Whether or not this is a con or not depends on your moral disposition. It is a con if you don’t like people lying to you or being grossly ripped off. Some of you seem to think that this is the essence of capitalism. The culprits of this scam probably go with the Israeli bit because of poor old Israel always getting bombed in the news and what have the Jews done to anyone (a hem, MOSSAD! But let’s stick to the point). In this sense it is a scam. It’s highly unlikely that they’re Israeli. They’re just backpackers. And because of the all the bohemian Israeli hippies that travel the world (we saw a bunch in Peru), it’s a lovable and harmless persona for some unsuspecting homemaker cooking dinner to be surprised by.

The other way is it’s guaranteed not student art – Jewish or otherwise. They are reproduction paintings of more famous art, made in a factory probably somewhere in China. What is consistent is at poor quality canvases and very inferior inks are used. They’re typically not going to look great forever. Just think, Ford could paint your car with crappy paint, but what would it look like in 5 years? You wouldn’t want to drive it, and you certainly wouldn’t want a dull, faded painting on your wall either.

Perhaps the student thing justifies the cheaper materials. Then again, what student wouldn’t experiment with different materials and better quality to improve their art.

Someone in the comments eluded to the fact you can buy these prints direct from the manufacturer online. The price we got one for was $145 Australian. But the cost price must be about $20 – $50 each in reality.

For all of you that said pathos and bullshit aside, these people are doing nothing illegal, to some extent you’re right. Door to door sales or art isn’t legal. If bullshit wasn’t legal then no politician could ever get elected. My point is, even if it is quasi legal, it’s certainly not ethical. There’s no refund policy, no consumer affairs to ensure a level playing field.

Let’s face it, if you knocked on someones door saying you were a Palestinian/Iraqi/Syrian/Lebanese or whatever Arabic student, this would be all over the media. The US terror threat would be yellow, lilac or puce or something like that. Hence the Israeli + student persona. Clearly it works at least some of the time.

These guys, male and female need to tell a story to make you feel like you’re helping out students to give you a warm fuzzy feeling. Make no mistake, it’s absolute bullshit. You’re helping a local backpacker pay for their trip to the big banana or whatever local attraction in your area. And some local rich guy is wheeling it in. It’s the big easy for someone.

So whatever you do, don’t let your heart swell with pride and buy ten of them, thinking you’re helping out some aspirational creative types. Especially don’t get greedy and think the art is by some dazzling future prodigy that will make you wealthy. Because the only one getting wealthy is the local rich guy, giving these backpackers paltry commissions to bang on your door when you’re eating dinner!

But what if you like the art? Well there’s one piece of advice. When the offer to frame the art for you (and they will), my advice is go for it. Because any professional framer worth a pinch of salt will tell you their framing is worth ten times more than the so called art you just brought. So cheap art necessitates cheap framing. Just don’t give them anything more than a mobile number. Chances are it won’t go sour but who knows.

So how do you sum this up? If you get offered any paintings door to door, the sky isn’t going to fall down. They’re not MOSSAD agents infecting your pets with ebola virus or bugging your apartment for some bizarre Israeli intelligence purposes.

My advice to you is to kid the kidder. If you like something you see, be frank with them with the fact that you know the whole thing is bunk and offer them a crappy price for their mass produced paintings. Do everything cash, no credit or cheques and tell them you’ll call the cops if they don’t piss off sharpish.

Strangely for an Israeli guy he didn’t seem to know about Caufield and Balaclava – two of the biggest Jewish areas in Melbourne. He said he was staying outside of Melbourne.

The whole time he was showing us his paintings, it was in the back of my mind that I’d heard this story before. Then I found this link from 2004. The elephant painting in this article was in this art kid’s portfolio. Small co-incidence? There are a whole bunch of articles about possible Mossad spy activity in the US and a bunch of Israeli art students being deported. Some were caught at DEA building and military areas. Very, very suss.

Like the link above, the guy told me someone would be in touch about having it framed. This is not something i’m looking forward to.

If any of you guys here of Israeli art students going door to door in Melbourne, please comment here. I am dying to find out what is going on. Because clearly they’re not art students. But why would they be repeating this scam in Melbourne?

At best it’s second-rate art sold at a premium. At least according to this New Zealand article again from 2004, suggesting there’s nothing more sinister than that. I suspect as they’re suggesting, it is simply art of no value mass produced in China. Mostly copies of the real deal.

Would be very interested to see if there are any more occurrences of this…

Follow up 11/02/08: after 8 comments, 1 email and a link to this page from a Russian site, this is a proven scam. Even the Northern Territory Police have issued a warning. This scam is being worked from Russia, to Arizona, to Auckland and everywhere in between. Thanks all for the continued feedback. Please keep it coming!