ex-wife of the man who actually sold the paintings went to the police and finked on them.
You might think that the museums and the collectors were very happy when this man was caught. You might think that the police would have an easy time tracking down all the forged art works and removing them from display so that museum-goers weren't tricked into oooing and awwing at some carious fraud.
Or you might think-- correctly, as it turns out-- that everyone is going to just keep their mouths shut and their fists tightly closed around their wallets and continue to show guests and patrons to the wonderful work by "Picasso" or "Millet" or "Van Gogh" that they have in their collection.
If you're going to buy a painting for yourself, buy something you like. If someone looks at it and yawns because it isn't by anyone famous, go for the sure-fire cure: tell them that it is a forgery.
"A forgery of what?"
"It is a forgery of a work by an unknown artist."
Copyright © 1999 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.