Originally posted here by avdven
Counterfeits, even hand-made ones, will also never be worth as much simply because they *aren't original*.
Just to ******** this, we are talking about quality fake paintings made by experienced, skillfulled falsefiers. You can't see the difference between this and the original without some hi-tech things.


Finally, in response to question regarding finding a long lost or totally new piece of art by a famous artists, there are always ways to tell whether it is authentic or not, such as dating the piece of art (to ensure that it was made during the correct time period), authenticating the style, types of material used, signature (if present), etc.
It's much easier to tell if the painting is a fake than if it is an original. Let's take Van Goch's Sunflower-series: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/sunflowers.htm
He made eight different pictures of sunflowers. What if a new similar pic was found and identified to be from around 1888? Cannot be proven that it was made by Goch but neither can be proven that is wasn't.

Originally posted here by Palemoon
Copies hold little value because they are that only a copy and not the spirit of the artist nor express the daily struggle many artist live, they lack copies the originator the artist and copies are for selfish profit, art is given to all it's value is set by men and women to the artist the reward is the work.
What would happen if we got an Universal Replicator(tm) which could create a molecule perfect copy of, say, Mona Lisa? Would both paintings still be as expensive as the one used to be? Would their prize go to half of the original?