Overview

This book charts the changing status of art forgery from the time of its appearance in the Renaissance, when it was hailed as a true artistic feat, to its condemnation as the art crime par excellence. With the advent in the twentieth century of more scientific attribution, of archaeology, graphology, medical science and, later, criminology, the detection of forgery became increasingly possible. The science of accurately deciphering the artist's characteristic traces has since reached a level of forensic sophistication only matched by the forger's skill and the art world's paranoia.

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9781861898500

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Reviews

'since authorship is a major financial issue you need specialist advice. Enter the first character of Art Forgery: the art connoisseur. His claim is that it is impossible to forge a work of art; no forger, however skilled, can reproduce perfectly the Unique. The forger's aim is to prove him wrong. The epic struggle between the two constitutes the subject of Thierry Lenain's remarkable book, whose dazzling erudition and lucid logic make it a pleasure to read.'- -- Donald Sassoon History Today 'This book delves into the history of art forgery, beginning with its prevalence in the middle ages, through the Renaissance to the present day. This genealogy of faking also examines the output and skill of some of the master forgers alongside the art world's thorny relationship with counterfeit work and the ever-more sophisticated technology for detecting fakes.' - Apollo 'Lenain's fascinating book charts our changing attitudes to forgery, from the unbridled admiration of the skill of the well-rewarded copyist during the Renaissance to the hysterical over-reaction and condemnation of today's demonised so-called master forgers ... full of historical detail and philosophical explication on the nature of truth and reality applied to the art world.' - ARLIS News

Author Information

Thierry Lenain is Professor of Art Theory at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He is also the author of Monkey Painting (Reaktion Books, 1997).

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