Fabulous Masterpieces – Saturday Telegraph

PSST… looking for a cheap Rembrandt? Then Anouska Hudovsky could be your girl. The 27-year-old is doing a nice line in fake masterpieces. But it’s all above board and this year Fabulous Masterpieces, is set to see income of £120,000.

“I was on a gap year of world travel and came across a lot of talented artists painting what they hoped people would want to buy,” she says. “I thought, why not do the opposite? Let customers tell us what they want – a replica of an old favourite or a family portrait from a photograph.” With copyright expiring 70 years after an artist’s death, any of the greats can be safely copied. And they are. Customers range from private individuals looking for a genuine oil painting that no one but an art connoisseur could distinguish from the real thing, to corporates wanting to spruce up the boardroom and interior designers.

A 60cm by 76cm canvas will cost around £250. Sometimes wealthy owner may commission Anouska to recreate a copy allowing them to keep the original safe and secure, hanging the imitation. “We have just done one picture of 1m by 2m. The customer had bought the original from Christie’s but wanted another for his winery in California.” It cost £1,800 unframed.

“Now we are trying to target stately homes,” she says. “They have lots of walls to be filled.” Pictures can take up to two months to complete. “Brugels take a while because there is so much detail,” she says. It’s a simple business model. The artists are mainly based in Croatia and Russia, where lower labour rates mean Anouska, who runs the 18 month-old firm with former ad salesman, fiancé Tim Bertram, 38, can offer any painting to order at prices many can afford. If a customer wants Van Gogh’s Sunflowers but in Andy Warhol-type colours, then they can have it. “If they want us to add things in, we can do that too.”

Another big selling point is that a customer’s favourite painting can be recreated in colours to match their living area: Monet’s Water Lilies in red rather than blue. “People seem to want to buy copies of the most famous pictures,” she says.
www.fabulousmasterpieces.co.uk