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Divisible Assets
DIVISIBLE ASSETS
Simone FacchinettiWhether by chance or deliberate strategy, fragments of paintings can outlive the original composition. Sometimes it was a simple matter of economics: a large work could be divided into several portraits to be sold individually. Indeed, in the art world – contrary to the old adage – the parts are often worth more than the whole. While some surviving fragments function convincingly as standalone pieces, others clearly betray the work of the knife. The market naturally tries to pass these off as complete paintings as much as possible – a gamble that fails when an unlikely composition, or an extant sketch or copy, points to a much larger story. Some intriguing recent examples are explored here by Simone Facchinetti.
