Art as a lottery for the greedy? The true motives of art collectors

Hundreds of Andy Warhol forgeries and one original drawing worth $20,000 were sold for $250 each.

In the USA, a collective of artists recently caused a sensation with a project to reveal the supposedly true motives of art collectors.

To that end, the Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF purchased an original Andy Warhol drawing from 1954 titled "Fairies" for $20,000.

 

Andy Warhol 's original work was scanned, and 999 copies were redrawn by a robotic arm. According to a video on the collective's website, each copy then underwent a degradation process before being authenticated by MSCHF as a "Possibly Real Copy Of 'Fairies' by Andy Warhol by MSCHF" .

The original was then mixed together with the 999 copies and sold for $250 each, destroying every recording of the original piece.

Art as a lottery – similar to a lottery, art buyers could draw a dud or the jackpot for a price of 250 USD.

The collective titled their work “Possibly Real Copy Of 'Fairies' by Andy Warhol (2021)”.

The head of the artists' group, Lukas Bentel, links the unusual action to an attack on the established art scene.

He postulates:

For the majority of wealthy individuals who collect art, it is not about aesthetic value, but solely about investment value

Furthermore, he states:

By mass-producing Fairies, we obscure the artwork's provenance. Although physically undamaged, we destroy any future confidence in the work's authenticity. By burying a needle in a pile of needles, we make the original just as much a forgery as any of our copies

The collective adds that the copies—or more precisely, the entire process of copying and selling Faries' work—belong to them. Therefore, there are not 1,000 copies of a Warhol, but rather 1,000 co-owners of a single work by the collective.

Given that Warhol welcomed all mass-produced items, one wonders if he would toast the creators of this art project with a well-kept bubbly drink.