But it’s not all sunshine and cupcakes. For starters, unlocking the ability to buy art is a tedious multi-day process. Redd, being the sly fox that he is, will try to sell you fake pieces as well. When you consider the fact that you can buy only one piece per week and any painting can a drill a hole in your band, fake paintings can be a huge pain.
Who is Redd?
Based on the heavenly ‘Kitsune’ foxes from Japanese folklore, Redd represents tricky foxes that used to deceive merchants, farmers and even samurais. He is a household name in the Animal Crossing series, synonymous with shady art dealings. Back in the day, Redd exclusively sold furniture pieces for exuberantly high prices but in Animal Crossing New Horizons, he’s hustling art as well.
Redd sells a mix of real and fake art pieces. The real ones can be donated to Blather the owl at the museum, while the fake ones are just overpriced junk.
How To Find Redd?
The first thing you need to do in order to find Redd is to upgrade Resident Services and donate at least 60 subjects to Blathers’ museum. That sounds a lot but it’s simply a matter of donating everything to the museum instead of selling it. Once the aforementioned requirements are met, you’ll unlock the ability to indulge Blathers in a discussion of art. The following morning, Isabelle will issue a warning for you watch out for shady art dealers in her morning announcements.
After the announcements, you’ll be able to find Redd wandering around your island. Simply walk up to him, interact, and get ready for a heavy dose of flattery. He’ll indulge in classic salesman tactics like naming a high price then drastically lowering it because of ‘family discount’. Once you get through the dialogues, he’ll offer you a painting for a whopping 498,000 Bells. If you decline it, he’ll offer it for a discount price of 4,980 Bells for a genuine painting.
Take this painting to Blather the owl at the museum and he’ll add a new wing to the museum dedicated to art. The museum will close down for a day for construction. Once the construction is complete, the museum will open again. On the same day, you can find Redd roaming around the island as well. Once you speak to him, he’ll invite you to his boat, the Treasure Trawler, to check out more art pieces of dubious legitimacy.
How To Differentiate Between Real And Fake Art?
Every art piece sold by Redd is based on a real-world art piece. All the fakes ones are slightly different from their real-world counterparts. Fortunately, you can take a closer look and inspect an art piece before buying it. To inspect an art piece, simply go up to it, interact with Redd and select ‘I want a closer look’ in the dialogue menu.
Unfortunately, the art pieces in Redd’s clove aren’t named the same as their real-world counterparts, so you might need to dig around a bit to find out the real art piece. Once you’ve purchased the artwork, take it straight to Blather the owl at the museum to determine the credibility of the artwork. If it’s genuine, he’ll accept it in the museum but if it’s a fake, you just simply wasted a lot of money. It’s a matter of utmost importance to choose the genuine piece, as you can only purchase one of the four artworks at once from Redd. On top of that, he has an unpredictable schedule so you never know when he’ll be back with more. Some players argued that one out of the four pieces is genuine, but this theory was bunked as sometimes Redd came with more than one genuine item while on other occasions he packed four counterfeits
What To Do With Fake Art?
Fake art is worth no more than rubbish in Animal Crossing. Even notorious scammers Timmy and Tommy will not want to buy it. You can just dispose of it in trash cans, but we have a better idea. You can hang the fake paintings in your house and place the statues around the city. Sure, deep down you’ll know it’s a fake one. On the surface though, you’ll have a tough time distinguishing it from the real deal without a second glance. But that’s not all, the fake art can be haunted! This is a subtle phenomenon and takes on different forms for different artworks. For example, the Wistful Painting (Girl with a Pearl Earring) opening and shutting her eyes, and the Ancient Statue (Dogū statue) levitating.
— Squid?? (@squidslime) April 30, 2020
