Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

When the Copy is Better

March 29, 2010 by Marion Maneker

The Wall Street Journal looks at a company that replicates art:

Whether to rewrite history or reinterpret masterpieces, replicas made with a palette of high-tech tools are changing the way tourists see art.

[…] Madrid-based Factum Arte, a company that employs high-resolution 3-D scanners of its own devising to reproduce artworks. The scans result in thousands of files whose images are stitched together, then churned out by flatbed pigment printer onto canvas primed with historically accurate paints. To get the clone closer to the real thing, conservators fill in any ridges or creases from manhandling or restoration by hand afterward.

Founded by painters Adam Lowe and Manuel Franquelo, Factum Arte now employs 30 specialists, with offices in London and Madrid. The company’s first major project was a facsimile of Spain’s Altamira cave completed in 2001. The cave, whose ceiling dances with Paleolithic drawings of animals, closed in the late 1970s because carbon dioxide was destroying the Unesco heritage site.

The Art of Replicating Masterpieces (Wall Street Journal)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Antiques Follow ArtAntiques Follow Art
  • Will There Be Buyers in Hong Kong?Will There Be Buyers in Hong Kong?
  • Artprice/Artron’s Top 25 Artist’s Markets for 2012Artprice/Artron’s Top 25 Artist’s Markets for 2012
  • Artelligence: Is Miró the New Picasso?Artelligence: Is Miró the New Picasso?
  • The Prodigy’s Progress: Checking In on Kieron Williamson The Prodigy’s Progress: Checking In on Kieron Williamson
  • Looking Ahead to VeniceLooking Ahead to Venice

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Login
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • Selection Bias In Art Is What Creates Value
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor