Celebrating fakes is moronic ... it’s real art that matters

Dulwich picture gallery’s flirtation with fakery is neither clever nor funny. It’s a betrayal of the museum’s duty to preserve and present art

Gallery challenges art lovers to spot the fake

Fakes are fun. Fakes are cool. This week, Dulwich picture gallery launched a conceptual art project in which a replica made in China is concealed among its “real” paintings. Can visitors spot the fake? The intervention, said the gallery’s director, “will provoke a new way of looking at our collection”.

No, it won’t. It will confuse the public, undermine the pleasure of looking at the great paintings on its walls, and replace the joy of learning about art with a glib postmodern game that is pretentious and destructive. I personally don’t intend to go anywhere near Dulwich until this silliness is done with.

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