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.
Recently I posted about our family of New York Studio School influences, and Tina Kraft. I found a few more drawings that show aspects of a process that changed the way I draw. These portrait sketches by Tina Kraft demonstrate a technique of using marks to activate the white paper. The marks are both in …
With experience copying classical antique sculptures in Florence, Francis Harwood created this exceptional sculpture which combined the elements of classical sculpture with the subject of a more modern (1700s) Black individual – a subject we do not frequently have the privilege of seeing. In fact, this noble bust by Francis Harwood is one of the …
Once we miss a few in a row, many of us find it more difficult to pick a goal back up again. If this is you, don’t worry about anything you missed in the past, and don’t worry about what you might not be able to do in the future. See if you can doodle …
Haniwa are unglazed terracotta clay figures that were placed on and around Japanese tombs. The word “haniwa” is a combination of two Japanese words: “hani” (meaning “circle”) and “wa” (meaning “ring” or “circle”). When first created, haniwa were made in various cylindrical shapes. Later they became more elaborate, featuring sculptures of warriors, shamanic women, attendants, …
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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