Memoirs of an Expert: Between Truth and Artifice in the World of Art

Wang Shixiang (1914-2009) Feng Guodong (1948-2005). Beijing Hutong

No expert worthy of the name goes through his career without amassing his share of extraordinary stories. When two connoisseurs or two experts meet, the stories invariably flow, testimonies of a world where the authentic rubs shoulders with the illusory.

While some follow the royal road – École du Louvre, Christie's – others, from a bygone generation, have forged themselves in the crucible of experience. My journey was unique. In China in the 1980s, I had the privilege of studying history, art history and archaeology at university. But how can one discern the true from the false with an academic education and having only seen authentic objects in museums?

Fate then brought me into contact with the man who would become my teacher, Wang Shixiang. An eminent scholar, expert in Chinese art, collector, poet, writer and calligrapher – a scholar in the purest tradition. In his traditional siheyuan, this outstanding scholar initiated me into the subtle art of observation, teaching me to detect the historical, cultural and aesthetic value of objects.

Evenings often found me in company of my friend Feng Guodong, a then unknown painter, recognized far too late after his death – the cruel fate of artists who refuse to follow official guidelines. In his modest shop near Gulou, near the ancestral towers, he created his works and, sometimes, “antiques” for foreign visitors. I watched him, fascinated by his art of imitation

The nights were prolonged in Gulou, between bowls of steaming tripe and ravioli, washed down with erguotou, this fiery 56-proof sorghum alcohol. We shared these moments with art dealers, sometimes frivolous women and artists, all gathered in a Beijing bohemianism that has now disappeared.

How many more stories I could tell! My trips to Jingdezhen, where master potters created replicas so perfect that they fooled the most prestigious auction houses... But that's another story, for another day.

Because being an expert is, above all, being passionate. It is this perpetual quest for understanding, this desire to make objects speak, to decipher their secret language. It is an intimate communion with history, styles and techniques that transcends a simple profession to become a vocation. In this world where the authentic and the illusory dance an eternal waltz, we are the guardians of a precious memory, the privileged witnesses of a beauty that spans the ages.