Buying power
Forgery in painting has enjoyed a long history of scandal and from time to time spills more ink than paint, in part because we all enjoy reading about an art expert or moneyed person getting taken in by a fake. Our pleasure derives from that cocky-smug common-sense feeling that no painting is worth the prices currently being fetched in the marketplace — Picasso’s ‘Boy with a Pipe’ sold for $104 million (£56.3 million) in 2004, and more recently Klimt’s ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1’ was snapped up for a reputed record $137 million — especially when the naked eye can’t tell the difference between the original and a well-executed copy.
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Caring for Naples
Kate ChisholmOn Blood and Lava (BBC World Service)
Celebs take to the streets
Simon HoggartFamous, Rich and Homeless (BBC1)
Psychoville (BBC2)
Alternative view
Robin HollowayRobin Holloway offers a different take on Lulu at Covent Garden
Diaghilev still dazzles
Giannandrea PoesioBallets Russes
English National Ballet, Sadler’s Wells
Vow of poverty
Lloyd EvansThe Cherry Orchard
Old Vic
A Skull in Connemara
Riverside
