Watching a drama about art forgery. The art forgery could only be detected by x-ray in the drama. Got me to thinking – if you had both of them hanging on the wall in front of you you would be unable to see the difference. Actually, I imagine a poor forgery might be hard to see if you didn’t know what the original looked like.
So what is it that we value so much about the original artwork?
Don’t get me wrong – I like original art. But I like to buy it from the artist – after all it is the artist that has done all the work. With antique art the cost has nothing to do with rewarding the artist. What are people paying for?
This is a photo I took of a painting I like. I could never afford that painting, nor could I really afford a good copy (over £100). But I can look at the photo – a poor copy – and it is better than nothing. So what would a real painting give me that a photo would not. I can see a difference there – but is it really £100 different?
So why is that painting worth 10s of millions of pounds? What is it we value? What do I value elsewhere – do I like a nice shiny car or do I like a car that works really well?