Fake Art Appreciation
A half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin has delighted aficionados visiting the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, but now the museum says “The Faun” is a fake.
If the museum’s curators liked the piece well enough to buy it, and the museum’s visitors, even the aficionados, liked it well enough to be delighted by it, why does the news that it wasn’t sculpted by Gauguin change anything? Why, instead of relabelling this delightful piece, would the Art Institute remove it from their galleries?
Do the Art Institute’s curators buy art, or names?
4 years ago • Notes