A Sad Story and an Argument for Buying Living Artists' Works

Today, I read this story in San Francisco Chronicle: "S.F. dealer accused of selling fake Miró prints". According to Chronicle, "Pasquale Iannetti, 69, who runs Pasquale Iannetti Art Galleries Inc. on Sutter Street, was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in San Francisco on charges of wire and mail fraud for allegedly shipping prints that purportedly had been authorized by Miró, the renowned Spanish Catalan painter and sculptor who died in 1983."

It is a sad story. I have visited the Gallery before, for a special exhibit of works by the great German artist Käthe Kollwitz. Apparently impressed by my admiration for Kollwitz, Mr. Iannetti gave me a copy of their beautifully produced catalog, which still sits amongst my treasured artbooks on my shelf. I felt sad for his downfall and felt bad for the collectors who were duped.

Yet, this is a story argues for buying living artists. People should not treat artworks as commodoties. They should buy what they love to see and if they are not experts to tell geniune from fake, then buying artworks they love from living artists would solve the problem more than adquetly.