Congratulations! You've Been Selected for a Louvre Solo Show! (And other art scams.)

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if the Louvre is inviting you to exhibit your work in a solo show via Instagram DM, you’re either a reincarnated Renaissance artist straight outta Florence (‘Congratulations! Enjoy your afterlife of trying to grow your reach!), or you’re about to get scammed harder than The Bachelorette on final-rose-day, but by someone with a fourth of the skill.

'Exposure' is the leading cause of 'frostbite'.

Let’s talk about a trend that never gets old. Forget working for ‘exposure', a perfectly good way to die in the high North, I assure you, I’m talking about the art scam.

Yeah, I know. Deep breaths.

Tale as old as time

First, let me make a point about the effects of scams on artists, here.

In 1496, no one really knew who this artist guy ‘Michelangelo’ was, just that he was trying to sell a piece called ‘Sleeping Cupid’. As if.

However, this sculpture was visually exceptional, almost as if an Old Master had created it. It was Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, a banker and politician from a junior branch of the Medici family, who hit upon the idea of taking the sculpture and burying it so it would cost more. Now you may be wondering what Lorenzo was smoking, and I wouldn’t blame you, but no one was carbon dating anything back in the day, not that you can carbon date marble.

The sculpture, once disinterred from a bed of acidic soil, looked old, like an antique. It was passed on to Baldassare del Milanese, art dealer, who sold this 'ancient statue' to a Cardinal for absolute gobs of money. When the deception was discovered the Cardinal wanted a refund, and a shamefaced Michelangelo agreed to take the sculpture back, to which Baldassare replied he’d rather smash it into a hundred pieces, and kept it.

At a soil pH of 2.45 you're playing nature's version of "the floor is lava".

Stuck in the middle, Michelangelo found himself standing there with his share of the money and Cardinal Riario so impressed with the art that Michelangelo was invited to work in Rome.

Now, isn’t that nice?

Michelangelo got the money and a huge publicity bump to his artistic reputation.

And that was the last time anyone hatched a scheme where the artist came out on top.

Ever.

Fast forward to 2017

Lena Danya, YouTube artist and former TedTalker, stands in a studio whose walls are covered in flowers, paintings, and art prints, to talk to us about how a group of ‘criminals […] tried to rob’ her.

Boy howdy, she had the receipts.

“Hi—Hope this message finds you well…” the first email reads. But it wends on into emails about how the buyer’s dear, sainted husband just doesn’t trust Paypal… and on and on through a phenomenal waste of this gifted artist’s time that finds Lena looking at times humiliated and ashamed, but, increasingly, level setting to a proper: very irritated.

By the year 2024, digital scammers had become golden toilets. And not just any mark would do. They wanted high-ticket items from the people they perceived as the most vulnerable of victims. So who do you think fell in the crosshairs?

Your artsy mum? Your collector grandmother?

Well, Uno reverso.

U.S. Federal Trade Commission data broke with stereotype in April 2025, when they revealed that young people fall for scams at twice the rate of their older peers. Cybersecurity consultant Adewale Adeife noted “Younger adults often believe tech savviness equals scam immunity” and “That overconfidence lowers their guard and makes them ideal targets for fast-money schemes.”

Hey. There is no such thing as being too tech-savvy to be targeted.

Watching Lena Danya’s face as she talks about her experience is a good indicator of why this crime is underreported. She wrestled with a lot of shame before coming forward about this mess. So, double the victimization. It goes to show that scammers rely on their targets being inexperienced in the professional world, open to emotional appeals, and far too humiliated to reveal they’ve been had. Meanwhile, Lena was not having it.

Michelangelo aside, in an art scam, silence only serves the bad guys.

1-800 The Louvre

So let's reset.

Along comes The Louvre, with the profile pic of a blurry Frenchman who looks like he eats paint. They DM you about showing at their prestigious gallery, and offer a terrifying contract and a booth at the low-low price of €300.

Friends, the Louvre does not slide into your DMs.

The Louvre does not charge application fees through Paypal.

The Louvre does not have a gmail address.

Yes, bold scammers now masquerade as legit grant organizations. Scammers have faked so much correspondence from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, promising sizable financial awards and exposure in exchange for artwork details, processing fees, and bank info, that the Foundation has issued official statements and is working with law enforcement.

Okay, wow.

Here are some Red Flags you can spot that may help you out:

• Email addresses ending in @gmail, @outlook, or anything that sounds like an old LiveJournal handle when the person is from a large organization.

  • Full disclosure, Studio Eclipse is down-to-earth and does have a gmail.

  • You heard it here first!

• Asking for some kind of payment up-front, especially via cryptocurrency, gift cards, or Western Union (it’s still a thing).

• Sending payments that "don’t go through right", and "need a partial refund".

  • Paypal too hard!

• Offers that are too good to be true. You’re brilliant, yes, but if MoMA wants you, they will not spell your name and half the email incorrectly, and they won’t hold your $300 dollars as insurance.

  • The Louvre is not a pawn shop.

• Fictitious curators or buyers with stolen bios from real humans (sometimes dead ones). Not even art can wake the dead.

  • You checked on Karen, and she said 'Huh?'

• Lots of pressure to sign and send the fee quickly 'before the opportunity expires.'

Repeat after me: Nah, bro.

It's your art, and your money, so...

I don’t have to tell you that artists deserve better.

Every artist in Studio Eclipse pours their soul into their art. They get excited, they work after work, give your art copious amounts of their hard-won time, and spend hours perfecting just the right vision for a future in a new home.

Artists should not be targeted by scammers cosplaying as art lovers. Many articles go into specifics about how to see through the scam, but no one expects you to become the Woman of Steel. However, here are a couple of pieces of advice I find are often left out.

1. Have a website that functions like any other site for buying things. Send people there to buy things. BOOM. (I know. I'm sorry.) Ahem. Scammers have names for their different sob stories, did you know? Every sob has a hook. But emotional manipulation doesn’t do so well pitted against a Shopify cart.

2. Trust your gut. If you're not sure something’s real, if the buyer is too flattering, or if anything feels off, ask your fellow artists before you dive in. If the guy on the other side pressures you about time while you do it, that should ring warning bells.

   
   

3. Above all else, don't be silent.

   
   

   Post about it.

   Talk about it.

   Report it.

   
   

In fact, in the U.S., you can report fraud to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. (Felony Fraud in the USA varies by jurisdiction, but hovers around 1000-5000 dollars, and anything under that is called Petty Fraud, which is a crime. Check your state or country online.)

At the end of all this, you could make a painting out of the whole mess. Entitle it The Fraudulence of Paint Muncher. Install it in a gallery. Invite the scammer.

We’ll be there. With wine.

Tracy Eire