The Dulwich Picture Gallery has paid a Chinese studio to produce a copy of an Old Master painting, and hidden it within its permanent collection.
Gallery Director, Ian Dejardin said the experiment was intended to question the value of original art.
“It will provoke a new way of looking at our collection,” he said.
The identity of the replica, which was recreated for $120, will be revealed to the public in April.
The idea for the challenge came from conceptual artist, Doug Fishbone, who commissioned the copy from one of China’s many exporters of handmade oil paintings.
Southern China has the world’s highest number of mass-art producers.
Mr Fishbone said he hopes the experiment will raise change perceptions of replica art.
“In the West, we see replicas as very problematic, as ‘fakes’ perhaps, whereas in Chinam the notion of copying cultural artefacts is seen totally differently.”
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