Dear Lee,

Original antiques are getting harder to identify. Reproductions of posters and prints can fool most people. Glass is being made from old molds to create near-perfect copies. Pottery and porcelain is being “reissued” or copied. Don’t fret. Even museums have been fooled, and for years. The former executive director of the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee recently lectured about the fakes in the foundation’s important collection of American furniture. He explained how and why many counterfeit pieces were sold to collectors in the mid 1900s; some of those pieces wound up in major museum collections.

Although new technology is helping experts spot these fakes, fakers are learning more, too. In the news last month was a story about a new method of carving stone. An artist sent a 19th-century carved stone fountain to a company that mapped it with a laser scanner. Then limestone blocks were carved with a computer-controlled machine and hundreds of the fountains were made. Perfect copies. After a few years outside, the copies will look old and may be impossible to detect.

Antiquities are also copied or faked. You might have seen news stories about the burial box of Jesus’ brother, James. It proved to be a fraud, an old box with new inscriptions. The investigation led to a forgery ring that has sold fakes for over 20 years. And many of the fakes are in important collections and museums. Historic artifacts also slide by undetected. Gettysburg National Park announced a few months ago that it was given a banner that hung at the 1889 dedication of a monument at Gettysburg. The banner had been purchased at auction for $10,500 by the Friends of National Parks at Gettysburg. Publicity unearthed the true story. The banner was a fantasy piece designed and made in 2002 by a folk artist who originally sold it as new for $165. It was resold several times, and along the way picked up the story of age and historic importance. It is “buyer beware” at all levels of collecting.

But even more fun for a collector is the question, “What is art?” A mass-produced piece of pottery designed by Picasso? A rare Rookwood vase? A modern sculpture that’s a group of stones placed on the floor? We were asked by a reporter about a pair of the famous “Dogs Playing Poker” paintings by Cassius Coolidge that sold recently for $590,400. The paintings were done to be reproduced on a 1908 calendar. The artist got $250. But the paintings, called kitsch in the 1950s, are now famous. They are seen in television ads, comics, and reprints. “Are the paintings worth that much? Are they art?” the reporter asked. We answered, “If someone paid over a half a million dollars, right now that is what the paintings are worth.” Is it art? Maybe not to a museum, but certainly to the many people who have copies of the dogs hanging on the family room wall. As we always say-buy what you like. Eventually the rest of the world will catch up with you.

P.S. It’s spring and we have the Collecting Bug.