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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 11438413, member: 5833&quot;]Funny, Tuesday evening I heard a radio program I think I had heard before concerning the scandal in the art world, particularly the New York City art world, when quite a number of fakes were sold by a couple of highly respected galleries.&nbsp; A woman came to them with the story that she was acting on behalf of a European collector who insisted on remaining anonymous, bringing the paintings with her not even in crates.&nbsp; She did not try to unload them all at once, turning up with one or a few every now &amp; then.&nbsp; The galleries fell for it; buyers made purchases - for many times what the galleries had paid - reassured by the galleries&#039; prestige.&nbsp; It went on for about 15 years, due to the will to believe on the part of the galleries &amp; their clients, and the reluctance of those who suspected fraud to speak out for fear of being sued for &quot;defamation of property.&quot;&nbsp; You can listen to it here, &quot;Fancy Galleries, Fake Art&quot;:&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/shows/reveal" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.wnyc.org/shows/reveal" rel="nofollow">https://www.wnyc.org/shows/reveal</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The Bonhams vase has disappeared again.&nbsp; This is a good summary:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130916-mystery-of-a-missing-masterpiece" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130916-mystery-of-a-missing-masterpiece" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130916-mystery-of-a-missing-masterpiece</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Any time you see words like &#039;only&#039;, &#039;miraculous&#039; &amp; &#039;unprecedented&#039; in connection with an alleged antiquity, look more than twice, that&#039;s my advice.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a reprint of the monograph Josiah Wedgwood produced with all the many interpretations of the 2 scenes on the Portland Vase.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know what to make of the other side, but the side with the one figure everyone agrees on, Cupid, seems to me obviously Orpheus &amp; Eurydice.&nbsp; I used to come across these artificial cameos regularly.&nbsp; Suspect they are museum souvenirs:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]543594[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s not the prevailing interpretation, but I&#039;m not alone.&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Hugues_d%27Hancarville" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Fran%C3%A7ois_Hugues_d%27Hancarville" rel="nofollow"><font size="4">Pierre-François Hugues, Baron d&#039;Hancarville</font></a> thought so too.&nbsp; It was he who brought the vase to the attention of Sir William Hamilton, and he is so associated with it that it served to identify him on an engraved gem:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]543595[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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