Scientific Investigation Of Copies Fakes And Forgeries

"Scientific Investigation of Copies, Fakes and Forgeries is a comprehensive guide to the technical and scientific study of the authenticity of a wide range of antiquities and artworks. It is the first book to provide a full survey of the subject of forgery from a scientific basis, examining a wide range of materials and techniques." "The demand for copies, fakes and forgeries is driven by rising prices in an international marketplace. The book examines the available new technologies and ever more sophisticated forging techniques, looking at production and distribution of fraudulent artworks. The subject is exemplified by numerous internationally based case studies, some turning out not to be as conclusive as is sometimes believed." "The book is aimed at those who need to understand the available approaches to and methods of scientific and technical authentication, be they curator, collector, conservator or scientist." --Book Jacket.

Looks at the modern tools of computers, printers, and scanners to create questioned documents and counterfeits and provides an overview of the start of fakes and forgeries from ancient times to the present.

'The scientific techniques described encompass relevant examples of forgery detection and of authentication. The book deals, to name a few, with the Chagall, the Jackson Pollock and the Beltracchi affairs and discusses the Isleworth Mona Lisa as well as La Bella Principessa both thought to be a Leonardo creation. The authentication, amongst others, of two van Gogh paintings, of Vermeer's St Praxedis, of Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and of Rembrandt's Old Man with a Beard are also described.'Over the last few decades there has been a disconcerting increase in the number of forged paintings. In retaliation, there has been a rise in the use, efficiency and ability of scientific techniques to detect these forgeries. The scientist has waged war on the forger.The Scientist and the Forger describes the cutting-edge and traditional weapons in this battle, showing how they have been applied to the most notorious cases. The book also provides fresh insights into the psychology of both the viewer and the forger, shedding light on why the discovery that a work of art is a forgery makes us view it so differently and providing a gripping analysis of the myriad motivations behind the most egregious incursions into deception.The book concludes by discussing the pressing problems faced by the art world today, stressing the importance of using appropriate tools for a valid verdict on authenticity. Written in an approachable and amenable style, the book will make fascinating reading for non-specialists, art historians, curators and scientists alike.

The Art of Forgery: Case Studies in Deception explores the stories, dramas and human intrigues surrounding 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.

According to Vasari, the young Michelangelo often borrowed drawings of past masters, which he copied, returning his imitations to the owners and keeping originals. Half a millennium later, Andy Warhol made a game of "forging" the Mona Lisa, questioning the entire concept of originality. Forged explores art forgery from ancient times to the present. In chapters combining lively biography with insightful art criticism, Jonathon Keats profiles individual art forgers and connects their stories to broader themes about the role of forgeries in society. From the Renaissance master Andrea del Sarto who faked a Raphael masterpiece at the request of his Medici patrons, to the Vermeer counterfeiter Han van Meegeren who duped the avaricious Hermann Göring, to the frustrated British artist Eric Hebborn, who began forging to expose the ignorance of experts, art forgers have challenged "legitimate" art in their own time, breaching accepted practices and upsetting the status quo. They have also provocatively confronted many of the present-day cultural anxieties that are major themes in the arts. Keats uncovers what forgeries—and our reactions to them—reveal about changing conceptions of creativity, identity, authorship, integrity, authenticity, success, and how we assign value to works of art. The book concludes by looking at how artists today have appropriated many aspects of forgery through such practices as street-art stenciling and share-and-share-alike licensing, and how these open-source "copyleft" strategies have the potential to make legitimate art meaningful again. Forgery has been much discussed—and decried—as a crime. Forged is the first book to assess great forgeries as high art in their own right.

With the recent advent of technologies that make detecting art forgeries easier, the art world has become increasingly obsessed with verifying and ensuring artistic authenticity. In this unique history, Thierry Lenain examines the genealogy of faking and interrogates the anxious, often neurotic, reactions triggered in the modern art world by these clever frauds. Lenain begins his history in the Middle Ages, when the issue of false relics and miracles often arose. But during this time, if a relic gave rise to a cult, it would be considered as genuine even if it obviously had been forged. In the Renaissance, forgery was initially hailed as a true artistic feat. Even Michelangelo, the most revered artist of the time, copied drawings by other masters, many of which were lent to him by unsuspecting collectors. Michelangelo would keep the originals himself and return the copies in their place. As Lenain shows, authenticity, as we think of it, is a purely modern concept. And the recent innovations in scientific attribution, archaeology, graphology, medical science, and criminology have all contributed to making forgery more detectable—and thus more compelling and essential to detect. He also analyzes the work of master forgers like Eric Hebborn, Thomas Keating, and Han van Meegeren in order to describe how pieces baffled the art world. Ultimately, Lenain argues that the science of accurately deciphering an individual artist’s unique characteristics has reached a level of forensic sophistication matched only by the forger’s skill and the art world’s paranoia.

In early sixteenth-century Italy, works of art came to be understood as unique objects made by individuals of genius, giving rise to a new sense of the artist as the author of his images. At the same time, the practice of engraving, a medium that produced multiple printed images via collaborative processes, rapidly developed. In this book, Lisa Pon examines how images passed between artists and considers how printing techniques affected the authorship of images. Pon focuses on the encounters between the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi and three key artists: Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, and Giorgio Vasari. She reevaluates their work in light of the tensions between possessive authorship and practical collaboration in the visual arts.