Faking the ancient Andes
By: Karen O. Bruhns, Nancy L. Kelker.
Contributors: Kelker, Nancy L.
Publisher: Left Coast Press; Routledge
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Walnut Creek, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9781598743944; 9781598743951
Subjects: Indian art -- Andes Region; Forgery of antiquities -- Andes Region; Art forgeries -- Andes Region; Art, Andean; Indians of South America -- Andes Region -- Antiquities
Description: "Nasca pots, Quimbaya figurines, Moche porn figures, stone shamans. Fakes and forgeries run rampant in the Andean art collections of international museums and private individuals. Authors Karen Bruhns and Nancy Kelker examine the phenomenon in this eye-opening volume. They discuss the most commonly forged classes and styles of artifacts, many of which were being duplicated as early as the 19th century. More important, they describe the system whereby these objects get made, purchased, authenticated, and placed in major museums as well as the complicity of forgers, dealers, curators, and collectors in this system." "Unique to this volume are biographies of several of the forgers, who describe their craft and how they are able to effectively fool connoisseurs and specialists. This is an introduction to pre-Columbian art fraud for archaeologists, art historians, and museum professionals alike."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Imagined histories : the problem of fakes; title: Artisans, ateliers, and their faux works; title: All that glitters is not old; title: All slipped up and everywhere to go; title: Clay-mates or imagination run riot; title: Hard cheese for hard rocks; title: Pocket candy : lapidary arts and objet de vertu in the Andes; title: Woodcarvers, weavers, and fake mummies?; title: Phoenicians and dinosaurs : the squirrely side of forgery; title: Epilogue : money, money!