I went out with my girlfriend to see the “Rembrandt in America” exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Art today. We were both excited, because we both like Rembrandt’s work.
We plunked down $36 to get in, and as we started checking out the pieces on display, we noticed something that was somewhat irritating. It seemed like every third piece was a fake, or “not attributable to Rembrandt.”
Look, I get that it can be educational to see some fakes, but when they make up a such a large portion of the exhibit, it stops being fun. Especially at $18 a pop.
A more accurate title for the exhibit should have been “Rembrandt and a Bunch of Fakes.” We probably would have felt a lot less ripped-off.
The few Rembrandts I saw were nice, but my irritation colored a lot of my feelings about the exhibit. Rather than mixing them in with the real works, it might have made more sense to stick them in a “fake” room.