A state-owned French art museum has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of worthless fakes and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries.
An art historian raised the alarm after noticing that paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus showed buildings that were only constructed after the artist's death in 1922. Experts confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in Elne, the artist's birthplace in southern France, were fakes.
Many of the forged oil paintings, watercolours and drawings were bought with £140,000 of municipal funds over the past few decades. Others were given to the museum by two local groups that raised money to buy them by appealing for donations. Some were bequeathed by a private collector.
Yves Barniol, the mayor of Elne, near the Spanish border, said: "It's a catastrophe. I put myself in the place of all the people who came to visit the museum, who saw fake works of art, who paid an entrance fee. It's intolerable and I hope we find those responsible."
[...] Art experts estimate that at least 20 per cent of paintings owned by major museums across the world may not be the work of the purported artists.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Gaaark on Monday April 30 2018, @02:22AM (2 children)
My comeuppance remark was for all the art people who can't tell art from a toilet:
Examples:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494082349/guggen-head-you-can-now-use-a-golden-toilet-at-the-guggenheim [npr.org] (it's ART you can poop in!)
https://toilet-guru.com/fluxus.php [toilet-guru.com]
http://cavemancircus.com/2015/07/30/15-ridiculous-pieces-of-art-that-sold-for-millions-of-dollars/ [cavemancircus.com]
https://againstmodernart.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-stupid-art.html [blogspot.ca]
People with their heads shoved so far up someone else's ass....
I guess anything can pass as art: the article seems to just be saying "art is to be enjoyed...just don't take it too seriously"...and don't spend the bank on it.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 30 2018, @02:51AM
We tweeted at the same time. I told folks, skip the Guggenheim. Here's why. I asked them to lend us a Van Gogh, for the White House, the one in Washington. And they told me "no," they tried to pass off that gold toilet -- worth much less -- on me instead. So insulting!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 30 2018, @07:08PM
To be fair, if they actually let you poop in that golden toilet, there is a part of me that really wants to do so.