Interview with the Art Forger

            In the fumes of acrylics, the painter sat with his legs crossed, palette encrusted with a months worth of colors placed conveniently to side. When he’s not sleeping, eating, or having cigarette, Hoan spends time forging paintings on commission. For a mere 40 to 50 dollars per canvas, Hoan and a team of five others create forged paintings for sale in the heart of the Old Quarter. Passing the store front, you’ll find Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss,” a public display of affection which you’ll find is common around Hoa Kiem’s lake, only steps away. Hoan named his store after his wife, and the business has been afloat for 4 years.

            Ask any curator, selling art is difficult. No artist wants to be part of the buying and selling of their work. Some describe it as akin to selling ones child. Hoan didn’t seem to have any qualms in this respect. At least two hundred of his paintings surround him in stacks against the wall and on the sidewalk, waiting for someone to choose one like albums in a used music store. Hoan acknowledges that his storage method may not be best for the paintings. He says he’s saving up to rent a bigger place so that he can properly store his paintings. As it is now, the paintings are exposed to the hot and humid Hanoian streets, crowded with honking motorbikes and tour busses.

            Hoan says he loves painting and he always has since he was a small child. He only wishes that some day his business will make him enough money to start painting original works, but he admits this will be sometime from now. I hope he gets the opportunity soon.