Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c9.67

c9.67

An amusing incident illustrating the extreme importance of labels in the minds of European art-experts occurred recently. A bronze statuette attributed to an Italian master of the sixteenth century was purchased by one of the great European art museums. It was duly labelled, discussed, and admired as a great work of art, until one fine day a living sculptor walked into the museum and claimed it as his own work. When the truth of his claim was established, the consternation of the museum authorities was great. The poor innocent statuette, which under the name attributed to it was bought for some thousands of pounds, was not worth twenty as the work of a living artist: it was promptly hustled into a store-room as unfit for public view. To the lay mind it must seem incomprehensible This page is blank and contains no printed text to transcribe.