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Camera company Polaroid has made copying an institution and is busy replicating the paintings of masters. These replicas are sold and are also used as replacements for the originals in travelling shows.

Polaroid8217;s site at polaroid.com/replica has examples of such copies and also details the process by which the paintings are copied.

Replication is done by taking the original masterpiece and precision photographing the image on to a high resolution transparency film with a large format area. There are more than 100 million points per painting. The image is then put on a polaroid film of the same size as the painting. The final copy is then done in a room-sized camera which makes 40 by 80 inch prints.