A few months ago, a friend who collects and loves paintings (also quite fair-minded) called Viet Art View nervously to ask about Trần Văn Cẩn’s extremely famous silk painting ‘Two girls in front of the screen’ that they accidentally saw in a house. The friend shared “the family got this silk painting because it was given as a gift and they don’t understand this painting very well…” After that, the collector friend also sent Viet Art View a photo of the painting from his friend’s family…
Not knowing what to say more, Viet Art View sent back the photos of the original painting currently kept in Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum. They said, “Wow, I thought this was a newly discovered secret…”
In fact, this is not uncommon, because sometimes a few friends ask Viet Art View about a silk painting; especially silk paintings by artist Nguyễn Phan Chánh… which Viet Art View guessed that someone must have been inquired or offered to buy…
Nguyễn Phan Chánh (1892-1984). Three of a mother and her children . 1957. Silk. 41×55 cm. Photo taken from the book “Nguyễn Phan Chánh” of Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum, published in 1992. (Color may not be accurate because it was taken from print)
Copies of silk paintings (the very beautiful ones) by Nguyễn Phan Chánh are also quite rare, being kept in a few private collections. There are also owners who share the buying and keeping process. They know these archived versions are “valuable about a period in the history of the policies of some individuals in charge of poorly understood copyright laws.” They are also aware that if these copies get into the hands of people with bad intentions, there will be many consequences…
These copies are all reproduced by artists (some are very famous) with a high level of technique. They made it because they were assigned by the agency as part of their official job. So they are really innocent in this.
This copy of ‘Three of a mother and her children’ was made from the original, and was allowed to copy as part of an assigned job.
The back of the copy is still with the stamp about which it was copied from.
And the agency in charge of the assignment, it couldn’t be known how to blame them… because at that time the level of understanding of copyright law was only that. Therefore, choosing a person in charge with good expertise, knowledgeable experts holding important specialized positions is paramount.
And now, it is only necessary to improve one’s own knowledge or to meet and discuss with experts who have profound knowledge in sensitive matters like this to avoid having to buy copy paintings so that there are no word “if only, knowing that, wouldn’t buy…” full of regret.
P/S: The copies mentioned in this article are properly licensed from the agency (long time ago)…
Written by Viet Art View
Copyrights belong to Viet Art View
