The Art World Is Clickbait and Fraud
The only thing worse than a KAWS SpongeBob painting being sold for six million dollars, is a fake, but widely believed to be real ‘newly found’ painting by a historically significant artist being sold at auction with a ridiculous price tag for the whole world to see.
The painting attributed to Van Gogh. The Fake Van Gogh Fisherman.
At the beginning of 2025, a painting bought at a garage sale was said to be a ‘never seen before Van Gogh’. The LMI Group were the “professionals and experts” behind this grand fraud. Now, I only have a Bachelors Degree in Art History, but even at first glance I knew the painting was not a real Van Gogh. It seems no one has eyes. A similar event also happened in 2017 with a seemed to be real Leonardo da Vinci painting titled “Salvator Mundi”, which sold for $450.3 million dollars in the Middle East. These are not the only two instances. This has been happening since the auction houses have had their chokehold on museums and collectors. Who knows how many Rembrandt’s are actually Rembrandt’s (who cares about Rembrandt though?).
This plague is growing because of the lack of knowledge (everyone thinks they’re an art expert), the scale of people laundering money and simply, click bait.
If anyone reading this truly believes that the fisherman or that Jesus holding a transparent sphere is real, I can’t blame you, but at the same time I must ask, where are your eyes? Compare da Vinci’s “Lady With an Ermine” and the wonderful “Salvator Mundi”. There is no comparison between them.
The question of scientific investigation can come into play, but that is easier to forge than the stylistic aspect. Art forging is a real profession (in the black market).
Salvator Mundi
Who is to say the auction houses aren’t the black market? Every couple of years curators and art historians like to bring up returning stolen art of antiquity to the country of origin, but when it comes to an artwork with an important name attached to it, they milk every chance they get to make a dollar, gain views/visitors and recognition.
The art world in the past 20 years has run out of ideas. They need to sell a Banksy that shredded itself or a fake Van Gogh.
V.N
