Imagine you’re visiting an art gallery. You walk into a room and see two seemingly idential paintings hanging side by side on a clean white wall.
Your eyes bounce back and forth as you closely examine the pieces. Surely there’s a difference, but you can’t find it. You stand at a distance. You get in as close as you can. The pieces are absolutely identical.
Confounded, you ask a nearby curator what’s going on. He explains, “The piece on the left is an original by a Vietnamese painter known only as ‘Bao’. This was her last work. Only two days later she passed away during the bombing of Saigon in the summer of 1965. Her painting was discovered just three months ago in the basement of her humble home.”
He continues, “The one on the right is an exact replica, created only last week by a local art student. It is a perfect forgery down to the last brush stoke.”
Which painting seems more valuable? You’ll likely agree it’s the one on the left. Why? Because everything is more valuable when there’s a story.
