Art or Scam?
[Venice]Where cruise ships moor, artists sell their paintings of Venetian scenes amidst stands with made-in-China Venetian masks. “Did you paint these yourself?”, I ask. Instantly, he reveals a great variety of sealed diplomas. To prove they are real, he shows the spots of paint at the back of the paintings. At five in the afternoon the stands are closed. They are folded up and removed. I follow them and see how they all together disappear behind the large door of a warehouse. I imagine all small stalls as a big Chinese department store struggling with authenticity issues. Fact or fiction?