Art Fraud: 50 Fakes That Fooled the Art World

Art historian Hodge (Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That) provides a colorful introduction to art forgery and some of its most infamous 20th and 21st century practitioners. Explaining their methods, Hodge notes how forgers like Tony Tetro used historically appropriate materials to copy Rembrandts and Caravaggios, while Mark Landis and Tom Keating relied on acrylic paints and magic markers in paintings that purported to date from as early as the 18th century. Successful forgers must go to great lengths to construct fake histories for their works, she notes; Wolfgang Beltracchi, who copied Max Ernst and others, faked a dated photo in which his wife posed as her own grandmother, the supposed original owner of a collection that included French modernist paintings. Why do forgers do it? Sometimes for money—Tetro lived a life of luxury—but others either gave away their works or didn’t spend their profits. What all forgers share, Hodge writes, is the doubt they sow in the art world, with experts and auction houses alike falling victim. For some forgers, that’s the point: Robert Driessen, who copied the works of such artists as Alberto Giacometti for nearly 30 years, claimed that the art world is “rotten” and corrupt, and those who can’t recognize a fake should pay the price. Amply illustrated and filled with eccentric detail, it’s a lively and illuminating window into a shadowy corner of the art world. (Oct.)