Art Authorities Smash Fake Court Painter Ring
Local Art authorities in the Inglewood District of Calgary raided a facility where copies of Court Painter’s famous portraits of political and celebrity personages were being passed off as the genuine article and adding insult to injury, were on sale at prices sure to gut his present market value.
Authorities raided a tourist attraction comprised of an exhibition sales gallery of Court Painter fakes.
Calgary’s Inglewood District is famed for its dozens of hipster hangouts and gluten free artist studios .
Some trusting tourists, however, have been visiting a gallery jammed with fake digital printouts of Court Painter paintings substituting for the authentic ones available online.
The sham images are preserved in a fashionably shoddy gallery complex, each work replicated,framed and installed to form a scam attraction. (an unsubstantiated report by local kids states that a secret tunnel connects Court Painter’s studio with the illicit gallery operation)
Authorities raided the site located in the same neighbourhood as Court Painter’s studio on Wednesday, the National Inquirer reported. There, after removing the gilded frames; they destroyed the inventory on display, which featured more than 90 copies of Court Painter’s most controversial yet highly valued works— an exhibition that was probably pretty disappointing for any visitor and their families who’ve seen images of the real thing online.
Scattered around the gallery, one could also find an impressive gathering of tourist brochures promoting The Gopher Museum and Banff’s many souvenir shops.A number of overflowing ashtrays were also spotted.
Inglewood district art officials had reportedly received an online complaint about the display and sale, known as the “More Real Than Life Portraits”. The operation also involved an unlicensed guide by the name of Mr. Will who gave visitors tours as well as providing illegal taxis that drove people to the attraction and had also been operating for a period of time. The Art Authorities have since posted images of the destroyed fakes on telephone poles and local grocery store bulletin boards to illustrate their crackdown on this scam that gave an inexplicable boost to the district’s tourist industry.
The reaction though highlights broader, pretty telling attitudes: digital counterfeiting in Inglewood may be a celebrated local cultural practice, but really, you can only get away with it as long as you focus on ripping off Court Painter works. ( this conclusion was unsubstantiated at press time)
So that’s the story to this hour!