Fake? The Art of Deception

by Mark Jones (Editor), Paul Craddock (Editor), Nicholas Barker (Editor)

What is a fake and why are fakes made? Did the forgers of the Turin Shroud and Piltdown Man have the same motives? Does a famous Vermeer cease to be beautiful when it turns out to be a Van Meegeren? Is the Piranesi Vase an eighteenth-century masterpiece or a faked-up antique? Fakes, argue the contributors to this volume, have always been unjustly neglected, especially given the unparalleled evidence they provide of the values and perceptions of both those who make them and those who commission them.

Included in this major survey of fakes and forgeries from ancient Babylonia to the present day are more than 600 objects from the British Museum and other outstanding collections. There are spectacular fakes once hailed as masterpieces of ancient and modern art. There are musical instruments and manuscripts, Chinese bronzes and Chelsea porcelain. There are literary and documentary frauds and political forgeries that have changed the course of history.

Both the methods of making fakes and the recent scientific advances in their detection are described, but many puzzles remain. The book concludes with a discussion of intriguing cases like the Vinland Map, the "Aztec" rock-crystal skull, and the mysterious discoveries at Glozel, which continue to perplex curator, historian, and scientist alike.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 1990

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on art forgery, by far! Great illustrations, and interpretive essays that discuss forgeries as socially important objects in and of themselves. Not the "weeds" in the garden of museums.

Travis

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the first serious scholarly works to examine the issues of fakery in museum collections, and remains a decent introduction and overview. It surveys different sorts of fakes across a variety of media and genres, with hundreds of examples drawn from major museums (mainly in the UK, but not exclusively). But there's been a lot of work done since this was published, and the positive aspect of great variety must be balanced against relatively brief discussions of each piece.

[Yelena Nikitina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a book about forgeries as a book oif what is a forgery depending on when how and why iut's done, and what is the context. Interesting and compelling reading, though I don't agree wiuth some concepts. Highlky recommended to lovers of history and collectors

[Stephen Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a decent introductory book for the topic of archeological and art forgeries. It's written for a general audience and has a good list of recommended reading at the end. It has a lot of pictures accompanied by text to explain what you're looking at.