

How to Make Millions as an Art Forger - danso
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/here-s-how-to-make-millions-as-an-art-forger

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btilly
My favorite forger is
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Keating](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Keating).
He would forge paintings, making sure that they were provably fake (impossible
materials, FAKE written in lead paint under the painting, that sort of thing),
give them away for a song, and let people fool themselves into believing that
they had the real thing.

The greatest irony of his story is that some of his fakes are now worth more
than the original artists he faked!

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dmckeon
_> If someone tries to sell you the Mona Lisa, there’s a pretty easy way to
check if it’s real: Just go to the Louvre to see if the original’s still
there._

Around 1911, this approach was supposedly reversed - the work was stolen, and
forged copies were sold - or so the story goes - search for "Valfierno" in:

[http://priceonomics.com/how-do-you-make-money-off-stolen-
art...](http://priceonomics.com/how-do-you-make-money-off-stolen-art/)

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whatshisface
It's interesting to me how the art world seems to stand alone on their opinion
about copies. Literature, music, software... in every other area we believe
that if a copy can't be told from its master they must both have equal value.
I can't imagine someone saying that they'd rather buy the hard drive someone
saved their work on instead of a copy transmitted over the network.

Maybe art collectors are wrong about forgeries - if forgeries don't provide
the same mental dividend that real paintings do, wouldn't you be able to tell
the difference without an X-ray machine?

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nemo
A lot of the prices of pieces of fine art aren't just tied to the aesthetics,
but have to do with artifacts that are scarce and desirable. An Apple I isn't
really desirable as a computer, but because it's an Apple I, made by Woz at
that time and hard to get. A Nintendo World Championship cartridge might sell
for $100,000, but it's due to the same factors, not that people really want to
play a game they could still play on an emulator. First editions of novels and
other rare books and rare vinyl albums are the same way. It's not just the
content of the thing, it's the scarce desirable artifact that holds that
content.

~~~
alex_anglin
Agreed. To add to the historical artifact point; with artworks a part of the
value in the artifact is what the rest of the art world was doing at the time.
What we take for granted today hasn't always been so and often notable pieces
of art are recognizable for their place in the evolution of an art, be it fine
art or technology.

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sogen
If anyone is interested in selling replicas contact me.

