Yue Minjun on etsy: too good to be true, yeah?

December 6, 2008 10:31 AM

There are paintings for sale on Etsy that appear to be by Yue Minjun, selling for absurdly low prices. The Etsy seller does not use the name "Yue Minjun" anywhere. These are fake, right?

I just want a reality check in case I am missing a cool opportunity due to being clueless.

posted by everichon to media & arts (8 answers total)

Also paintings purportedly by Zhang Xiaogang. The ones that seem to be by Yue Minjun are on page 2 of the Etsy store.
posted by everichon at 10:36 AM on December 6, 2008

Something seems very fishy. Inconsistent watermarks on the images, which seems to suggest the images were taken from a variety of sources. And, as you've mentioned, the price is just way out of whack.

The store was just established today. Weird.
posted by piratebowling at 10:45 AM on December 6, 2008

Millions versus hundreds of dollars? Yes, absolutely too good to be true. Unless both Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang have a history of working in conceptual art, then this could maybe maybe be a sort of counter-art-market performance --- but I doubt it.

In addition consider that the banner says 'friendship868', instead of 'chinaoilpaint' -- the seller probably was reported and his account closed, and he just opened up a new shop under a different ID or something.
posted by suedehead at 10:52 AM on December 6, 2008

I would be willing to bet that these are done by art students in China.

I have seen all kinds of remakes done that way, from Monet to Picasso.

And hey! They can be had for even cheaper than that on eBay :)

Yue Minjun on eBay
posted by bradly at 10:54 AM on December 6, 2008

Yeah, it look like the ebay sellers are using the same watermarked images as the etsy seller. Fake and/or scam.
posted by piratebowling at 10:59 AM on December 6, 2008

Consarn.
posted by everichon at 11:00 AM on December 6, 2008

My boss has some Yue Minjun knockoffs on the wall of his office. He bought them on the street in Beijing a few years ago.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:20 PM on December 6, 2008

"China's Masterpiece Factories," video report from National Geographic (ad precedes video). It's kind of a neat industry, actually.
posted by steef at 4:41 PM on December 7, 2008