FACEBOOK IS FULL OF EXPERTS. BUT EXPERTS IN WHAT?

When you see the amount of fake news published on Facebook every single day, I have one simple question: Why would you blindly trust the art experts you find there?

Don't misunderstand me. I actually enjoy Facebook.

For me, Facebook is an extraordinary window into the world.

I can see how people from different countries think, how they behave, what they like, what they dislike, what they hope for, what they believe, and how they express their political opinions.

Sometimes it's fascinating. Sometimes it's amusing. And sometimes it's absolutely unbelievable.

But there is one thing I would never do.

I would never choose my financial adviser based on his Facebook comments. I would never trust a medical diagnosis from a self-proclaimed Facebook doctor. And I certainly wouldn't authenticate a painting based on the opinion of a Facebook art expert.

Yet every day, I see people posting photographs of paintings, sculptures, antiques, and works of art, asking whether they are authentic and what they might be worth.

And within minutes, the experts arrive.

One says it's a fake. Another says it's a masterpiece. A third announces that it belongs in a museum.

And everybody seems absolutely certain.

What I find particularly entertaining is the extraordinary range of knowledge some of these individuals claim to possess.

They know Picasso as well as they know 14th-century Italian painters. They know African tribal sculpture as well as Chinese porcelain, Renaissance bronzes, Egyptian antiquities, and contemporary art.

Remarkable!

I have been in the art business for 50 years.

And after half a century, I can tell you something that might surprise these Facebook experts:

I am still learning. Every single day.

And I know perfectly well that I will never know everything.

The art world is simply too vast.

You can become a genuine specialist in a particular period, a particular school, a particular group of artists, or even one single artist.

Some scholars spend their entire professional lives studying Picasso, Rembrandt, Modigliani, or one relatively obscure painter.

And even those specialists sometimes disagree.

So when somebody on Facebook claims to know everything about every artist, every period, every technique, and every civilization, I cannot help smiling.

Apparently, after 50 years, I still have a lot to learn. But some people have managed to learn it all between breakfast and lunch.

Of course, there are serious art historians, experienced dealers, conservators, and highly knowledgeable collectors on Facebook. I respect many of them.

But the serious ones usually have something in common.

They know the limits of their own knowledge.

They know when to say, "I don't know."

They know when to recommend another specialist.

And they understand that a photograph on a computer screen is not always sufficient to establish authenticity, attribution, condition, or value.

There is another important distinction.

Recognizing the style of an artist is not the same as authenticating a work by that artist.

You can recognize a Picasso immediately. That doesn't mean you can determine whether the painting in front of you was actually painted by Picasso.

That requires something more than confidence and a Facebook profile.

So please, enjoy Facebook. Participate in discussions. Exchange opinions. Learn from others.

I certainly do.

But when your health, your money, or an important work of art is involved, perhaps it would be wise to investigate the qualifications of the person giving you advice.

Because in the real art world, expertise is built through decades of study, experience, research, and sometimes mistakes.

On Facebook, apparently, all you need is a keyboard and a strong opinion.

And I will finish with one observation after 50 years in this business:

The more I learn about art, the more I realize how much I don't know.

Strangely enough, the Facebook experts seem to have exactly the opposite experience.

Gerard Van Weyenbergh On the internet since 1999, with the first website for art appraisal and art authentication on the web. Then named vanweyenbergh.com, which was hacked more than 15 years ago..