The question was inspired by this article, about an art collector, who said that he knew that the piece of art he was collecting was "rare," with only 391 copies, because of the blockchain.

First, would this have been recorded on the original blockchain itself, or just a blockchain "knockoff?" Second, how would the blockchain "tag" all 391 copies and then trace them? Suppose someone made a counterfeit of the picture, would the system "know" about this, and fail to tag the fake copy? How would the blockchain mechanism operate in this, or similar contexts?