The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 22, May 28, 2006, Article 23

WHEN IMITATIONS ARE IMITATED

Many E-Sylum readers are familiar with artist J.S.G. Boggs,
who is known far and wide for his money art, "Boggs bills"
and encounters with the U.S. Secret Service and similar agencies
abroad.  I thought of him recently when I saw a news article about
a British artist who used to copy works of famous artists (and got
in trouble for collaborating with an art dealer who marketed them
as originals).

"Amateur painter John Myatt bamboozled the art world with a string
of counterfeit Monets and Picassos that were sold to collectors
around the world. He got caught and went to jail.

On release, he built a new life selling "genuine fake" canvasses
of great artists."

Myatt has found that selling "genuine fakes" makes more money...
But he is highly amused by one final twist in his surreal career
-- he discovered a London forger has been selling fake Myatts.
"Isn't it marvellous? Let him get on with it."

To read the complete article, see:Full Story

Boggs' work may occupy a grey area in the eyes of governments, but
he never represents his work as anything but his own original
compositions.  I found the "counterfeit of a counterfeit" idea both
amusing and familiar - because of Boggs' fame, for many years now
there have been people who make and sell fakes of his work.  The man
accused by the government of counterfeiting had to incorporate a
large number of anti-counterfeiting measures into his own artwork.
Boggs writes: "Yes, counterfeiting is still a VERY BIG PROBLEM!"

According to the Washington Post article, "Hollywood producers Jay
Weston and Fred Levinson have acquired the rights from Myatt for a
biopic about the scam that London police once called "the biggest
art fraud of the 20th century."

Don't get Boggs started on his own dealings with the film industry.
Regarding the rights to his own life story, he writes: "I have
consistently refused to sell, from first offer of $50,000, to last
firm offer of $500,000 and hints of $750,000 and a "phone number"
(which is Hollywood Code for One Million Dollars - same number of
digits, i.e., TEN)."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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