I opened the newspaper today (recall that this blog is on an approximately one-month delay) to see a moderately horrifying story about art appraisers who are deterred by fear of lawsuits from expressing an opinion about possible forgeries.

Maybe this trend will come to science too? Perhaps Brett Pelham will sue Uri Simonsohn for the pain, suffering, and loss of income occurring from the questioning of his Dennis the dentist paper? Or maybe I’ll be sued by some rogue sociologist for publicly questioning his data dredging?

Anyway, what amused me about the NYT article on art forgery was that two of the artists featured in the discussion were . . . Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein! Warhol is famous for diluting the notion of the unique art object and for making works of art in a “Factory,” and Lichtenstein is famous for ripping off the style and imagery of comic book artists. It’s funny for the two of them, of all people, to come up in a discussion of authenticity. Or maybe it’s not so surprising: given their styles, Warhol and Lichtenstein might both be relatively easy to forge.

Also in the same section of the paper today, the following dog-bites-man article:

Armenia and Azerbaijan Blame Each Other for Protracted War