Wow. Saw this on IG today...is this common?
Sorry for the bummer post but came across this today and curious if it was a fluke or something that's really going on out there in art fair world..
Posted in Art Fairs
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Art Fairs
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I had an art fair organizer recently tell me they have heard about an "artist" who would buy originals or prints (don't know which) and then turn around and sell them as their own. Scamming is just everywhere.
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Okay I'm confused here. The headline is "We got scammed at an art fair". I looked at the Instagram feed. They never answered how they got scammed. I'm sick of scammers too. Explaining how they got scammed helps us all. Anybody have the answer?
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They purchased a piece that the artist claimed he painted himself. When they got it home they used Google lens to run an image search and discovered it was a print from Target. (They tell the story in the images. If you swipe through them, you get the info.)
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Hey Robert,
there are little arrow icons, left and right sides of the image vertically centred, that I missed as well on the first look. The first navigation icon is hiding over the blue chair. The story continues on the images.
- Stuart
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I honestly don't understand why people think they can get away with this, especially with Google search. While a couple of pieces I drew were based on artwork done by other people (the two faces and the silhouette of the man holding a peace pipe-painting and photograph, respectively), I always try to explain that, in case someone recognizes it. But I would never buy a print from a store, then claim it as my own. If you can't get off your lazy a** and do the art yourself, then you are not an artist. Whether you use computer graphics, oil paint, acrylic, pencil, charcoal--if you want to be an artist, then you need to create art. Plain and simple.
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I can’t believe it’s common, or at least I hope not! Artists and makers have such a hard time selling already - it’s a shame this type of scam ever occurred
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I can imagine. Not long ago, a female artist received a message from a client informing her that, at an art fair, an artist was selling her works as if they were his own. That is, it was plagiarism, so to speak. And when she investigated further, it was discovered that he had copied several artists (and that, apparently, he hoped it would never be discovered). Additionally, in his posts he constantly included hashtags aimed at feminists. Feminist art... by a man who has stolen from women artists. Isn't it magnificent?
The fair did not impose any restrictions. Although the affected artists had reported that he was committing theft, he was able to carry out the fair and even gave a television interview about "his art". The artworks he copied, almost entirely, were by women who showed their intimate parts or who depicted social problems in a very graphic way. In any case, they were very graphic.
Well... I can imagine that these things are happening.