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Art Going PublicIn May 2003, after years of studying a Van Gogh self-portrait owned by Oslo's National Gallery (said to have been the only self-portrait which the artist painted after cutting off part of his ear), art historian Johannes Roed pronounced the work a forgery. The upshot? The number of visitors to the gallery promptly tripled!
[An Italian gallery (where the work was on loan when the controversy erupted) saw a similar jump in attendance figures. "In the museum world there is a lot of envy," the National's Marit Lange remarked, "and there were certainly many who rubbed their hands in glee when learning the Italian curator landed a fake. But it turned out not to be a scandal, but rather a coup. Over 602,000 people saw the painting there, a record for exhibitions in Italy."]
[Trivia: A convict named Mark Gentile once forged a Rembrandt portrait by photocopying the work from a book onto heavy cotton paper, dipping the product in lemon juice, singeing the edges with a 60-watt bulb and dyeing it with tea.]
Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890) Dutch postimpressionist painter [noted for his bold style and vivid colors exemplified in such works as "The Potato Eaters" (1885), his sunflower paintings (1888), "Starry Night" (1889), and his many self-portraits; and for his long struggle with depression and subsequent suicide]
[Sources: ananova.com, May 2003; Boston Herald, March 2004]More Vincent Van Gogh anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
Irony Art Art Galleries Attendance Philistines Forgeries Paintings Sensationalism Tourism Tourists
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