Sunday, April 30, 2006

More "Genuine Fakes"

John Myatt, "the man believed to be the world's most-prolific art forger," about whom I blogged here, has another exhibition of his so-called "genuine fakes" opening in a couple of weeks, this time featuring paintings "in the style of" Miro and Monet among others. I said earlier that I think "he's eliminated any risk of a fraud or misattribution claim, but I'm not so sure he doesn't also have to worry about copyright," and, despite the careful way he presents what he's doing -- for example he's quoted in this news story as saying, "I'm not copying a painting, I'm making a new painting that someone such as Picasso may have painted in say, 1911" -- I still think he should be concerned. Consider the story I mentioned a few days ago about the Miro estate's complaints about Google's (one-day) use of a logo "in the style of" a Miro. If the family was upset about that, it's hard to imagine their not objecting to what Myatt is doing here.