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Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

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Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#141

Post by Bayart »

w-m wrote: post #14
nickthegreek wrote: post #3

Photo of the artwork is missing from apnews. You can find one here - https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thieves-stolen-van-gogh-ma...

The muted greenish brown colouring, the strange wide aspect ratio, the generally dark tone and setting: if you'd try to sell this to me as a Van Gogh painting, I would have probably laughed at you. I'm far from being an art historian, but it looks quite out of character for a Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's style changed significantly after he got to France and saw nobody would spend a dime on dull Dutch paintings.

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#143

Post by lacker »

iandanforth wrote: post #127

I fully approve of art theft. There should be honor among thieves of course. You shouldn't damage art. But if a painting isn't stolen now and then, well it wasn't worth painting in the first place. Really, what is art for but to enliven the doldrums of the rich? A moment or three of aesthetic pleasure, bragging at parties, but really most days it's just so much wallpaper. No, the true purpose of art is to be stolen.…

That seems cool in a movie, just like the mafia seems cool in movies. In real life it's just bad. When millions of dollars are at stake for a criminal gang, people are going to end up dying.

No cheers to the art thieves - go do something useful with your lives.

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#144

Post by rwmj »

kube-system wrote: post #133
jagger27 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn’t museums and other art holders create their own authenticated market of accurate clones by giving copiers access?

Nobody wants to pay a million bucks for an authenticated accurate clone. The entire idea of the fraud described above is that people think they're buying the original. Prints already exist, but nobody is paying big bucks for one.

Well people pay large sums for prints of the Great Wave, of which many thousands were made and are still being made. (Of course the trick is to know which prints are the earliest ones)

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#145

Post by Someone »

gnopgnip wrote: post #137
jagger27 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn’t museums and other art holders create their own authenticated market of accurate clones by giving copiers access?

Some museums do sell prints of public domain art, or licensed reproductions including oil painting reproductions. https://shop.famsf.org/collections/monet-the-late-years-art-... Not quite the same thing as an accurate clone

You can get 3D printed reproductions, too:

- https://gizmodo.com/heres-how-to-get-your-own-picasso-for-un...

- https://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/van-gogh-museum-... (probably a bit higher in quality and price, but I can’t find a link for it)

- https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/business/van-gogh-museum-edi... (probably even better, but likely also very pricey)

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#146

Post by [deleted] »

iandanforth wrote: post #127

I fully approve of art theft. There should be honor among thieves of course. You shouldn't damage art. But if a painting isn't stolen now and then, well it wasn't worth painting in the first place. Really, what is art for but to enliven the doldrums of the rich? A moment or three of aesthetic pleasure, bragging at parties, but really most days it's just so much wallpaper. No, the true purpose of art is to be stolen.…

[deleted]

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#147

Post by nkantar »

iandanforth wrote: post #127

I fully approve of art theft. There should be honor among thieves of course. You shouldn't damage art. But if a painting isn't stolen now and then, well it wasn't worth painting in the first place. Really, what is art for but to enliven the doldrums of the rich? A moment or three of aesthetic pleasure, bragging at parties, but really most days it's just so much wallpaper. No, the true purpose of art is to be stolen.…

If you haven't seen the TV show _White Collar_, you might enjoy it.

But I somehow doubt that's the way things actually go. Given the quantities of dollars at stake, I imagine people tend to die in the process, and some of them are innocent bystanders.

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#148

Post by jeffdavis »

iandanforth wrote: post #127

I fully approve of art theft. There should be honor among thieves of course. You shouldn't damage art. But if a painting isn't stolen now and then, well it wasn't worth painting in the first place. Really, what is art for but to enliven the doldrums of the rich? A moment or three of aesthetic pleasure, bragging at parties, but really most days it's just so much wallpaper. No, the true purpose of art is to be stolen.…

Art is part of a story. Sometimes adding some action livens it up a bit and attracts a new audience. Other times the story was better to begin with, and the action distracts (and detracts) from it.

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#149

Post by viklove »

phpnode wrote: post #98
viklove wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, after paying off the local officials to frame it that way. A rich person being accused of theft will tank their reputation, and if they spent $250M for the painting, they'll easily spend $10M to cover it up.

This is pure fantasy, who would spend $250m to acquire a stolen painting that they cannot resell? If it really is rich people buying them the purchase price is going to be a fraction of a percent of the amount you're talking about.

When your net worth is in the hundreds of billions, you can spend a couple hundred million to impress your "friends," and many billionaires do. Yeah, it's disgusting, but that's only because the modern global economy allows such disgusting levels of wealth.

Re: Dutch museum says van Gogh painting stolen in overnight raid

#150

Post by sjwright »

iandanforth wrote: post #127

I fully approve of art theft. There should be honor among thieves of course. You shouldn't damage art. But if a painting isn't stolen now and then, well it wasn't worth painting in the first place. Really, what is art for but to enliven the doldrums of the rich? A moment or three of aesthetic pleasure, bragging at parties, but really most days it's just so much wallpaper. No, the true purpose of art is to be stolen.…

I agree but for different reasons. It reminds us that art isn’t permanent. Also, we need some attrition to make way for new art. Don’t get me wrong, most new art is hilariously terrible, but a tiny amount of it isn’t.
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