The art of forgery

A few days ago, I came across something on one of my social media feeds, a text that caught my attention. It described a historical episode —one I still need to research myself— about a Cupid sculpture Michelangelo created and allegedly altered using several techniques to make it appear as an authentic Roman antiquity, increasing its market value. But what caught my attention wasn't the act of forgery itself. It was the leap he made to measure the market's temperature and understand its motivations for buying a work of art.

He realized that the perceived value of an artwork relies, to a large extent, on perception itself. Of course, the genius of his artistic mastery is beyond question. But neither the fraud nor his virtuosity is what interests me here. What interests me is something branding defines as brand equity: personality and identity.

The crucial part is identity, because that is the true core of what any object, product, or service ultimately sells—and the need it speaks to. For artists—and I include myself in that bag—it is always difficult to identify what we are actually selling. Is it an experience? Vanity or status? Joy? The pleasure of possession? Meaning?

Faked sculpture made by Michelangelo, Eros sleeping, siglos III-II a. C.

Perhaps the Golden Fleece every artist pursues before stepping into the marketplace is answering a far simpler question: which audience, motivations, and emotions is my work speaking to?

You see, throughout my long professional career I've studied marketing extensively. And yet, defining the identity of my own artistic vision remains the thing I struggle with the most when it comes to selling it. Mea culpa.

Those who have read me before know I ask far more questions than I offer answers. The unknown is different for every artist. It is never the same. And perhaps that equation can only be solved by each one of us.

Perhaps, in the end, the whole story raises a far more unsettling question: if a forgery is created by someone with enough mastery to fool the market, is that artist any less of an artist?

The art of forgery