What Big Data Strategists Can Learn From A Con Artist Posted on : Jul 27 - 2015

Thirty years ago, a con man named John Drewe pulled off what might be the most elaborate and damaging art fraud of the twentieth century.

He befriended and persuaded a talented painter named John Myatt to create forgeries of famous works of art, and then infiltrated the archives of art institutions to place false documentation about the paintings in their files.

As a result, leading art buyers and galleries believed the authenticity of the forged works because the provenance—the record of ownership—appeared valid.

Drewe sold some 200 forgeries before he was arrested. But because of his talent for faking documentation, less than half have been identified. Many are likely still out there, proudly displayed as the work of Alberto Giacometti, Graham Sutherland, Jean Dubuffet, and others.

The scandal shook the art world. Just how many high-dollar art sales were made based on bad information may never be known.

While Drewe’s deception was intentional, the risk of making bad decisions based on seemingly valid information is one that businesses face every day.

In this era of big data, with unprecedented quantities of information at hand and growing pressure on businesses to make sense of it quickly, it’s a very real possibility to design and invest in a masterpiece of a strategy or marketing campaign that’s based on bad data. View more