I’d like to purchase a handmade replica as a birthday gift for my boyfriend. A “handmade, museum-quality reproduction” painting sounds a little bit too good to be true, so I’m worried this might be a scam.
I’d like to purchase a handmade replica as a birthday gift for my boyfriend. A “handmade, museum-quality reproduction” painting sounds a little bit too good to be true, so I’m worried this might be a scam.
Wait which part? It’s a thing, there is or was a city in China where making hand reproductions is their main industry, but it sounds like you specifically went looking so that’s not a surprise.
If you’re sus because of the price: Cheap third-world labour. Actually, you could probably find even cheaper, since $335 is still a bit. If you’re wondering if it will actually be “museum quality”, well, that’s an advertising term and not a meaningful thing in the first place. It’s all down to how experienced the particular artist is, and there’s of course a risk that they won’t ship you the thing described at all.
You’re talking about Dafen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWd9nnaDL3M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafen_Village
Looks like it still exists, but I heard info that they closed a lot down in the recent years. Although it’s second-hand info, so take it with a grain of salt
Here’s a good, short podcast episode about it. https://pca.st/episode/5fe9cbac-1123-4a35-806c-7310195b3937
Nice, you found it!
There’s probably another one somewhere poorer yet that’s stealing their thunder. China has developed to the point where workers can do more specialist things and so can charge more.