Word: vietnamization
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...many paintings and sculptures in Vietnam's national art museum are actually copies, nobody knows. But rumors have swirled for years that many treasured originals by Vietnamese artists like Niet have been either lost or sold off, and reproductions have taken their place. The copies aren't exactly forgeries. During the Vietnam War, the museum's own restoration department was a virtual copy factory - a fact that museum officials past and present freely admit...
...After years of silence, artists, collectors and museum staff are demanding that Vietnam's art officials come clean. Tiep says the museum's entire collection has been tainted because copies are not labeled. This acceptance of copying has helped devalue Vietnamese art, since collectors are never sure if they are buying the real thing. Tiep accuses the museum of failing to properly display and preserve its collection, resulting in irrevocable damage and loss. "I have had to swallow my tears," says Tiep, who resigned as deputy director two years ago to protest what he claims is mismanagement. "We have...
...Ironically, Vietnam's practice of reproducing noteworthy works was originally carried out to rescue the country's artistic heritage during wartime. "The Americans said they were going to bomb Vietnam back to the Stone Age, to wipe out Vietnamese culture," says Nguyen Do Bao, chairman of the Hanoi Fine Arts Association, who was a young museum staffer in 1966 when the first B-52s appeared overhead. "It was a national imperative to keep the museum open." So the staff - and in some cases, the artists themselves - started to make copies. The reproductions stayed in Hanoi while the originals were spirited...
...Asked whether reproductions were indeed on display today, Truong Quoc Binh, director of the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, acknowledges that "it is possible," adding that the issue of copying "is a very difficult problem." But he declined to answer other questions. Ministry of Culture officials declined to respond to written questions about reproductions, although they said the issue was under discussion...
...proliferation of copies is hurting Vietnam's once hot art market. Taylor, the art historian at the Art Institute of Chicago, says younger artists who made a living by copying are starting to worry that the practice that once benefited them is now hurting their prospects. Even if making copies was not originally intended to deceive, the situation is so bad now that no reputable museum will borrow from Vietnam's national art museum, Taylor says. "The biggest damage is that now Vietnam has a bad reputation," she says...