Picasso fiasco

Artist accuses museum of false advertising for exhibition

“Those of you who are domestic professionals, have you ever seen an exhibition overseas? Where were your professional ethics when you promoted such a crooked exhibition?” art critic and artist Liang Kegang wrote in an article criticizing what he called misleading marketing for the Picasso in China art exhibition that was held in Beijing in May.

The article soon went viral, with many netizens passing it on because they felt it reflected the chaotic nature of the art industry in China. On May 28, the large- scale

Picasso in China exhibition was unveiled at the Riverside Art Museum, a museum in which real estate developer the Riverside Group has heavily invested. Many prestigious veterans in the art industry attended the opening ceremony.

The exhibit soon became a sensation because of its sheer size and the number of art works by Picasso.

According to marketing for the event, the exhibition featured 83 original art works from eight collectors from five countries. Addition to the art works, 84 photographs recording the life of the famous Spanish artist taken by Edward Quinn were also on display. The museum stated that all told, the items at the exhibition were worth more than 1 billion euros ($ 1.09 billion).

However, Liang had his doubts about the veracity of the museum’s claims.

According to his research, there are numerous questions concerning the authenticity of the works as some unfinished works lacked the artist’s signature or a plate number. Liang also discovered that most of the art works did not come from collectors like the museum claimed, but were rented from art institutions like Studio Guastalla in Italy.

The photographs on display were also not the originals, but rather printed out copies of the originals.

According to Liang’s estimations, the value of the items on display were far less than 1 billion euros.

Additionally, Liang took offense that the museum, which is supposed to be a charity art museum, was charging 120 yuan ($ 18) per ticket for the exhibition, more expensive than the tickets to globally prestigious museum such as the Picasso Museum in Barcelona or the Pompidou Museum in Paris, both of which have authentic works from Picasso.

“Such a crooked exhibition is obviously just a way to promote their business… It capitalized on ignorance – citizens know little about this field – and exaggerated the value and quality of suspicious art works,” Liang wrote. Liang said what angered him the most was that veterans in the industry also had their suspicions, but still stood out and promoted the exhibition for the museum. After Liang’s article was published, the curator of the Riverside Museum Sun Yue said that the exhibition had actually stopped charging for tickets after its third day, while also reiterating that the works on display had come from seven collectors and one art organizations from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the US and Switzerland and had official letters and certificates backing their authenticity. This is not the first time an art exhibition in China has stirred controversy. The 2015 Van Gogh Alive exhibition in Shanghai made use of audio and visual technology to present the artist’s work in a unique way, but marketing had led many visitors to think they would see authentic art works from Van Gogh. Many stated they regretted “spending 100 yuan to see a powerpoint presentation.”