Definition
Art forgery refers to creating and, in particular, selling works of art that are falsely attributed to be work of another, usually more famous, artist.
Selected Exhibitions
- Fake?: the Art of Deception byLondon: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, c1992. Catalog of a British Museum exhibition that posed several interesting questions, among them exactly what is a fake and how it relates to a replica, an imitation, or a copy.
Fabulous Fakes, the History of Art Forgery. An exhibition sponsored by the New Rochelle Council on the Arts that covered art from ancient to contemporary times.
Forgery
Art Forgery: the History of a Modern Obsession by Call Number: N8790 .L46 2011London: Reaktion Books, 2011. Beginning with the Middle Ages, when the issue of false relics and miracles often arose, this history moves through the rennaisance to the modern age with scientific attribution, archaeology, graphology, medical science, and criminology.
The Art of Forgery: the Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers by Call Number: ON ORDERLondon: Phaidon Press, 2015. Case studies of the world's most famous forgeries--investigating the motivations of the artists and criminals who have faked great works of art, and in doing so conned the public and the art establishment alike.
Expert Opinion
- Paintings, Genuine, Fraud, Fake: Modern Methods of Examining Paintings byBrussels: Elsevier, c1985. The author, an expert in art of the Low Countries, provides both the layman and the expert with an exhaustive series of criteria by which a judgment about a painting can be made.
The Expert Versus the Object: Judging Fakes and False Attributions in the Visual Arts by New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Edited by an art attorney, the essays are written by specialists who address the question of authenticity by using connoisseur's evaluation, historical documentation or provenance, and scientific testing.
Anecdotes
The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures by New York: Viking, 2010, c2009. Written by a British art dealer whose real claim to fame is as a finder of lost or misidentified art. Here he recounts his adventures in the trade, and the stories behind his most noteworthy finds
False Impressions: the Hunt for Big-time Art Fakes by New York: Simon & Schuster, c1996. The former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art discloses details of major art forgeries and the intricate chicanery of con artists who have duped the world's most prestigious art institutions, art experts, and collectors.
Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by New York: Penguin Press, 2009. A terrific history of a crime: the fraud of John Drewe, the artist he worked with, some of the art world figures who weren't taken in and several more who were, and eventually the painstakingly crafted police investigation.
