Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds (eBook)

A fascinating read about fakes, forgeries, and frauds.What's real? What's fake? Why do we care?In this time of false news and fake science, these questions are more important than ever. Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds goes beyond the headlines, tweets, and blogs to explore the true nature of authenticity and why it means so much today. This book delivers nine fascinating true stories that introduce the fakers, forgers, art authenticators, and others that populate this dark world. Examples include:ShakespeareHow an enterprising teenager in the 1790s faked Shakespeare and duped Literary London.RembrandtHow art history, connoisseurship, and science are re-shaping our view of what Rembrandt painted and how the canvas changed over time. RelicsWas Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, a real Roman teenager who was martyred 1,800 years ago in the same place where her church stands today?Jackson PollockHow do experts pick out the real Pollocks from the thousands of fakes? NurembergHow repeated reconstructions of medieval Nuremburgincluding one by Adolf Hitlershow how historic preservation became a tool for propaganda.Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds also raises provocative questions about the meaning of reality. What happens when spiritual truth conflicts with historic fact? Can an object retain its essence when most of it was replaced? Why did some art patrons value an excellent copy more than the original? Why do we find fakes so eternally fascinating, and forgers such appealing con artists? Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds is a full-color book with 30 color photos. It shows that reality, exemplified by discrete physical objects, is actually mutable, unsettling, and plainly weird. Readers discover things that are less than meets the eyeand might even reconsider what's real, what's fake, and why they should care.