Twenty-seven years ago today, on June 9, 1998 (May 15, 1998 in the lunar calendar), the "Sunflower" purchased by Japanese merchants at a sky-high price was suspected to be a fake. In June 1998, eight famous international art appraisal experts jointly pointed out that the "Sunflower" collected in the gallery of Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company (hereinafter referred to as Yasuda Company) in Japan was not painted by the Dutch Impressionist master Van Gogh, but a fake. These eight international art appraisal experts come from Italy, Britain, the United States and other countries. They are all experts and scholars who have studied Van Gogh's works. They pointed out that neither the painting itself nor the canvas purchased by Yasuda Company did not come from Van Gogh. In addition, the painting did not have Van Gogh's signature on it. At an international art auction in 1987, the deep-pocketed Japanese company Yasuda paid a staggering $39.50 million for a "Sunflower" by the Dutch Impressionist master Van Gogh, setting a new international art auction record at the time. If the art world agrees that the "Sunflower" is indeed a forgery, Yasuda will set another world record - the world record for the highest price paid for a fake. As early as July 1997, an art newspaper in London, England, published an article saying that among Van Gogh's surviving works, about 100 paintings and manuscripts were suspected to be fakes, including the "Sunflower" that Yasuda paid a lot of money for. As soon as the article was published, it immediately caused a great debate in the art world. Although some of Van Gogh's handed-down works have been questioned for a long time, it has not been explicitly raised and published in influential newspapers like this article. Because this is a very sensitive issue, it involves the vital interests of many collectors and museums. It is inconvenient to determine the authenticity without certainty. Moreover, if a work like "Sunflower" is worth tens of millions of dollars, it has been identified by many art appraisal authorities before auction. To call this painting a fake is to challenge those authorities, and ordinary people do not want to provoke trouble. Generally speaking, signatures are the most difficult to forge and the easiest to identify the authenticity of paintings. However, there is no signature of Van Gogh on that painting. But this cannot be the deciding factor for the authenticity of the verdict, because many of Van Gogh's works are unsigned. Van Gogh was very poor in his life, and he never dreamed that his paintings would one day be so valuable and attract such vivid imitations. At present, there are three nearly identical versions of Van Gogh's most iconic "Sunflowers". One is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the other is in the National Gallery in England. Van Gogh painted the first "Sunflowers" in 1888, and a copy of the same work was given to his French painting friend Gauguin the following year. As for the third painting, it has never been mentioned by Van Gogh, and the work was not exhibited at an exhibition until 1901, and its origin remains a mystery. Norman, a British art expert, believes that the "Sunflower" purchased by the Japanese Yasuda Company was copied by a Frenchman named Scuffenac. Scuffenac was a friend of Gauguin and once kept Van Gogh's "Sunflowers".