Don Schwartz wrote: "IMO, it passes over the border into fraud or 
forgery. Not unlike painting in the style of Van Gogh then hinting that 
it might just be ... and suggesting its worth $millons. The difference 
is just a matter of scale."


There's a lack of subtlety here, I think. A good forger--- I don't mean the
mechanic who paints an honest pastiche, I mean the art dealer who buys the
pastiche for a thousand and sells it for a hundred thousand--- will let the
buyer look at the painting for a bit and come to the conclusion himself that it
is genuine. Then the seller points out that it is very likely a forgery, has
poor provenance, etc. With every disavowal of genuineness, the dupe, er, buyer
will become more convinced of his own bold insight and of the genuineness of the
painting.

Or so I'm told. Leading them on like that is an art. Or so I'm told.

Tom Conroy