Sent in by Gary Arseneau, Fernandina Beach, Florida:

The Artwork of John Lennon, opening this Friday at Hotel Indigo, is an organized 22 year old fraud by Yoko Ono and her business associates.

With only three to four exception used only as bait, the so-called artwork offered for sale, in this exhibit, are actually non-disclosed posthumous black-and-white reproductions, posthumous colorized fakes and posthumous altered & colorized fakes misrepresented as original works of visual art ie. lithographs, serigraphs, etchings and woodcuts.

The only problem John Lennon was dead when these non-disclosed fakes were reproduced and/or altered and colorized into new compositions. The dead don't create artwork.

To learn more about this fraud, link to: http://garyarseneau.blogspot.com/2006/09/artwork-of-john-lennon-fraud.html
 
Remember, with full and honest disclosure the public may be able to give informed consent on whether to attend this exhibit, much less purchase one of these non-disclosed fakes.


As an artist who creates original lithographs by drawing on a limestone block with a grease pencil who chemically treats the image so I can print my edition, I know what it takes to create artwork. In 1985, my introduction to lithography accelerated my connoisseurship particularly when I started to personally experience the public's misconceptions that lithographs, much less mine, were reproductions. At the time, it compelled me to not only explain to the public how I created a lithograph but to back it up with definitions, regulations and laws to support that concept that they were originals. Then in 1999, I discovered the misrepresentation of reproductions, much less fakes, as artwork was not exclusive to just artists, art dealers and galleries but also by a good majority of museums, cultural institutions, auction houses and academia. Therefore, as a scholar, I feel morally obligated to document these contentious issues of authenticity. To accomplish that goal, I use independent documented definitions I didn`t define, statutory laws I didn`t legislate and published historical references I didn`t publish to make my conclusions. Those facts are my credentials.

IF