How Important Is Authenticity
If something is beautiful when you believe you know who created it, is it any less beautiful when you find out you were wrong?
In the world of great art things are seldom simple.
Just a few days ago a ‘lost’ Caravaggio painting, discovered in an attic and valued at $170 million, was bought before auction – but questions are still being asked about whether or not it is the real thing.
This painting believed by some experts to be Caravaggio’s «Judith Beheading Holofernes» was found just a few years ago and last month acquired by an unnamed buyer who quietly bought before it reached the auction floor in Toulouse, France.
Caravaggio is already known for finishing his work «Judith and Holofernes,» around 1598 or 1599, but is this alternate version of the bloody beheading a genuine Caravaggio? Several experts have doubts, but that doesn’t appear to have had a dampening effect on its attractiveness to potential purchasers.
The alleged Caravaggio discovered in 2014 was then a dusty, water-stained canvas. It was only uncovered during a renovation of the attic of a domestic home.
A well-respected Parisian art appraiser and Old Masters expert declared it the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, two years later.
X-rays and cleaning found many revisions and retouching, which experts see as a sign that a painting is not a forgery or copy.
It shows the artist trying, correcting, trying again and only finishing when it is the best it can be.
In business I would argue authenticity is everything. It’s about trust and transparency and honour. Whoever the artist was, he wasn’t entering into a contract with a 21st century buyer.
In this century, every day, businesses are meeting their customers, making promises and following through to delivery. Not so very different from Caravaggio’s day.
Values are everything. Not the present-day value of an old master, but the value of a contract and of delivering a promise.
So how can we apply the question about beauty and value for business? For me the answer here is simple. A clear and clean supply chain, fairness and ethical treatment all the way along it and products built sustainably to do the job they’re designed for efficiently, safely, consistently and compliantly.
Only when trust is implicit, only when we know the products and services we buy and use in good faith are authentic do we know that the people handling them, working with them and living with them are safe.
Auction representatives didn’t disclose the buyer’s identity or the painting’s ultimate selling price, but the artwork is bound for an unnamed «great museum» outside of France, where it will be on display to the public. Is it a Caravaggio. I hope so. If it isn’t? It’s still beautiful.
https://www.livescience.com/65801-lost-caravaggio-painting-sold.html
