MovieChat Forums > How to Steal a Million (1966) Discussion > Can't figure this out (origin of the fak...

Can't figure this out (origin of the fake Cellini)

posted 18 years ago by rooprect
4 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I've only seen this film once, and I may have missed some points so bear with me.

From what I gather, the Bonnet family has the true works of art stashed in the secret attic, and all the works that are sold/exhibited are the forgeries. Ok, so this implies that the true Cellini is somewhere in the attic.

Why then did Nicole's grandmother have to pose for the forgery? Couldn't the grandfather just copy it directly from the original as Papa does? I know the plot required the grandmother's posing so that we could see the likeness between the statue and Nicole. But logically I can't make sense of it.

[–] tharrilc 18 years ago

I do not think that it is true of the film that "the Bonnet family has the true works of art stashed in the Secret attic". But it is a good question to wonder from what the forgeries had been created in the film. One would assume that to create a forged work of art that one would have to copy the original. When Bonnet was signing his forged Van Gogh, he seemed to be working from a slide projection. This might be a "suspend disbelief" area.

Summerfield

[–] Selysia 18 years ago

Charles Bonnet is a forger in that he creates works of art that are made in the style of a specific artist, so he can pass them off as Rembrandts, Cellinis, Van Goghs and so on. His forgeries are not replica of specific, already existing paintings or sculptures. Like the art dealer said, young painters often start by copying the masters, and the highest achievement for someone like Bonnet would be to create something that actually gets attributed to a master, like Rembrandt or Van Gogh.

I can do anything I want to Baby, I ain't lost

[–] BrianT999999 18 years ago

Bingo. Bonnet's father didn't copy a Cellini statue, he created an entirely new sculpture in the exact style of Cellini, and then claimed it actually WAS a Cellini. Bonnet himself is doing the same with paintings; he'll create a new painting in the style of Van Gogh, for example, and then claim it is an actual Van Gogh. It would have been a lot more difficult to establish the art's provenance before computers; erego, it would have been easier to fabricate a story about how his family had obtained these "lost works of art."

The slide that Bonnet is viewing is a close-up of an actual Van Gogh signature; he's just comparing that signature to his to make sure he got it exactly right.

[–] klorentz 17 years ago

I watched it again last nihgt. The slide projector was just for the signature.