1,000 Andy Warhol sketches offered for $250 each -- but only one is real

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A New York art collective announced it will be selling 1,000 Andy Warhol sketches for $250 each -- but 999 of them are elaborate forgeries.

The Brooklyn-based MSCHF collective announced its "Museum of Forgeries" project involves a single Andy Warhol sketch titled Fairies and 999 copies made by a machine with artificially aged paper to match the original.

The real artwork was randomly mixed in with the forgeries, so one buyer of a $250 sketch will receive the real deal, while 999 others will receive copies.

Daniel Greenberg, chief revenue officer of MSCHF, said the sketch was sold for $8,125 by auction house Christie's in 2016, and the artwork's current value is estimated at about $20,000.

MSCHF's website says the project is aimed at making a statement about famous works of art only being accessible to the wealthy.

"By burying a needle in a needlestack, we render the original as much a forgery as any of our replications," the site states.