Fakes

Photo Credit: petrovicdr

I just happened to catch this show called Studio 360 while I was in the car this evening and found it of interest. The topic of discussion was art fakes. And in particular the experiences of Thomas Hoven fake buster and author False Impressions and others on the art world. Thing that I found interesting was his statement that the entire industry was crooked. He pointed out that if you stepped into any museum and looked at any of the masterpieces there you would not be seeing what it really is (he has advocated placing small photos of what the picture would look like with out the embellishments) . All of these paintings have been embellished and altered in some way. And it is precisely these embellishments that make it possible for fakes to circulate. That practice has created an environment of obfuscation. That and the fact that he called all of the so called experts in the art world intellectually lazy. Not doing the leg work to see if a work is real or not. He points out that just going to a library and looking it up in a catalog isn't enough. Those are easily forged and altered. All in all a very enlightening discussion.