Does connoisseurship matter? Can art only involve the artist’s choice and not necessarily his hand? Can you copyright an idea? These are some of the issues raised by this recent essay by Richard Feigen in the Art Newspaper. An artist launches an idea and then it can become difficult to seperate the idea from counterfeit ‘similar’ but no less beautiful ideas.

Connoisseurship is the identification of the artist by his handwriting. But if his hand isn’t there, the handwriting isn’t, and connoisseurship becomes a dead old discipline. Who needs connoisseurs? Why train them? Why not train museum director-administrators-fundraisers-construction supervisors? Who needs museum directors who actually love objects? Why not fund academic chairs in the new language—“artspeak”—to explain it all? But alas, we’re stuck with the single word “art” to define it all.

I don’t think a proliferation of fakes or art being an idea makes connoisseurship any less valuable. Appreciating the real and identifying the fake, however sublime it is, is very important in today’s art market.