Final Project Part 2: White Collar

White Collar is a television show based an extremely talented con man who gets caught by the FBI. He begins working for the FBI as an analyst rather than spending time in jail. In many of the episodes the main character Neal Caffrey uses his intelligence and con-artist skills in order to catch white collar criminals. In season one episode 5, the element of aura in paintings is vital. Throughout the episode, a painting worth two million dollars is stolen (by Neal) in order to catch a criminal that actually wanted to steal a painting. In order to catch the thief, Neal decides to make a copy of the piece of art himself. When he is replicating the piece of art, his friend Mozzie tells him that his replica could fool a tourist but not a curator. However, they are using techniques such as putting the artwork in the oven to age it, and make it essentially look exactly like the original. If it looks exactly like the original, this brings in the idea of authenticity, uniqueness and the aura to value. The original painting is worth two million dollars but the replica by Neal is essentially worthless.

This example from White Collar shows us that the aura plays an enormous role in value. Although maybe a normal person would not be able to know the difference between the original and replica, someone who truly appreciates art would be able to see its aura. They are able to tell the minute differences between the original and replica and could tell the worth. And the resulting difference is the difference between zero dollars and two million dollars. Later on in the episode, it turned out that the curator of the museum was actually a bad person and stole the painting from the original owner but he announced that the replica was indeed the original in order to save himself from jail time. Neal was able to return the two million dollar painting to the original owner (the grandmother of a girl in the episode). She wanted the original painting because to her that had so much more value.

Overall, this episode is an interesting lesson in how large of a role the Aura plays in value. It shows that monetary value can exponentially increase as it is found something is extremely unique. Even if it is replicated, the fact of knowing that it is not unique destroys its value. Personal value is also an extremely important factor in this episode as well. The original owner (the grandmother) wanted the original painting because of its aura. She could have easily taken a replica but the fact that it was drawn by her father she wanted the specific original. This discussion of White Collar leads into a counter point from how replication can actually lead to profiting a great deal. Specifically we are going to talk about RIP! A Remix Manifesto and how remix artists use bits and pieces of other artists music and make a great deal of money of that.