False impressions
Subtitle: the hunt for big-time art fakes
By: Thomas Hoving.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 366
ISBN-13: 9780684811345
Copyright date: 1996
Subjects: Art -- Forgeries.
Description: "With his trademark humor and irreverence, Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and bestselling author of Making the Mummies Dance, delves into an important aspect of modern culture - art forgery - to reveal the appalling scams, the duplicitous perpetrators, and the hapless dupes, from the beginning of civilization to the present." "This is a big, broad book on art fakes, fakers, and suckers written in Hoving's signature style - amusing, wicked, and mischievous. From the shroud of Turin to Pre-Columbian pottery, Hoving covers the biggest, the best, the most embarrassing, and the most costly forgeries - most never before published, some he himself collected. He explains the differences between out-right forgeries and works so overly restored and tarted up the result is tantamount to forgery." "Hoving exposes the scams and tells why people, including knowledgeable collectors, continue to fall for them. He characterizes the fakers, their middlemen, and the "marks," the greedy, gullible, and moneyed private collectors and institutions who got taken in by some of the most amusing and imaginative con games of all time. He examines the motives of the fakers and the dupes (it's not always money), and introduces us to the talented "fakebusters" whose job it is to expose the truth. And he answers the question, "If a fake fools everybody, why isn't it as good as the genuine article?""--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. (335)-347) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Fakebusters, fakers, and how to tell a fake; title: The giddy ancient world; title: The shrouded Middle Ages; title: Tricks of the Renaissance and shams of the Baroque; title: Victorian shenanigans; title: The golden age of fakes : now!; title: My early experiences; title: Young at the game; title: A real pro; title: Busting Wolfgang; title: Fakes by the ton; title: If a fake is so good that it fools all the experts, then ...; title: Has any faker fooled them all?; title: Deep suspicions; title: The pseudo-fakebusters; title: "Guardi is still alive"; title: The "fhaker" with chutzpah; title: The curious spurious Kouros; title: Con Brio; title: Epilogue