An Epidemic of Artistic THEFT

I recently discovered that I'm being robbed... by a factory in China.

Photo: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/booming-chinese-art-forging-business-hurts-us-artists/

It started when I saw this Facebook status by artist Scott Burdick:

This is nothing new; his worked has been ripped off by several different places in China for a couple of years now. This website: http://www.oilpaintings-supplier.com/ is one of many to spring up recently. It is truly disturbing how many living artists are featured on the site. In essence, these companies steal images off the internet by both dead and living artists, to be cranked out and sold by their factory artists as cheap and poorly done hand-painted copies. It is a case of mass artistic property theft, with little that can be done by the artists to stop it.

My own work was on the site in alarming numbers.

They have this listed on the "Contact" page of the website:
Lysee Arts Gallery
http://www.oilpaintings-supplier.com
email: lyseeart@163.com
Thanks to the original artists and their great arts!
Support original arts! The spirit of the origin can't be reproduced for ever, though we can do a good job.
We hope all the artists and their arts listed in our website will be remembered deeply by the people in our times!
We will remove the arts if the original artists feel it is not suitable to be listed here!

I have sent them a well-worded email demanding they remove my work from their site, to which they replied, "Removed." But as another artist friend told me from personal experience, there is no guarantee that the work won't end up back on the site. This friend had their work removed, and discovered a few weeks later that it was back.

As I found out, no one who has their work on the internet is immune to this violation of copyright. If you are an artist, go to the site and make sure you haven't become a victim as well.

When I shared the link on my own Facebook status, someone posted this news article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/booming-chinese-art-forging-business-hurts-us-artists/
I became absolutely depressed when I began to read some of the comments after the article. Many Americans themselves have no appreciation or regard for fine art as a career or thing of inherent value. We artists work VERY hard to make a living at our craft. It saddens me that some people can't see that. But that is another problem altogether.

Idiotic Americans aside... Scott Burdick is currently working to do something about this epidemic of theft.

Thank you, Scott, for taking a stand!

Readers, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE support your local artists! Don't give your credit card number to these overseas robbers. Don't buy paintings cranked out of a factory made in China. If you can't afford an original, buy a print directly from the artist, or start collecting works by emerging artists whose works aren't as expensive. Either way, you'll be helping someone make a living at their passion and keeping your money inside THIS country where it's needed!

An Epidemic of Artistic THEFT