Trump claims he owns 'original' Renoir painting that gallery has displayed since pre-WW2
DONALD Trump has insisted that he owns a original painting by Renoir, but the Art Institute of Chicago says they have owned it since 1933.
French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Two Sisters (On The Terrace) was hung in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1933.
But Trump asserts that he has the original in his Trump Tower apartment in New York.
The piece has been featured on two interviews: The president-elect interview with 60 minutes and a Fox News interview with First Lady Melania Trump.
Trump’s biographer, Tim O’Brien, was familiar with the painting as he grew up in Chicago.
During a Vanity Fair Inside the Hive podcast, he said that he questioned the painting when it hung in Trump’s jet.
He claims that Trump said: “You know, that's an original Renoir.”
Two Sister, Pierre Auguste #Renoir #TwitArt #ArtLovers pic.twitter.com/dTKnNNbDly
— Profesor Higgins (@HigginsProfesor) August 1, 2017
Mr O’Brien responded: “Donald, it’s not. I grew up in Chicago, that Renoir is called Two Sisters (on the Terrace), and it’s hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago. That’s not an original.”
But Trump was undeterred and the following day Trump boasted about the authenticity again.
Mr O’Brien added: “I’m sure he's still telling people who come into the apartment, 'It's an original, it's an original'.
“He believes his own lies in a way that lasts for decades.
“He'll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.”
Spokesman for the Art Institute, Amanda Hicks, said that the Renoir was given to the gallery in 1933 by Annie Swan Corurn.
She bought it for £70,000 from Paul Durand-Ruel, who got the piece from the master painter in 1881.
Richard Brettell, chair of aesthetic studies at the University of Texas, told ArtNet: "The painting has long been known and has, since its gift to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1933, been one of the treasures of the museum.
"Can President Trump own another version? From my trained eye looking at a pretty good photograph of Mrs Trump in their penthouse at Trump Tower, it seems clearly to be a copy of that famous Chicago picture."
Associate director for collections at the J Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Richard Rand: “If I were presented with a picture that was an exact copy of a famous Renoir hanging in a museum, I would guess it was probably a reproduction of some kind.”