Page 72 - Expotime10_11_2017

Fakes and forgeries — Illicit traffic of looted heritage

the persons. But the painting became not famous for its
background. Renoir is always pleasing, often kitschy, and
many of his works of art as well as his fakes I am judging
as an aesthetic assault.

But one thing seems certain: Renoir has painted each
motif only once. At least that's what an investor like
Trump should know. In reverse conclusion, however, now
Trump claims publicly that the picture of the Art Insti-
tute of Chicago is a fake. Of course, the answer came
instantly from art history: Richard Brettell, chair of aes-
thetic studies at the University of Texas in Dallas, a Yale
University Ph.D., director of the Dallas Museum of Art,
and author of several books on Impressionism, as well
as the associate director for collections at the J. Paul
Getty Museum, in Malibu, Richard Rand, took sides with
O'Brian, while the speaker of the Art Institute, Amanda
Hicks, declared reserved and unimpressed in an inter-
view with the Chicago Tribune, to be quite happy that
Detail from a screenshot from a Fox News interview with the Art Institute's painting is the real thing.
Melania Trump
So far, no medium has managed to publish Trump's al-
very much money, because Trump boasted about such leged Renoir. In the evaluation of videos it is noticeable
authentic Renoirs are worth 10 million US$. that the Trump's painting has different proportions, it is
cropped on the left and right (Buffoons say that Trump
I admit that I do not consider Renoir to be a really impor- himself cut the canvas to make it fit into the horrible
tant artist even in his better pictures. Also in this paint- standard frame). In addition, brush strokes and colors do
ing, the background has a better pictorial quality than not seem to be identical. This may suggest a first con-
clusion that it is not a copy and not a sophisticated fake,
as fakers and copyists are doing everything possible to
produce a similar work. It is either a very crude fake (if
"signed") or a free recent "quotation" without any invest-
ment value at all.

The pedigree of the original at the
Art Institute of Chicago

The picture if the Art Institute oc Chicago was donated
to the institute by art collector Mrs. Lewis Larned (Annie

Auguste Renoir: Two Sisters (On the Terrace)
resp. Femme sur une terrasse (Chatou). The Renoir of the Chicagio Art institute in its former
Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. & Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn frame at Mrs. Louis Larnad's hotel apartment.
Memorial Collection, Inv.No. 1933.455 Photo: Archive of the Art Institute of Chicago

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