Unresolved mystery of fake moonstones
Dr. Donald M. Stadtner will deliver this month’s lecture of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka ( RASSL) tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the Gamini Dissanayake auditorium, No 96, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7. The lecture will be on ‘A Sri Lankan Moonstone: Fakes, Fortunes and Unsolved Cases’.
‘A true work of art is but a shadow of the divine’ (Michelangelo). If this lofty maxim is true, then a fake work of art must surely come from the netherworld. Born to deceive, the fake takes on a life of its own once it is welcomed into museum collections. And as art prices soar so do the dexterity and cunning employed by craftsmen and vendors, compounding a global problem. A Sri Lankan ‘moonstone’ sold in London on the auction bloc in 2013, for £553,250, but its authenticity remains in doubt. This case and others, from India, Burma and Cambodia, are the subject of this illustrated talk.
Dr. Donald M. Stadtner was for many years an Associate Professor at the University of Texas, after receiving his Ph.D. in Indian art from the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent publication is Ancient Pagan: Buddhist Plain of Merit and Sacred Sites of Burma.