UKC

It's amazing how many Picassos and Van Goghs you can pick up on ebay. Why, I could hang one in every room in still have enough change from a ton to buy a few Pre Raphealites and a Turner.

Actually some of these frauds are quite clever. I was watching one 'dealer' selling a painting advertised from the 'Newlyn/St Ives school' at the weekend. Amongst his paintings which often had starting prices at £1k+ was a Christopher Wood.
A bit of Googling will tell you that Wood was a highly respected early 20th century painter who died young when he threw himself in front of a train in an opium haze.
His works hang in The Tate amongst other galleries.

To cut a long story short this Wood painting which looked superb on the photos complete with signature and old frame went for just £215.00 a gift for an original. I would have bought it myself if I was convinced it was a genuine Wood.

I'm highly suspicious though of an art dealer who is savvy enough to put realistic prices on other works letting something go through for relative peanuts.

There must be loads of copies floating around which are being knocked out by artists who can capture the style of an artist. Re framed in old frames and passed off as originals.

The clever thing is pushing less well known artists on to the market and letting art punters imagine they're stumbled on to a rare original....bloody clever !

In reply to Jonno: I have an original Lowry for sale if you'd like it?

In reply to David KS:

Tenner ?

In reply to Jonno: Done....It's a bit wet (oil paints take YEARS to dry) so I'll send it on next week. Got a Degas too if you want it.

In reply to Jonno:
There is a constable for £2.99 at the moment, clearly he was prolific painting

In reply to David KS:

I know where there was a Titan, got half a million or so to spare?

Seeing it in a house certainly gave me the WOW feeling.

In reply to sutty:
A couple of years ago there was a Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh stolen from a well known manchester gallery. They were found by some toilets, in a park 200m from the gallery, right at the top of rusholme (curry mile) the busiest area of late night manchester.

Certainly gave me a wow feeling; its the plot from a bad movie come to life. (They would have looked nice on my wall as well)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/manchester/2985023.stm

In reply to sutty: You'd better let Uranus and Ge know....They'll have been looking for him!

In reply to dread-i: That reminds me of a poor joke; .....The thief was aprehended sitting in a lorry, with all the paintings piled in the back.

When asked why he didn't drive away he said "I had no Monet to buy Degasse to make the Van Gogh"