Provenance

Spot the conman:

A New York man has pleaded guilty to selling fake artworks he claimed were created by such artists as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning.

John Re, 54, of East Hampton admitted scamming art buyers out of $2.5 million (£1.6m) over nine years, some of which he used to buy a submarine.

How could you tell if this is a fake? Or this? Perhaps one of the squiggles was slightly off. There is a wonderfully meta aspect to the story. A high-end conman like Pollock being used by a mid-ranged conman like John Re. The latter, however, at least had the decency of merely trying to defraud rich fools. Pollock's crimes against art are of far greater consequence. 

Comments

[Leacock]

I actually kind of like the second one. It makes me think of an aerial view of some bombed out European city.

[TheTooner]

I want to know more about the submarine. Mr. Re seems to have a better idea of what to do with money than the people to whom he sold fakes of fake art.

[John Chittick]

The "fake", by nature of the exacting labour required to reproduce the "genuine" piece, should actually be worth more.