Vice: The question of fake art

A coin I bought a few months ago was pedigreed to the collection of Edward Perry Warren, an art collector from Boston who had once wanted to buy The Kiss from Rodin. When Rodin offered to make him a copy in marble for 20,000 francs, Perry countered unsuccessfully with 10,000 francs. He ended up paying 'full retail', but threw in the stipulation that he wanted the male figure's genitals carved larger, as "a Greek would have done". The finished product possibly didn't live up to Warren's expectations, because he stuck it in his stable for the better part of a decade. After he died in 1928, apparently nobody wanted the damn thing until finally the Tate Gallery in London relieved his estate of it in 1955 for £7,500. It's arguably one of the most famous art pieces in the Tate's collection now. You have to wonder what the going price for it would be today. I guess there are copies and there are copies .

 

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This is the biggest painting in my house. The canvas is 6 feet tall (taller than me). LOL.

It is a scene in old Habana, on a rainy afternoon. And if you are a car lover, you've got to appreciate the old American cars still driving on the roads.

 

Cool pic... Very Cubano. The rain effect through a window is well detailed! Curious: Is that frame curved, or is that a lens effect from your camera? What is the frame material / species of wood?

I have a framed work of art that I had done in China... a Shang Emperor on rice paper, approx 5' tall. He was well known in China (no one in the West would know him.) He painted it in front of me... it was incredible how a person goes from "nothing" to an amazing depiction. Me? I can only draw distorted stick figures...

 

My understanding of Renaissance art was that it was produced in "studios" by apprentice artisans under the direction of a master.

 

I have several boxes of original art in my house. My wife and I enjoy buying pieces from young and aspiring artists. Every few months we "rotate" the art, swapping pieces on the wall for pieces from the boxes. We also add a few nice pieces per year. The art we buy is very unlikely to appreciate in the market but we buy it because we like it, and this is reward enough.

 

It's the camera lense. The camera on my cell phone is messed up, and my digital camera was out of battery, so I took it with my broken cell phone camera.

 

I was wondering... that would had been a lot of work to have a cool curved framing. Did you frame it or did you get it framed?

 

Pretty cool paintings @Bob L. Love the monk one.

 

It is this premise that let us ugly guys get the babes.

 

I have been retired over thirty years now and I can honestly say this has been the most enjoyable and fulfilling period of my life. I am fully occupied doing pleasurable things throughout just about every day (except for those accursed Doctor appointments) -- I have never been so contentedly busy in all my life -- following pursuits I dearly love. Even commonplace events and tasks take on a more enjoyable aspect when you are doing them at your own pace and for your own satisfaction. I haven't accepted a commission for Calligraphic work for many years now -- I find that producing simple wall hangings of poetry and quotations, and making things like wedding invitations for family and friends -- all as gifts -- is very rewarding. Not having to meet deadlines or be involved with "crass commercial" negotiations is wonderful for me -- I have never enjoyed my Calligraphy to the degree I do now in my retirement. Same with bookbinding -- I now only do simple binding of books for family and friends, of course at no cost -- no pressure or deadlines to meet that way. I have made web page writing a primary hobby/pursuit for many years now -- I currently maintain eleven non-commercial web sites/fifty six pages relating to my various hobbies and pursuits which also keeps me pleasantly occupied. And, of course, I have found collecting, researching, photographing, organizing and fondly handling ancient coins to be an enormously satisfying and pleasurable pursuit throughout my retirement years. A fulfilling retirement is, in my opinion, mostly about having enough hobbies and interests you can pursue at your own pace and in your own way.

 

I love it on a number of levels. It is numbered 6/10. Is it a lithograph? Or an original? Oil or acrylic? Size?

I would put that on my living room wall in a heart beat. But first I would need to talk you out of it. Can I?

 

Wonderful!!

I just checked out the link in your signature line and look forward to reading about your diverse hobbies

@Hispanicus might be interested in your vintage woodworking hand tools pages. http://jp29.org/wwtools.htm

And @Ancientnoob should check out your Samurai sword pages. http://jp29.org/nihonto.htm

 

In art, a forgery by a well recognized forger would hold its own value, and there are numerous well know forgers, but did you know Michelangelo himself was guilty of such? His sculpture "Sleeping Eros" was intentionally aged to be passed off as a roman antiquity! Others I can think of off the top of my head would include The Spanish Forger, Elmyr de Hory, and van Meegeren.

I'm into books myself and more specifically, Literary Forgeries - I have more than 500 books on this subject, but very few of the actual forgeries because I cannot afford them.

One of history's most successful literary forgers was Mark Hofmann who was guilty of forging early manuscript material related to the Mormon church, but he actually got his start in coins. You would never guess how excited I was when I found this at a local coin show:



Fourree's, Elctrotypes, Paduans, &ct. all would seem collectible to me.

My chances of owning any supreme great rarity of Ancient coinage is about 0%, but say the BM were to strike a high quality Eid Mar denarius, not some Bulgarian POS, then perhaps . . .

 

Well, it's not huge, 17 inches in height, just under 12 inches wide (not taking into account the frame). It is oil based, painted on canvas. As for the 6/10, I believe the artist painted a whole series of 10 paintings with similar theme but different characters on them. This is the only one I have.

And no, not for sale.

 

Just thinking to myself that you may like to read a book by John McPhee called The Ransom of Russian Art where a collector was buying illegal underground art out of the Communist Soviet Union back in the 60s and 70s. Much of the work was deemed "degenerate" and bought for very little money - today some of that art is worth millions.

 

Thank you TIF.

 

In the ancient coin realm, of course, we have 17th and 18th century struck fakes (Paduans) that are very collectible in their own right, and later ones by Becker, Christodoulis, etc. I sometimes wonder how many good, struck fakes have been sold in old auctions, thereby acquiring a provenance and becoming "legitimized" as collectible ancient coins. Not many, I hope.

 

Sounds like you need to buy larger pictures for yourself. Really show off that Cuban pride. When you do, let me know. I will gladly take this little, insignificant piece of folk art off your hands. I see where I would put it, as I type.

btw I have many points on SW airlines and Havana is my next destination. I hope the streets are littered with such art.

 

Hard to say. Too many variables. I visited the ruins around Siem Reap, Cambodia, a couple of years ago. Some are as is, some heavily repaired but not necessarily reconstructed, some put back together after having fallen apart. It's pretty cool to think that something built 1,000 or 5,000 years ago is still standing, but even those temples that have fallen down and have since been put back together are still pretty awe-inspiring.

The big difference is that in most cases its easy to find out what what original and what was repaired, replaced or reconstructed. Unlike fake coins or fake art, no one is trying to deceive anyone.

 

Computer graphics or some other medium? Beautiful work and I'm not a religious individual. A very creative interpretation of St Francis.