Chapter 905 Fake Abstract Painting
Xiao Peng pointed at the painting on the wall and said, "This painting was on the ship when we bought it. At the time, Akhmedov said he bought it for $16 million. It should be his treasure, but he only put it on the ship because he had something to ask of me."
Sheridan nodded and said, "A Jackson Pollock painting is worth that much."
Everyone knows the Americans don't have much historical heritage—what scholars often call "uncultured." But they have money! What can money do? They leverage the power of capital to hype something up.
Sometimes, having money means you can do whatever you want. Just like that Chinese actress who had no acting experience, but was able to star in a top Hollywood production just because of the power of capital. No matter how much people complained about her acting skills, she still became extremely popular.
The Americans are even more ruthless.
The original American painting style was based on the Dutch school of painting, lacking creativity and artistry. It was primarily concentrated in Boston and its surrounding areas. Europeans often mocked them as "nouveau riche," especially in the art of painting, as they lacked "masters."
Painting is a matter of schools. It's difficult for Americans to produce masters by following the old traditional schools. So, between the 1940s and 1960s, a number of so-called "new schools" emerged in the US, such as "abstract art," "Dadaism," "Action Painting," "Pop Art," and "Minimalism." Xiao Peng, a rather vulgar person, sees the only thing these so-called schools have in common: they're incomprehensible to everyone! They're similar to the so-called "masters of ugly calligraphy" and "masters of ugly painting" that were popular in China a few years ago.
However, driven by capital, these "new schools" of art have achieved sky-high auction prices, becoming recognized as a genre. Ordinary people, seeing these works, can only shake their heads like Xiao Peng: We don't understand the world of artists!
And Jalock Pollock is recognized as the first person who helped the so-called "modern painting" of the United States break away from European standards and establish a leading position in the international art world.
How do they paint? There's no need for a rough draft; they simply spread a huge canvas flat on the ground and use a small stick brush or something to drip paint onto it. There's no need for a specific position; they just hold the paint bottle and drip wherever they want. The result is a web of chaotic lines, and that's what they call a "work of art." Any painting can fetch seven or eight figures.
Moreover, Pollock only lived to be forty-four, which makes his works even more valuable. The so-called "masters of ugly painting" in China are just playing with what others left over from more than half a century ago.
Thanks to Pollock's influence, American abstract painting flourished, reaching its current peak: In virtually any museum, you'll see paintings that are incomprehensible to the average person. Seeing such paintings is a sure sign that the schools they belong to all originated in the United States.
Xiao Peng suddenly laughed after hearing Sheridan's words: "You also think this is a Jackson Pollock painting?"
"Isn't that so?" Sheridan asked, puzzled. "It's not surprising that a wealthy man like you would collect Jackson Pollock paintings."
Xiao Peng grinned and said, "Just like the clothes I'm wearing, they're actually not expensive, only a few dozen euros each, but in your eyes, they're probably all super-branded, right? You can't judge my collection based on my net worth. Don't forget that one of my partners is Pascal, who authenticated this painting and found it to be a fake. Furthermore, the evidence is irrefutable: one of the pigments in this painting wasn't invented until 1970, and Pollock died in a car accident in 1956."
"Fake?" Sheridan's eyes widened. "I've seen a lot of Pollock paintings! This is absolutely lifelike!"
Xiao Peng laughed and said, "To be honest, it's not difficult to imitate Pollock. Isn't it just dripping paint everywhere? I just told you that this is a painting by a Chinese painter named Lao Qian. Have you heard of him?"
Sheridan thought for a moment, then suddenly widened his eyes. "Is this the fake work of 'Chinese Old Money' that deceived the entire wealthy American circle?"
Xiao Peng extended his hand and said, "Stop! Lao Qian didn't paint these pictures for his own benefit. He just paints. Oh, someone killed someone with a kitchen knife. Should we blame the person who made the kitchen knife? If we have to blame someone, we have to blame the Spanish!"
They were talking about a fraud case that shocked the entire United States.
Americans are quite interesting: on the one hand, they despise Europe and want to escape its influence, but on the other, they also highly admire it. A small incident illustrates this point: Alec Baldwin, the Hollywood star known for his roles in "The Hunt for Red October," "30 Rock," and "Mission: Impossible 5 and 6," married Ilaria Baldwin. He claims to have been born and raised in Spain, speaks with a Spanish accent, and claims to be a European woman who grew up under the influence of European culture and became a top American socialite, a claim he has consistently defended for over a decade. But what is the truth? Ilaria was born and raised in Massachusetts, a native American with no connection to Spain.
Why did she do this? Because claiming she had Spanish ancestry made her look more noble and more likely to blend into the American socialite circle. That's how awkward it is in the US.
Since it is so easy to get away with pretending to be Spanish, it is easy to fool real Spaniards here.
At the time, there was a Spaniard named Carlos. He was a seafood delivery driver who later studied art sales. His girlfriend, Glafira Rosales, was a waitress. He realized that wealthy people at the time were obsessed with abstract art. In the United States, if a wealthy person didn't have an abstract painting in their home, they weren't considered wealthy.
So this guy got an idea and decided to make some fake paintings to cheat people out of money. Lao Qian became their "gunman" to imitate Pollock and then sell the fake paintings as real paintings.
Are wealthy Americans so easily fooled? Can't they tell the difference between a real painting and a fake one?
The fact proves that it is true. After all, Pollock's paintings are just random "drip drip drip", right?
Carlos and his girlfriend sold hundreds of fake Pollock paintings, each fetching millions, and they continued to do so for decades until their crimes were exposed in 2011.
What is even more ridiculous is that the female swindler Rosales has transformed herself into a wealthy person, but she claims that this matter has nothing to do with her and that it was all done by her ex-boyfriend Carlos. However, Carlos has a lot of money in Spain and cannot be extradited to China to get away with it.
The final result was: the buyer of the painting suffered a loss, the seller was not guilty, and the only one who was caught, Rosales, was sentenced to house arrest for nine months, and then he was fine!
"Hey, this is a fake painting by Lao Qian." Xiao Peng said, "Sheridan, how about you film my character better and I'll give you this painting?"
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