Wolfgang Beltracchi

I watched a documentary about the art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. He was very successful by producing forgeries that were actually original pieces of art.  Beltracchi was a master of imitating the style of other masters. Rather than copying existing artwork, he produced ‘newly found’ originals. In fact some of his forgeries were more revered than the art of the masters themselves. The only thing that classified his work as forgeries were the artists’ names that he put on the pieces. Beltracchi’s original work was worth millions with someone else’s name on the painting but once his fraud was exposed, the same art became virtually worthless.

At first I did not understand why something was worth less if Wolfgang Beltracchi painted it as Max Ernst than if it was Max Ernst himself who had produced it. Why should anyone care as long as they like it? I ended up resolving these thoughts myself. The value in art is in innovation, not imitation.

“Innovation is change that unlocks new value.” - Jamie Notter