My two favorite articles about "experts" and the Chinese antiques market
Re: Re: "looks authentic to me" -- Beadman Post Reply Edit Forum Where am I?
Posted by: beadiste Post Reply
10/23/2015, 09:52:25

The Antiques Hustle

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZyhgsHNNuf8J:www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/08/the-antiques-hustle/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I liked the part where the peasants were out-foxing the scientific dating tests by grinding up ancient clay bricks to use in the fake clay figurines.

Yang Boda scandal

Along with four other experts, Yang Boda, former deputy curator of the Palace Museum in Beijing, determined that two items of jade clothing sewn with gold threads were authentic antiques and slapped a price tag of 2.4 billion yuan ($376 million) on them.
The two items were later found to be fakes.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2011-09/13/content_13670774.htm

A sub-theme in these articles is that the "experts" will never, ever admit that they were mistaken.

Another sub-theme is the prevalence of fakes in Chinese museums.

Phishing for Phools explores our weakness for a good story, and how the predatory exploit that.


Related link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZyhgsHNNuf8J:www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/08/the-antiques-hustle/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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