A Treasure Trove of Frida Kahlo's Memories

There seems to be a large collection of Frida Kahlo’s possessions that will be soon up for sale, from her letters, jewelry, to sexual sketches she had made in a notebook. However, as the NYTimes reports, there is a big question of authenticity. While the artist’s copyright protected works may be in jeopardy, the bigger issue is fraud.

The New Yorker had an article a few years ago regarding Jefferson bottles of wine, wines that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson yet to be shipped to the US, that had been alleged to be found in a cellar in France. There were allegations that a famed wine collector was making counterfeit wines and bottling them in the original Jefferson bottles, for which people were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for.

While many people may not care that these wealthy art and wine enthusiasts are being scammed, to me it seems more important to point out that not only is fraud occurring, but that these fine names of artisans are being diluted with fakes. I seem to oscillate between copyright protection and reinventing copyright law [re: Girl Talk blawg]. However, there is a distinction between fraudulent reproduction for economic gain and a remixing, reincorporation of art to create new art. The latter is not attempting to pass off their appropriation as the original artist’s, but rather their own. So which is worse? The plagiarist or the imitator?