Hello, Dali?

Well, hello, Dali

It's so nice to have you here where you belong

You're lookin' swell, Dali

I can tell, Dali

You're still glowin', you're still crowin', you're still goin' strong!

Well, sorta....

As you know if you've been paying attention, I've been somewhat distracted by the goings-on in my real life, like examining antiques, and going to major exhibitions and buying and selling beautiful artworks and occasionally tossing some (usually really good) food at the members of my family. So I've not been paying as much attention to what's going on in the real world outside as I would like to.  Usually I know who's selling what and for how much, and who's complaining about who else did what (which I usually ignore).

Here's something I think I'd better take time to mention, though.  Occasionally there's a serious scam that people need to be made aware of - you know - like, you won't really become the beneficiary of a 30,000,000 pound legacy in a foreign bank account from someone who doesn't even know your name...but you knew that, right?

This present issue is not a scam, exactly, it's more like dubious Dali dealings. In fact, it's likely all perfectly legal.  Here's what's happening: the Salvador Dali Institute, in Spain, is apparently calling for an investigation into the production and selling of....scores...? hundreds...? of bronze sculptures, based on other Dali works, and issued under Dali's name.  Here's the thing:  the licenses to Dali's name may well have been legitimately bought, 'limited editions' may be legitimately issued, and as long as items are correctly identified, or at least, not deliberately mis-identified, the producer is in the clear.

 

Think of it like the Royal Doulton and other originally English products now being manufactured in the tens of thousands in Asia and Indonesia.  Or 'limited editions' of 300,000 (okay, I exaggerate, but you get my drift). A true 'limited edition' means a run in which very few items are made, so, theoretically, if it's a desirable subject from a great artist and there are only a few of them, this is going to increase in value.  Or so a collector hopes.  But serious collectors won't buy kitschy objects made by the thousand in a foreign sweatshop, which is why the market value of ordinary RD has plummeted.

The Guardian (UK) online quotes Joan Manuel Sevillano of the Gala Dali Foundation in Madrid as saying: "There is a grey area around Dalí sculptures. A lot of material Dalí authorised through licensing, or contracts, were based on drawings by him – but often were not created by him." Further, "You look at a sculpture and you don't know what you are seeing – is it one out of 10, or 300 in three different patinas, so it's 900? And did Dalí make it or not, or is it made by a third person with Dalí's permission or not?"... "These are commercial sculptures, made for decorative purposes."

He's quite right, of course; legitimate it may be, but you couldn't call this Fine Art.  And the real problem is that some people are laying out beaucoup de bucks for these reproductions.  And I mean 'beaucoup de'; we're talking about millions for sculptures that cost around $1,000 to manufacture in a local foundry. Now, for the record, I've got absolutely no problem with the buying and selling of reproductions as long as they're identified as such, and in my view, the price should reflect this.

Makes you feel better about buying a cheap piece of Doulton for more than it's worth, huh?