The world of fine art has arrived in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Part of the latest update, players can buy and donate pieces of art purchased from a new vendor, Redd. However, unlocking the ability to buy art is a multi-day process that will have you making good use of your time-traveling abilities. What’s worse is some of the art you purchase may not be genuine at all! That’s right, Redd will actually sell you fake art if you’re not careful. This can prove problematic since he only arrives once a week and his prices can be a little high.

How to Spot Fake Art

Once you unlock Redd’s boat, go it and start examining the pieces of art he has to offer. All of these works are based on ones from the real world. Meaning, you can actually look up these pieces of art online and compare them. This is far and away the best way to actually tell if a piece is genuine, otherwise, you’ll just be guessing. Outside of pure luck, there’s no in-game method for distinguishing what’s real and what’s fake.

Let’s look at a piece by painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder called The Hunters in the Snow:

Okay, now let’s look at the one Redd’s grifting ass was trying to sell me on his boat:

Do you see the difference? In the original painting there are two hunters right in front of the dogs, while Redd’s version only has one. This means it’s a fake piece of art since the two have very distinguishable differences. Inversely, Redd was also selling the iconic Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinchi. When comparing the two I couldn’t find a single distinguishable difference between the real one and what Redd was selling.

If you are going to purchase a piece of art make sure to select the closer look option. This allows you to examine the piece of art to ensure that Redd isn’t scamming you. The trouble comes from actually figuring out what the art pieces are that Redd’s selling. He doesn’t use their real names, so you’ll need to do a bit of digging. I found that all of the works he sells are rather famous, so using a simple keyword search on Google Images proved useful. For The Hunters in the Show, I just typed, painting, snow, hunters, dogs, and this painting was the first result.

Once you purchase a piece of art, Redd will package it and ship it to your home. It will arrive in your mailbox one day after purchase. Now just take it to Blathers and have him inspect it. If your deduction was correct then you’ll have a genuine piece of art and he will accept it into the museum. Unfortunately, if the art is fake then he will decline and you’ll be stuck with it. I strongly, strongly urge you to always try and compare the two works of art.

Redd doesn’t strike me as the type to accept refunds.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fake Art Guide - How to Spot Fake Art

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