The Art Thread

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There was an episode of Fake or Fortune about a Dutch art forger who sold pieces to the nazis. He was charged with being a collaborator after the war, for selling real art and at his trial he had to prove that he had hoodwinked the nazis and had sold them fake paintings. I believe he became a hero after that.

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Van Gogh Museum Denies Attribution for Long-Lost Portrait


 To assess the painting, LMI Group assembled a team of roughly 20 experts from a variety of fields, including chemists, curators, and patent lawyers. In 2019, the firm paid an undisclosed sum for the work, purchasing it from an anonymous antiques collector who found it at a Minnesota garage sale. The company put more than $30,000 into investigating the work.

In a statement, LMI Group said, “The authentication of van Gogh artworks is complicated and inherently rife with challenges due to the long history of fakes and forgeries permeating the market. Central to these diïŹƒculties are previously unattributed works created by the artist but never mentioned in his letters, as well as artworks mentioned but never found—potentially as many as 300.”

The firm went on to question the museum’s methods, saying it was “puzzled why the Van Gogh Museum invested less than one working day to summarily reject the facts presented [
] without offering any explanation, let alone studying the painting directly rather than looking at it reproduced as a JPEG.” 



 “We expected the Museum to delineate any specific facts in our extensive report with which its experts disagree and the reasons why, and to delineate facts that the Museum might have that it believes change the attribution and why with particularity. We have offered to connect the Museum with the scholars and scientists who contributed to the report to discuss their findings, and we have offered to bring the painting to Amsterdam for further study in person,” LMI Group said.

The Van Gogh Museum did not immediately respond to ARTnews’ request for comment.

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That’s been the case with many paintings investigated by Fake or Fortune. I remember one Monet painting, and if I recall correctly, they had a record by Monet of selling the painting to the girl (at the time), and it was in the possession of her grandchild, and the authentication organisation rejected it as a genuine Monet.

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It must weigh a ton.

I was watching a Chinese historical drama about an Emperor in the 18th century, and was puzzled by all the ticking clocks. I did a bit of research, and apparently the emperors collected western clocks and automata.

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Didn’t an assumed di Chirico also wind up being rejected?

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Could be. I know they had an ongoing feud with some French authentication company, that they were eventually influential in outing as a front for forgery. That company had refused to authenticate a painting decades ago, but Philip and Fiona came back with new evidence, and the son of the original authenticator turned them down again for no other reason than “I won’t go against my father”.

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fozzy-ffs

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I won’t herein reproduce this post, as I normally do. Just please visit the link, and see it all for yourselfs:

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I always enjoy the cleaning parts of videos about painting conservation.

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Oooh, something to chalk in for next weekend Linder Sterling punk/post-punk collagist and Mickalene Thomas comes free.

Screen Shot 2025-02-07 at 18.51.19

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A 20-30 year project, 10% done.

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To me, it seems the closer you come to truly understanding Duchamp, the more he slaps you in the face with a large fish.

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this is why we are back in Key West this week:

the mum was chosen to represent in this exhibition of women artists of the keys. the venue is the famous customs building at Mallory Square in uptown KW.
the piece that was selected is a sculpture entitled Wayfinder. it features a hand with a lace cuff. the palm is ‘tattooed’ with ancient nautical markings and is mounted on a bronze base.
30cm x 30cm x 53cm
Nita Mehnert, 2023

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Congrats to KeybillyJefeMom!

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