[SUBMITTED]The Phony Lisa

[Noahs Second Country]

Suggestions for a better title are welcome.

[title]The Phony Lisa

[desc]The @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Intelligence Agency recently raided a warehouse belonging to the notorious Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service, an organization responsible for acquiring and selling thousands of forged artworks to unsuspecting buyers. The sheer scale of what was uncovered suggests that nearly twenty-two percent of all artwork traded within the nation's borders may be a forgery from such groups.

[validity]medium-high culture, some degree of law enforcement

[option]"Craquelures in the art trade are beginning to show," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, combing your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves. "Only government mandated inspection of all artwork inside of @@NAME@@ will solve this crisis. Strict screening processes and the latest X-ray technology will slowly phase out forged artwork from the system, while making it much more difficult to create new fakes."

[effect]famous artwork is regularly confiscated for plagiarism

[option]"@@LEADER@@, this wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many talented, struggling artists such as myself," canvasses @@RANDOMNAME@@, inexplicably taping fruit to your wall. "Why do we care so much about the boring art of antiquity? Contemporary pieces are soooo much deeper than the old stuff, plus, you can't counterfeit something that is brand spankin' new! Set an example for museums everywhere, and ensure the government's artwork assemblage consists solely of pieces produced within the last two years. In fact, I know where to find some forward-thinking craftsmanship if you want to go ahead and get started."

[effect]museums claim to have displayed famous artwork before it was cool

[option]"Is this really such a big deal?" yawns @@RANDOMNAME@@, up-and-coming entrepreneur-turned-curator of the @@ANIMAL@@ City Museum. "So what, it turns out the guy selling Mondrian pieces out of their car had some convincing fakes? It looks real, and that's all the visitors care about. X-ray radiation? Sounds like a great way to hurt the precious artwork! We should start hiring these so-called miscreants to create some more cheap content for our galleries instead."

[effect]the one-of-a-kind art piece Lilies may be found in museums throughout the nation

[option-validity]capitalism
[option]"That's not going far enough!" grins @@RANDOMNAME@@ excitedly. "Your average @@DEMONYM@@ has always dreamed of having a classic Duchamp urinal at their disposal, or perhaps a real Neoplastic chair! Sure, you can always buy prints or replicas, but with my company mass producing forgeries, and your government providing certificates of authenticity, we can finally make valuable artwork readily available to the average consumer!"

[effect]art collections no longer require large sums of Monet

[title]The Phony Lisa

[desc]The @@NAME@@ intelligence agency recently conducted a raid on the warehouse belonging to the notorious Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service, a front responsible for selling thousands of forged artworks to unsuspecting buyers. The sheer scale of what was uncovered suggests that nearly a quarter of all artwork traded within the nation's borders may be forged by groups such as this one.

[validity]medium-high culture, some degree of law enforcement

[option]"Craquelures in the art trade are beginning to show," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, combing your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves. "Only government mandated inspection of all artwork entering @@NAME@@ will solve this problem. Strict screening processes and the latest xray technology will slowly phase out forged artwork from the system, while making it much more difficult to create new fakes."

[effect]the nation is known as the place where art goes to die

[option]"@@LEADER@@, this wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many talented, struggling artists such as myself," claims Andy Candynski, inexplicably taping fruit to your wall. "We live in a society where old artwork is given priority over contemporary work, despite contemporary pieces being soooo much deeper than the old stuff! Set an example for museums everywhere, and ensure the government's artwork assemblage consists solely of pieces produced within the last 10 years. Out with the old, in with the new. In fact, I know where to find some forward-thinking craftsmanship if you want to go ahead and get started."

[effect]museums brag about having the latest and greatest works from unemployed art students

[option]"Is this really such a big deal?" yawns @@RANDOMNAME@@, curator of the @@CAPITAL@@ Art Museum. "So what, it turns out the guy selling Mondrian pieces out of their car had some convincing fakes? It looks real, and that's all the visitors care about. All this mass spectrometry and xray radiation talk sounds dangerous and slow. We should start hiring these miscreants to create some more cheap content for our galleries."

[effect]one-of-a-kind art pieces may be found in museums throughout the nation

[option]"That's not going far enough!" grins @@RANDOMNAME@@ excitedly. "Your average @@DENONYM@@ has always dreamed of having a classic Duchamp urinal at their disposal, or perhaps a real Neoplastic chair! Sure, you can always buy prints or replicas, but with my company mass producing forgeries, and your government providing certificates of authenticity, we can finally make valuable artwork readily available to the average consumer!"

[effect]art collections no longer require large sums of Monet

[title]The Phony Lisa

[desc]The @@NAME@@ intelligence agency recently conducted a raid on the warehouse belonging to the notorious Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Service, a group of loosely associated artists responsible for replicating hundreds of famous artworks and selling them for millions of @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@. The sheer scale of what was uncovered suggests that nearly a quarter of all artwork traded within the nation's borders may be forged by groups such as this one.

[validity]medium-high culture, some degree of law enforcement

[option]"Craquelures in the art trade are beginning to show," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, combing your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves. "Only government mandated inspection of all artwork entering @@NAME@@ will solve this problem. Strict screening processes and the latest xray technology will slowly phase out forged artwork from the system, while making it much more difficult to create new fakes."

[effect]the nation is known as the place where art goes to die

[option]"@@LEADER@@, this wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many talented, struggling artists such as myself," claims Andy Candynski, inexplicably taping fruit to your wall. "We live in a society where old artwork is given priority over contemporary work, despite contemporary pieces being soooo much deeper than the old stuff! You should set an example for museums everywhere and ensure the government's artwork assemblage solely consists of pieces produced within the last 10 years. Out with the old, in with the new. In fact, I know where to find some forward-thinking craftsmanship if you want to go ahead and get started."

[effect]museums brag about having the latest and greatest works from unemployed art students

[option]"Is this really such a big deal?" yawns @@RANDOMNAME@@, curator of the @@CAPITAL@@ Art Museum. "So what, it turns out the guy selling Mondrian pieces out of their car had some convincing fakes? It looks real, and that's all the visitors care about. All this mass spectrometry and xray radiation talk sounds dangerous and slow. We should start hiring these miscreants to create some more cheap content for our galleries."

[effect]one-of-a-kind art pieces may be found in museums throughout the nation

[option]"That's not going far enough!" grins @@RANDOMNAME@@ excitedly. "Your average @@DENONYM@@ has always dreamed of having a classic Duchamp urinal at their disposal, or perhaps a real Neoplastic chair! Sure, you can always buy prints or replicas, but with my company mass producing forgeries, and your government providing certificates of authenticity, we can finally make real artwork readily available to the average consumer!"

[effect]art collections no longer require large sums of Monet

[SherpDaWerp]

Nothing major from me.

I reckon the validity should be a bit higher if half of all artwork is fake. Although, you could make the argument that the fake artwork is sold legally, which means the Black Market wouldn't necessarily cover it, but the validity just seems a bit mild for such a tremendous figure to be quoted.

If you're going for a TCALS ripoff, you forgot a word - nothing in "Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Service" starts with L.

@@RANDOMNAME@@, coming at your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves

"coming at your portrait" is odd. Perhaps "going after your portrait", or even "combing your portrait".

@@DENONYMADJECTIVE@@ museums brag about having the latest and greatest works from unemployed art students

You can cut the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ here.

[Noahs Second Country]

Nothing major from me.

I reckon the validity should be a bit higher if half of all artwork is fake. Although, you could make the argument that the fake artwork is sold legally, which means the Black Market wouldn't necessarily cover it, but the validity just seems a bit mild for such a tremendous figure to be quoted.

If you're going for a TCALS ripoff, you forgot a word - nothing in "Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Service" starts with L.

@@RANDOMNAME@@, coming at your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves

"coming at your portrait" is odd. Perhaps "going after your portrait", or even "combing your portrait".

@@DENONYMADJECTIVE@@ museums brag about having the latest and greatest works from unemployed art students

You can cut the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ here.

The half of all artwork being fake claim is just a stat cited from real life, actually. It does seem to be quite a severe figure though, I've toned it down a bit to a quarter and removed the black market validity.

I must be honest, I spent a solid chunk of time trying to determine a word starting with "L" that actually fit within the rest of the acronym. As of right now, I've got nothing. If it were simply a front for selling the artwork, I could see "Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service". I'll have to mull that one over, unless someone has a better idea.

I like your second suggestion - initially I was planning on creating a different character and that little portion was a relic that remained. Thanks for the feedback as usual.

[SherpDaWerp]

I must be honest, I spent a solid chunk of time trying to determine a word starting with "L" that actually fit within the rest of the acronym. As of right now, I've got nothing. If it were simply a front for selling the artwork, I could see "Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service". I'll have to mull that one over, unless someone has a better idea.

If you're not too concerned about lifting directly from the original acronym, "laundering" might work.

[Noahs Second Country]

I must be honest, I spent a solid chunk of time trying to determine a word starting with "L" that actually fit within the rest of the acronym. As of right now, I've got nothing. If it were simply a front for selling the artwork, I could see "Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service". I'll have to mull that one over, unless someone has a better idea.

If you're not too concerned about lifting directly from the original acronym, "laundering" might work.

Laundering was one of the first words that came to mind, but I'm unsure of its use in the overall context of counterfeiting artwork, and I also want to avoid overlap with the broader issue of art appraisal and trade for money laundering purposes.

[Noahs Second Country]

I have released a second draft - changed the first sentence of the description slightly in order to accommodate for the new acronym, then made small wording changes throughout for the sake of clarity.

[Golgothastan]

I think this is a good premise for an issue, so if the following criticisms seem nitpicky it's not a general slating of the idea.

Sorry if I'm being a dummy, but what is TCALS a reference to? Given how forced the initialism is I'm assuming it's a reference to something. By contrast, I like the craquelures reference.

Contemporary artists do sell pretty well? Well, some of them do. Kandinsky, the ref in #2, sells for millions. Even more contemporary artists like Koons are serious big bucks.

I don't buy that #3 would be an opinion from a curator of a capital city's national art museum. NS issues don't have to be realistic, but no museum would take pride in stocking forgeries. I like the effect line but it could be punchier: "the @@CAPITAL@@ Art Museum proudly displays all three of its one-of-a-kind masterpieces", maybe someone else has a suggestion that would better capture the contradiction.

#4's effect is funny but switching to using real artist names after "Candynski" seems incongruous.

[Trotterdam]

"the @@CAPITAL@@ Art Museum proudly displays all three of its one-of-a-kind masterpieces"

This would suggest to me that they are legitimate rather than forgeries, but because of that, they could only afford three of them. A museum with only three displays isn't a very good museum.

[SherpDaWerp]

Sorry if I'm being a dummy, but what is TCALS a reference to?

It's an acronym for "Trading Cards Anti-Laundering System", which relates to the NationStates Trading Cards that were introduced in April Fools 2018. Basically, cards put up at auction are more likely to be found, to prevent people from selling cards at unreasonable prices, but some members of the Cards community (Noah included) found they could use the system to generate more copies of very expensive cards, becoming extremely rich in the process.

It's gained semi-meme status because it's been horrifically ineffective in it's original purpose - limiting large-scale bank transfers - and has instead functioned to vastly increase the wealth of players who used it.

[Golgothastan]

This would suggest to me that they are legitimate rather than forgeries, but because of that, they could only afford three of them. A museum with only three displays isn't a very good museum.

Yeah that wording isn't right either. The current wording, "one-of-a-kind art pieces may be found in museums throughout the nation", just seems to indicate the nation has lots of them. The effect would be funnier if it specifically pointed out there were multiple versions of the "one-of-a-kind" piece in the nation. I'm not sure of the right wording for that, though.

It's an acronym for "Trading Cards Anti-Laundering System", which relates to the NationStates Trading Cards that were introduced in April Fools 2018. Basically, cards put up at auction are more likely to be found, to prevent people from selling cards at unreasonable prices, but some members of the Cards community (Noah included) found they could use the system to generate more copies of very expensive cards, becoming extremely rich in the process.

It's gained semi-meme status because it's been horrifically ineffective in it's original purpose - limiting large-scale bank transfers - and has instead functioned to vastly increase the wealth of players who used it.

OK. I don't really know anything about the card game so I can't say how well-known that initialism is. It seems like quite a stretch and not all the funny of one to me, but maybe it has them rolling in the aisles in Gameplay.

[Trotterdam]

Yeah that wording isn't right either. The current wording, "one-of-a-kind art pieces may be found in museums throughout the nation", just seems to indicate the nation has lots of them. The effect would be funnier if it specifically pointed out there were multiple versions of the "one-of-a-kind" piece in the nation. I'm not sure of the right wording for that, though.

"the one-of-a-kind [name of a specific artwork] may be found in museums throughout the nation"?

[SherpDaWerp]

It's an acronym for "Trading Cards Anti-Laundering System", which relates to the NationStates Trading Cards that were introduced in April Fools 2018. Basically, cards put up at auction are more likely to be found, to prevent people from selling cards at unreasonable prices, but some members of the Cards community (Noah included) found they could use the system to generate more copies of very expensive cards, becoming extremely rich in the process.

It's gained semi-meme status because it's been horrifically ineffective in it's original purpose - limiting large-scale bank transfers - and has instead functioned to vastly increase the wealth of players who used it.

OK. I don't really know anything about the card game so I can't say how well-known that initialism is. It seems like quite a stretch and not all the funny of one to me, but maybe it has them rolling in the aisles in Gameplay.

It's certainly a reference that's peculiar to Card players, but within that community it's pretty well-known. I reckon it's worth including (though I am biased), even if it's a lesser-known reference.

[Noahs Second Country]

Sorry if I'm being a dummy, but what is TCALS a reference to?

It's an acronym for "Trading Cards Anti-Laundering System", which relates to the NationStates Trading Cards that were introduced in April Fools 2018. Basically, cards put up at auction are more likely to be found, to prevent people from selling cards at unreasonable prices, but some members of the Cards community (Noah included) found they could use the system to generate more copies of very expensive cards, becoming extremely rich in the process.

It's gained semi-meme status because it's been horrifically ineffective in it's original purpose - limiting large-scale bank transfers - and has instead functioned to vastly increase the wealth of players who used it.

Additionally, TCALS tends to be referred to as "printing" or "counterfeiting" so I felt as if it was relevant enough to find a mention in this issue. A small nod to the cards community, I guess.

OK. I don't really know anything about the card game so I can't say how well-known that initialism is. It seems like quite a stretch and not all the funny of one to me, but maybe it has them rolling in the aisles in Gameplay.

I was definitely debating over this myself. Most of the cards community is familiar with the acronym at this point, but beyond that TCALS isn't necessarily something that's recognized throughout the site - not everyone plays cards, and the older version of TCALS is on its way out now.

Contemporary artists do sell pretty well? Well, some of them do. Kandinsky, the ref in #2, sells for millions. Even more contemporary artists like Koons are serious big bucks.

Certain contemporary pieces do tend to sell really well, I agree with that. However, I think the volume of art being produced these days is much greater, and a lot of what tends to be popular is an ambiguous blob of whatever that leaves many people scratching their heads thinking "that sold for 20 million?"

I don't buy that #3 would be an opinion from a curator of a capital city's national art museum.

Another thing I was pondering earlier! I'm a bit unsure of how to fix this at the moment, perhaps by describing the curator as "up and coming" or switching to a private collector making large donations to public collections.

#4's effect is funny but switching to using real artist names after "Candynski" seems incongruous.

Good point - I think removing the fixed name would be the best way to go about this, unless others believe that the artists need to be NSified.

the @@CAPITAL@@ Art Museum proudly displays all three of its one-of-a-kind masterpieces", maybe someone else has a suggestion that would better capture the contradiction

I think this can be fixed with a reference to a particular artwork. *oh, preview just showed me that Trotterdam said the same thing

EDIT: I have updated the draft with the changes mentioned above.

[Cretox State]

I like the idea here; I don't have a better title for you, but I'll let you know if I happen to think of one. Maybe something with a play on "Renaissance".

[desc]The @@NAME@@ intelligence agency <--maybe this should be capitalized? recently conducted a raid on the warehouse raided a warehouse belonging to the notorious Tactical Counterfeit Artwork Liquidation Service, a front responsible for selling thousands of forged artworks to unsuspecting buyers. The sheer scale of what was uncovered suggests that nearly twenty-two percent I get the joke, but I don't know how cohesive it is to mention a specific statistic of all artwork traded within the nation's borders may be forged a forgery by groups such as this one.

[validity]medium-high culture, some degree of law enforcement

[option]"Craquelures in the art trade are beginning to show," says @@RANDOMNAME@@, combing your portrait with a magnifying glass and gloves gloves and a magnifying glass. "Only government mandated inspection of all artwork entering @@NAME@@ will solve this crisis I thought the forgeries are happening within @@NAME@@? . Strict screening processes and the latest xray X-ray technology will slowly phase out allow us to slowly remove forged artwork from the system,while making and make it much more difficult to create new fakes."

[effect]the nation is known as the place where art goes to die How about "famous historical portraits are confiscated for plagiarism"?

[option]"@@LEADER@@, this wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many talented, struggling artists such as myself," claims @@RANDOMNAME@@, inexplicably taping fruit to your wall. "We live in a society where old artwork is given priority over contemporary work, despite contemporary pieces being soooo much deeper than the old stuff! Set an example for museums everywhere, and ensure the government's artwork assemblage consists solely of pieces produced within the last ten years. Out with the old, in with the new. In fact, I know where to find some forward-thinking craftsmanship if you want to go ahead and get started." I don't really see the point of this option in the context of the premise. The issue is the suspected high level of forged artwork present in the nation, yet this option tries to tackle the issue of contemporary vs. historical work. Why is the speaker saying "soooo much deeper"? I recommend either removing this, or reworking it to be a clear extension of the premise.

[effect]museums brag about having the latest and greatest works from unemployed art students

[option]"Is this really such a big deal?" yawns @@RANDOMNAME@@, up-and-coming entrepreneur-turned-curator of the @@ANIMAL@@ City Museum. "So what, it turns out the guy selling Mondrian pieces out of their car had some convincing fakes? It looks real, and that's all the visitors care about. All this mass spectrometry and xray radiation talk sounds dangerous and slow. We should start hiring these miscreants to create some more cheap content for our galleries." That sentence I striked is unnecessary and not really relevant to the speaker's argument.

[effect]the one-of-a-kind art piece Lilies may be found in museums throughout the nation

[option]"That's not going far enough!" grins @@RANDOMNAME@@ excitedly. Maybe add something comical about who this person is? "Your average @@DENONYM@@ has always dreamed of having a classic Duchamp urinal at their disposal, or perhaps a real Neoplastic chair! Sure, you can always buy prints or replicas, but with my company mass producing forgeries, and your government providing certificates of authenticity, we can finally make valuable artwork readily available to the average consumer!"

[effect]art collections no longer require large sums of Monet Maybe "authentic portraits of @@LEADER@@ make for excellent toilet paper"? Also, this option either needs its validity restricted to capitalist nations (especially since you use "consumer"), or you need to make it clear that this is an international corporation.

Overall, I really like the concept, and think that it could make for a good issue. However, I do feel that this needs a bit of polishing. Have you considered that private galleries in capitalist nations are also impacted by forgeries?

[Noahs Second Country]

Implemented some of the changes suggested by Cretox, as well as some changes of my own.

[Pythaga]

The @@NAME@@ Intelligence Agency

@@NAME@@ should be replaced with @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@.

We live in a society where old artwork is given priority over contemporary work, despite contemporary pieces being soooo much deeper than the old stuff, plus, you can't counterfeit something that is brand spankin' new!

This seems like quite the run-on sentence, I'd suggest splitting it up.

[Westinor]

The @@NAME@@ Intelligence Agency

@@NAME@@ should be replaced with @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@.

It should be @@NAME@@, no? It's currently being referred to as the Intelligence Agency, not the "IA".

[Pythaga]

@@NAME@@ should be replaced with @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@.

It should be @@NAME@@, no? It's currently being referred to as the Intelligence Agency, not the "IA".

What sounds more normal, “The Germany Intelligence Agency” or “The German Intelligence Agency”? I personally think the latter makes much more sense, but either way it’s up to Noah.

[Westinor]

It should be @@NAME@@, no? It's currently being referred to as the Intelligence Agency, not the "IA".

What sounds more normal, “The Germany Intelligence Agency” or “The German Intelligence Agency”? I personally think the latter makes much more sense, but either way it’s up to Noah.

My bad, I read that as @@DEMONYMINITIALS@@, whoops sorry bout' that

[The Atlae Isles]

As a fellow cards player, I approve.

Personally, I'd add collectors or at least someone saying what this "TCALS" would do to the market value, especially if cheap art suddenly floods the market. It also gives someone less rich the ability to afford art (although slightly deflated in terms of quality).

Totally not revealing my own opinions on TCALS.

[Australian rePublic]

That 22% of artwork figure seems absurd, even by NS standards

[Noahs Second Country]

It should be @@NAME@@, no? It's currently being referred to as the Intelligence Agency, not the "IA".

What sounds more normal, “The Germany Intelligence Agency” or “The German Intelligence Agency”? I personally think the latter makes much more sense, but either way it’s up to Noah.

#222 lists it as "@@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ Intelligence Agency".

I'll fix option 2 in the next draft, thanks Pythaga.

That 22% of artwork figure seems absurd, even by NS standards

https://news.artnet.com/market/over-50- ... ake-130821

Personally, I'd add collectors or at least someone saying what this "TCALS" would do to the market value, especially if cheap art suddenly floods the market. It also gives someone less rich the ability to afford art (although slightly deflated in terms of quality).

I considered explaining the actual impact of TCALS but I feel as if the concept of forged art and its impacts are obvious enough to the point where it doesn't need explaining.

[Daarwyrth]

Contemporary pieces are soooo much deeper than the old stuff,

It probably comes down to personal stylistics, but perhaps consider changing this to "Contemporary pieces carry soooo much more depth than the old stuff,".

museums in the nation claim to have displayed famous artwork before it was cool

Perhaps this effect line could be a little sharper? Something like "museums in @@NAME@@ are famous for their delicious wall-taped banana artwork". It would be a reference to that banana taped to a wall, which supposedly is a priceless piece of art

some more cheap content

This can be changed to "some cheaper content" I believe.

Otherwise, it's a well-written issue draft with an interesting topic! I'm looking forward to see its development

P.S. As to the title, I actually really like The Phony Lisa!

[Westinor]

Perhaps this effect line could be a little sharper? Something like "museums in @@NAME@@ are famous for their delicious wall-taped banana artwork". It would be a reference to that banana taped to a wall, which supposedly is a priceless piece of art

midnight snacks taped to museum walls are considered artwork?

Of course, if this is referring to cards the idea is ehhh? But who knows

Could add "by janitors", for context

[Noahs Second Country]

I would use the banana on the wall thing but I already reference it in that option "inexplicably taping fruit to your wall" - plus, this doesn't really seem to be a timeless reference, honestly.

However, the idea referencing a specific modern artwork in the effect line could be interesting.

Perhaps "a crack in the floor" (Shibboleth), "random seeds" (Sunflower Seeds), soup cans, etc..

I'll try and come up with a better line.