More Online Art Scams

You will find links to con artist who set up web sites

looking like an art broker's site.  But in this case you get

completely ripped-off! These scams are perpetrated using

things like PayPal and fake escrow sites. If you get a bad

feeling from the broker when you call, do yourself a favor

and go somewhere else. Especially if the price seems

too-good-to-be-true, such as prices at 50% off, 40%

off there's something not quite right with the scenario.

Watch out on the Internet for pieces made in China.

Today there is an entire industry profiting from copying and

selling the paintings of well-known artists.  The more

sophisticated scams will go as far as using oil paints

on canvas; h o w e v e r , when you look closely at the

signature on the canvas you will notice it is not the name of

the famous artist who originally painted this work. Some of

these pieces are sold for thirty or forty dollars, others for

two or three hundred dollars and yet others sell for several

thousand dollars.

Even though some copies are done with oil on canvas

the quality of the materials is an issue. The canvas is coarse

and not of any quality. The paint formulations have dullness

and lifelessness to them. And because these pieces are

hand-copied, the Chinese artists are paid on a per

piece basis making the incentive speed. You will see

where a lot of short cuts were taken and if you get this piece

close to an authentic edition, you will see obvious

marked differences. There is a question as to how long

these works will last, and they are definitely a copyright

infringement, which in no way benefits the artist who

struggled for the real piece's creation.