What We're Reading: 7/24/24
The art forger had fooled thousands. Then he met Doug
Earl Washington loves wood.
He loves maple wood from Wisconsin and boxwood from Turkey. He loves running his hands on its surface, feeling its heft and texture. But most of all he loves carving it. Thoughts about carving, he says, consume his waking moments.
Mastery was never enough for him, though. To profitably sell woodblocks — which can be an oddity in the art market — Washington decided he also needed myth. So he created elaborate origin stories for his pieces. Some, he claimed, had been made or acquired by his great-grandfather. Others he promoted as rare creations from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Thousands of people bought them unquestioningly, but a few became suspicious and raised concerns online and to authorities. The FBI fielded some complaints, but was not aware, it said later, of the “depth and the breadth” of Washington’s scheme, so he continued to sell his creations, having mastered the craft of carving and the art of fooling others.
Until one day in 2013, when he met Douglas Arbittier.
Via Seattle Times
Citadel's Ken Griffin buys a stegosaurus for $45 million in a record auction sale
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of hedge fund Citadel, purchased a late-Jurassic stegosaurus skeleton for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s Wednesday, marking the most valuable fossil ever sold at auction.
The 150 million-year-old stegosaurus named “Apex” measures 11 feet tall and nearly 27 feet long from nose to tail and it is a nearly complete skeleton with 254 fossil bone elements. Apex was only expected to sell for about $6 million.
Via NBC News
Analyzing the instant myth-making around Evan Vucci's famous photo of Trump.
You don’t need an art critic or a professional commentator to tell you why The Photo is “iconic,” to use the overused term. Trump looks defiant in the face of death. There’s an American flag in the background. It’s well composed.
None of this is expert-level analysis. It’s what you already knewthe first time you looked at it.
Via Artnet