Prestige is the blood of the art world:
As the world came undone, the least the Dutch could do was preserve their cultural heritage. To seal the deals, the forger relied on the art world?s overly cozy network of buyers, critics, and museum curators. That world, like all small worlds, protects its own. After van Meegeren?s deceptions were made plain, few people sought to press charges. Most didn?t want to acknowledge publicly that they?d been duped. Others simply refused to accept the truth. One critic insisted that van Meegeren was a boastful liar, and prided himself on having rescued the fakes from being destroyed, as Dutch law dictates.That which is problematic here has several dimensions. After all, the fable implies that all apples are alike and that exeptionalism is a cheap parlor trick. But are all apples all alike? And is art merely a common fruit? Belief is as much fabricated as it is grown, and the fraud indicates the authentic after all. Beware of the tendency to become jaded. Beware, too, of the brand --that shorthand and sleazy shortcut that avoids the difficult territory where art really lives. Posted by Dennis at January 2, 2007 7:44 AMVan Meegeren understood, as other forgers do, that the stamp of authenticity can trump art. The proof, however spurious and cobbled together, that a painting is by Vermeer (or any other name-?brand artist) is at least as important as the quality of the work. It was enough for the forger to create a plausible resemblance to Vermeer. Van Meegeren?s early forgeries crassly combined elements of authentic paintings, cut- and- paste style, into pastiches. While he eventually became an accomplished mimic, he was never a great painter. But he didn?t need to be, for a painting?s market value derives not just from the quality of the individual canvas but largely from the reputation of its putative creator. Today the art world is not appreciably different. Wynne concludes with an object lesson: In 2004, casino developer Steve Wynn paid $30 million at auction for a Vermeer that is far from the artist?s best? and one not all experts agree is authentic.
Everyone wanted van Meegeren?s forgeries to be masterpieces. The buyers and curators wanted desperately to acquire a Vermeer for their collections. The critics wanted, no less desperately, to claim responsibility for adding one more work to Vermeer?s all- too- slim catalogue raisonn?. And experts such as Bredius wanted to confirm their pet theories. Pride and self- regard colored judgment, and no one truly saw what he was looking at, because no one dared look closely.
The forger?s story may be read as an enduring fable about the art world. A modern-day Aesop might cast the tale with a wily crow and selfish foxes: One day, the crow set the foxes fighting for control of an apple. The apple, the crow swore, was unlike any other in the world, and the foxes chose to believe him. But the apple was really nothing special, and the crow, in the end, was found out and driven from the forest for its lies. But what of the foxes that desired blindly and wildly, and so were fooled? Should not they too learn a moral from such a story?
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