THE LENINGRAD COWBOYS OF THE ART WORLD
To enter this art salon is to be plunged into another world. Smoke billows through the air amid the smell of tobacco and paint. The Mona Lisa smiles down from the wall. Just one of many legendary works of art...
In a distinctly unglamorous street in Berlin’s Neukölln district, three men in their early 60s with long grey hair are sitting on a brown leather sofa: Semjon, Eugen and Michael Posin. Master forgers. Art copyists. They look like the Leningrad Cowboys except that they don’t sing. Since their works are painted with such frightening perfection, they are much sought after by collectors. The brothers’ clientele includes marketing people, husbands who want to make their wives’ dreams come true, lawyers, advertisers – even former Berlin Senator for Culture Christoph Stölzl and Brandenburg entrepreneur Gerold Schellstede.
From their small salon, the Posins service customers all over the world.
Plagiarism as a concept: In a world in which the remake has replaced the original, have the Russian brothers found the ideal market niche? Or are they democratising still-elitist art because (virtually) anyone can now buy a masterpiece?
We accompany the three passionate artist brothers from their bizarre art salon to high-profile trade fairs and a lakeside hotel in the former East Germany that is still waiting on its “lake” to be delivered but already has an extensive museum of forgeries to its name.
A fascinating look at the shifting boundaries between the real and the fake.
Script: Anke Rebbert
Director: Anke Rebbert
Director of photography: Frederik Walker
Sound: Dennis Broer
Production managers: Monika Mack, Rolf Bremenkamp
Producer: Birgit Schulz
Commissioning editor: Dagmar Mielke (RBB/ARTE)
Germany 2015, 30 min.
Original titel: Die Meisterfälscher aus Neukölln
