Interview with USA Today

Today I was surprised by an email from a USA Today reporter who wanted to interview me. A flurry of email messages were exchanged between the reporter, my publicist, and my agent, and within thirty minutes I was on the phone answering questions.

The reporter is writing a story about the fake Picasso drawings that were sold by Costco recently, and is working in other examples of modern-day art fraud. She recounted a story of a gallery that sold fake Modigliani lithographs on late-night television infomercials. And of course, there is eBay, the world's largest market for bogus art. Which led her to me.

We chatted for quite a while, swapping stories about the sorts of high-dollar speculative art purchases buyers are willing to undertake. She was astonished that anyone would spend $40,000 for a piece of art they'd only seen on costco.com. While this is indeed astonishing, based on all that I've seen on eBay, I was not surprised by it. I've witnessed bigger, more foolish risks.

She's not sure if the story will ever make it to print -- it may be a bit too long or a bit too art-related for the readership of USA Today. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because it promises to be an interesting read.