#artshock

Hot take: The “grand forgery ring” never landed. In 2018, the core counterfeiting/conspiracy charges against Itzhak (Izzy) Zarug were dropped. What stuck were narrow paperwork counts, and the authenticity of the broader collection was never adjudicated. Yet the headlines—and the stigma—stayed. That feels less like justice and more like a witch hunt.

If the biggest accusations didn’t hold, why do we keep acting like they did?

What this is really about

Process over headlines. Paperwork ≠ painting. Documentation mistakes don’t decide authorship.

Transparency or bust. Publish the tests, the raw data, the provenance chain, and the dissenting opinions.

Stop the gatekeeping. Use blind, rotating panels with conflict-of-interest disclosures.

Label uncertainty. Confidence bands + basis of attribution on wall labels and in catalogues.