The wizard of light

An eccentric optical inventor and obsessive copyist tours museums with a massive mechanized easel and secret lamps that let him perceive art differently, rapidly flinging paint to produce wild reproductions while amusing and irritating onlookers. After his whirlwind campaign to copy masterpieces, identical canvases begin turning up at dealers and galleries, prompting bafflement and expert inquiry as authentic works seemingly multiply. The story traces the surreal consequences of mechanical reproduction and technological spectacle for ideas of authenticity, taste, and cultural authority, balancing comic set pieces with a satirical critique of collectors, experts, and the institutions that confer artistic value.