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Art reproductions are big business in China

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Axiom

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I just recently acquired a reproduction of one of my favorite paintings. It cost me less than $100, including shipping. All thanks to the magic of slave labor globalization.

There is a city called Painting Village in China where the entire local economy revolves around creating art reproductions. It's a pretty incredible example of entrepreneurship actually.

Here's an example of one posted on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Pelt-Merchant-of-Cairo-...Z150274976457QQ

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There is a city called Painting Village in China where the entire local economy revolves around creating art reproductions. It's a pretty incredible example of entrepreneurship actually.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding this type of art making, because many of them are of copyrighted images, but the Chinese government doesn't care about copyrights -- not even currently living artist. One could make a claim that the copyright to the Mona Lisa has long ago expired, but for living artists like Thomas Kinkade, the copyrights are still in effect, and yet one can find his images (or legally close to them) at such markets. Originals to Kinkade or G. Harvey sell in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but these guys are cranking them out for a few hundred dollars or less. It's the same with patents and other intellectual property; for the most part, the Chinese government does not recognize their existence.

I wouldn't call all of it entrepreneurship, but many times it is grand theft of intellectual property. I'm certainly not against them turning your photograph into a painting, so long as the image is not copyrighted;but if you sent them a picture done by a professional photographer, that would be a violation of his copyright.

I've been in the art business (galleries and picture framing) for 25 years, and while you may be getting an actual painting, it is rare that they are anywhere near the quality of the original; though that may be hard to detect with modern art (that I despise).

I've even heard there are bootleg copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged on the market over there.

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I definitely sympathize with you. I'm familiar with the lack of intellectual property rights in China from the engineering R&D side of things - and I imagine the same issues arise on the art front.

That being said, I see the lack of attention to copyright as a relatively minor flaw (for now.) Consider how far the country has come in the last 20 years. Lack of copyright law seems like a blemish compared the the complete lack of property rights that existed there in recent memory.

Also consider that these reproductions have nothing but a positive effect on the well being of the artist they are copying. I don't imagine anyone considering a $100 reproduction of a $100k work of art is in the market for the latter.

Anyway, I generally look at this development as a positive sign. The guys who are making this happen are clearly ambitious - and they are brilliant at what they do. They are aphilosophical, and are simply responding to incentives set by the political system they're in. So yes, they aren't Ayn Rand heroes, but they are a hell of a lot better than the communist thugs that preceded them.

Regarding the quality of the reproductions; I certainly have no illusions that the copy is anywhere near the quality of the original. In my mind it's not a contest between the $100 copy and the $1.8million dollar original. It's between the $100 copy and a (shitty) $200 print at artrenewal. It's not a hard decision to make :)

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