Mona’s ‘priceless’ toilet cubicle Picassos? They’re forged

The controversy around the Ladies Lounge, a conceptual women-only space at Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art, has taken yet another turn, with the woman behind it confessing that the precious artworks by Pablo Picasso – which have now been moved to female toilet cubicles – are, in fact, fake.

Achey, fakey art: One of the so-called Picassos in the toilet cubicle at Mona.Credit: Instagram: kirshakaechele

Kirsha Kaechele, an artist and the partner of Mona founder David Walsh, admitted in a blog post uploaded to the gallery’s website on Wednesday that she was the creator of the two paintings ostensibly by Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous artists of the 20th century and one of the most collectible of the 21st – if you have the money.

Rather than being “priceless”, as she had originally claimed, the works are effectively worthless – at least as Picassos. Time will tell if they have value as artefacts of a long-running conceptual performance, however.

“I made the artworks, quite painstakingly, with my own hands and the (perfectly shellacked) hands of my manicurist’s niece, who is far more competent in pen and ink and thus assisted with the etching,” Kaechele wrote in a post titled “Art is not truth”: Pablo Picasso.

“I chose the paintings for their colour palette and sensual depictions of the female form, exquisite against the green silk curtains of the Lounge,” she said.

The two paintings were presented as Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe, after Edouard Manet (Luncheon on the grass) and Reclining Nude, both ostensibly painted in 1961.

Kirsha Kaechele with one of her fake Picassos. Credit: Mona

In her program notes for MONA, Kaechele claimed the latter was “a portrait Picasso painted of my grandmother when they were lovers (she was 30, and he was 80)“.

Kaechele wrote that she had been forced to come clean after being questioned by a Guardian journalist and being challenged by the custodians of the real artist’s legacy.

“From stage left, a letter has arrived – from the Picasso Administration,” she wrote. “‘Would you be so kind as to explain ...?’ The French are always so impeccably mannered.”

The Ladies Lounge was conceived as a critique of the spaces and institutions from which women had historically been barred. Opening in 2020, it was a room to which only women were admitted, at least until March this year, when a Tasmanian court found in favour of a man who challenged the rules of entry on sexual discrimination grounds.

Kaechele had designed it to be as luxurious as possible, and the inclusion of “priceless” works by Picasso and Australian artist Sidney Nolan (whom she described as “another misogynist”) were key to that impression.

“I filled the Lounge with ‘invaluable’ objects, framing each – physically (in gold) and metaphorically (with dubious stories centred around a fictional woman, a version of myself),” Kaechele explained in her blog post.

Each of the stories associated with the room and its artefacts was “more absurd than the last”.

“And each of those stories intended to raise questions around gender, freedom, power structures, authenticity, and value.

The Ladies Lounge at Mona.

“All these illusions built the fantasy for those who are afforded the experience of the Lounge, and, importantly, those who are excluded.”

In terms of modern art, Picasso represents the gold standard of institutionally approved value. Placing works ostensibly by him in toilet cubicles thus represents a metaphorical (and perhaps literal) thumbing of the nose to that perceived value.

However, Mona also has in its collection genuine works by Picasso (ceramics), as well as an overtly fake “Picasso”, painted by the Australian artist Juan Davila and currently on display in the Name Dropping exhibition.

And that, as Kaechele notes, presents a problem.

“How does one justify simultaneously showing real and faux Picassos? It’s one thing to have fabricated objects in a room as part of a conceptual artwork where everything is fake. But to then display real ones in another part of the museum … It’s complicated.”

As for the Nolan artwork, Leda and the swan, that, the gallery insists, is genuine. And no, it’s not in a toilet.

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