Why would counterfeiting have anything to do with what you take away from a painting? As you say it has nothing to do with the art itself. The price of a piece

Why would counterfeiting have anything to do with what you take away from a painting? As you say it has nothing to do with the art itself. The price of a piece shouldn't influence your enjoyment of it. Counterfeiting to me is fascinating because there's a lot of diligent work that goes into producing a good fake for collectors. And skilled counterfeiters have to study the painting and the context of the painting well enough to reproduce it using period materials, period techniques, and the technique of the specific artist they're counterfeiting. That's a form of art study which you're deriding here. When you actually get down to the business of enjoying and appreciating art, it's a deeply personal thing. For most people the price attached to the art has as much relevance to it as the cork does to the flavor of wine. Being able to talk about what you see in your favorites, why they make you feel the way you do, and what they communicate to you is what studying art is supposed to do.