I love a good heist movie. Here’s a news article that would make a great movie: one where the librarian steals the paintings by replacing them with fakes, and then those paintings get stolen, replaced by worse fakes. Get the popcorn!
Chinese Librarian Switched Out $17M in Paintings…With Fakes He Painted Himself
But the thief claims this practice is rampant in China
The chief librarian of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China admitted in court yesterday that he had lifted 143 works by famous Chinese painters and replaced them with fakes he painted himself.
Xiao Yuan replaced landscapes and calligraphies from the 17th to 20th centuries with his own, but said that this practice is so rampant in China that he later saw his fakes replaced with other, more poorly executed fakes. He said his first day on the job at the library, he noticed that fakes were already on display, passing for originals.
Mr. Xiao sold 125 of the paintings at auction for more $6 million. The prosecution claimed the remaining 18 paintings are worth $11 million.
Among the paintings Mr. Xiao looted were watercolors by Qi Baishi and “Rock and Birds” by Zhu Da, a Chinese painter born in 1625.
The defendant, who worked at the library from 2004 to 2006, said he regrets his actions and plead guilty to a corruption charge.
[image_with_animation image_url=”10178″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Wolfgang Paalen, Austrian, active in Mexico, 1905 – 1959 Smoke Painting (Fumage), 1938 Fumage is a surrealist art technique popularized by Wolfgang Paalen in which impressions are made by the smoke of a candle or kerosene lamp on a piece of paper or canvas. Similar to other surrealist art, the …
Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8191″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Nikki Barber Printmaking in Thailand Our wonderful printmaking instructor Nikki Barber is on another artist’s pilgrimage to Northern Thailand. She’s spending one month as a studio-based artist in residence at Rajamangala University in Chiang Mai. There, she is able to interact directly with students, faculty, and Thai artists, experiencing the technical differences …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9378″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Preparing for my mini workshop “Paint like Cezanne,” I ran across this work by Joel Meyerowitz, a photographer who documented still life objects of famous painters, particularly Cezanne and Morandi. Meyerowitz’ photographs are handsome recordings of plain yet interesting objects. Unlike the painters who assemble compositions, Meyerowitz framed each …
Fakes Stolen, Replaced with Fakes Stolen, Replaced
I love a good heist movie. Here’s a news article that would make a great movie: one where the librarian steals the paintings by replacing them with fakes, and then those paintings get stolen, replaced by worse fakes. Get the popcorn!
Chinese Librarian Switched Out $17M in Paintings…With Fakes He Painted Himself
But the thief claims this practice is rampant in China
A Qi Baishi watercolor.
The chief librarian of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China admitted in court yesterday that he had lifted 143 works by famous Chinese painters and replaced them with fakes he painted himself.
Xiao Yuan replaced landscapes and calligraphies from the 17th to 20th centuries with his own, but said that this practice is so rampant in China that he later saw his fakes replaced with other, more poorly executed fakes. He said his first day on the job at the library, he noticed that fakes were already on display, passing for originals.
Mr. Xiao sold 125 of the paintings at auction for more $6 million. The prosecution claimed the remaining 18 paintings are worth $11 million.
Among the paintings Mr. Xiao looted were watercolors by Qi Baishi and “Rock and Birds” by Zhu Da, a Chinese painter born in 1625.
The defendant, who worked at the library from 2004 to 2006, said he regrets his actions and plead guilty to a corruption charge.
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Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
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