Page 71 - Expotime10_11_2017

Fakes and forgeries — Illicit traffic of looted heritage

Christian Mueller-Straten

Dear Mr. President

Ref.: Your Renoirs

When Time magazine formally requested Trump's organ- in the ownership of the Courtauld Art Institute in Lon-
isation in June 2017 to take down faked magazine covers don. Trump's answer was eloquent silence.
with the likeness of Donald Trump from the walls of five of Detail from
his golf clubs ‒ among others, the Champions Sports Bar Melania's Office.
& Grill at the Trump National Doral Miami and the Mar- Picture by
a-Lago in Florida ‒ some still thought that these obvious Sam Horine/[Daily]
fakes are nothing but a joke of the grand master of fake Mail Online,
detection. But meanwhile, the press worldwide assumes November 10, 2015
that these fakes are fitting perfectly into a context which
rejects scientific insights on one hand, and accepts aes-
thetic surgery to correct rather humble features, strange
throne furnitures and semi-Louis XIV writing desks. 1

But the worst was yet to come: To the allegedly genuine
Renoirs of the Trump family which are often staged in
interviews in the background in order to impress simple
minds, also belongs "Two Sisters (on the Terrace)", a pic-
ture which was also mise en scène in Trump's former pri-
vate jet. This was confirmed by a journalist of the New
York Times, a certain Timothy O’Brien, who achieved a
personal relation to Trump allowing him to gainsay the
President. When Trump recently maintained proudly that
the "Two sisters" is an original, O'Brian is said to have
told him: “Donald, it’s not. I grew up in Chicago, that
Renoir is called „Two Sisters (on the Terrace)“ and it’s
One of the faked titelpages in the golf clubs of the US presi- hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago. That’s
dent: joke or faked to fit into a copy-and-fake world? not an original.” Only one day later, O'Brian is said to
Photographer unknown be back with Trump who completely forgot the previous
day's conversation. As if nothing has happened the day
But already in April 2016, the New York Post reported before, he allegedly pointed at the picture and claimed
that a version of Renoir’s 1874 painting „La Loge (The again that it is authentic. How much money Trump has
Theater Box)“ which adorned the First Lady's Fifth Ave- paid for this so-called Renoir is unclear, but as a capi-
nue apartment can not be an original, as the original is tal investment and even as a bargain it should be very,
71

EXPOTIME!, issue October / November 2017