User:RomaC/Art

The art student scam is a confidence trick in which cheap, mass-produced paintings or prints are misrepresented as original works of art, often by young people pretending to be art students trying to raise money for art supplies or tuition fees. In some early instances of the scam the sellers represented themselves as Israeli art students, but the scam is now international, with instances of Chinese, French, Chilean, and other nationalities posing as art students or dealers in Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand and the United States since at least 2000. The art is often sold door-to-door, bypassing exhibition sites or art galleries.

Mass-produced paintings
Most mass-produced prints and paintings originate in Asia. Some are essentially posters, sometimes referred to as "Hong Kong horrors", printed on rough paper, making the lack of brush strokes less apparent. Oil paintings are mass-produced in China, which does a booming business in legitimate replicas of old masters. In Dafen, in Shenzhen, China, 10,000 painters produce up to 30 paintings a day and some five million paintings are exported each year, about 10% of which are not copies, but original works. The paintings sell for as little as US$10 each. 

United States
See also Allegations of Israeli espionage operation 2000-2001

From the summer of 2000, news outlets in the Pacific Northwest, reported young people posing as Israeli students selling mass-produced oil paintings, both copies and originals, for US$80-$200 each. The 'art students' were said to be going door-to-door, targeting residential neighborhoods and primarily businesses with people "who might like art". They claimed to be studying at art universities in Israel, in the United States selling works by talented fellow students to raise money for art supplies or school fees.

Through the early 2000s, some 130 separate incidents of 'art student' encounters" were reported across the United States. Allegations of Israeli spying were raised after the leaking of an internal DEA report suggesting a connection between the art scammers and a spy ring. Several dozen Israelis in their twenties, including supposed art students, were deported for undertaking paid work not allowed by their visas. Israel dismissed claims of spying as "nonsense."

Australia and New Zealand
People posing as Israeli art students were reported in Australia and New Zealand from as early as 2003. The paintings are worth around AUD5, but are passed off as being worth hundreds of dollars. Three backpackers, an Israeli and two Chileans, were taken to court in Dundedin for the scam in 2003, but were discharged as the judge said that they were "minnows" in the organisation. They reportedly made NZ$15,000 in three weeks from the scam. The NZ Consumers' Institute suspected that an Auckland man was the organiser of the operation. A 23-year-old man was arrested in New South Wales, Australia, for operating the scam and 50 oil paintings were found in his car. An adviser for the New Zealand Consumer Affairs Ministry said that "All around the world, students from various countries are doing this". She suggested that the scam's organiser may place advertisements in backpackers’ lodges to recruit students. The scammers have also claimed to be Greek, Argentinian and French.

Canada
In 2004, a group of Israelis said to have been selling mass-produced paintings as their own work, for hundreds of dollars each, were deported from Canada for working in violation of their visas. The scam recurred in 2009 in Calgary, and Warman, Saskatchewan; eight people claiming to be students from Israel, Germany and France were arrested and 100 paintings were seized by the RCMP and Border Services. .

China
In China, scammers approach tourists at popular attractions such as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The scammer speaks English well enough to get into a conversation with the foreigner. The scammer claims to be an art student whose works are on display at a nearby exhibition which is part of the scam and sells mass-produced art reproductions at exorbitant prices. There are warnings about this scam in tourist guides.