Art of Forgeries

Art Forgery, the intent to deceive, usually for financial gain, by proffering an art object as representing something other than what it is. Art forgery has many subdivisions such as the deliberate imitation offered as an original;

• genuine old object that has been altered by partial repainting or reworking to give it greater value.
• early copies not initially intended to deceive but later passed off as originals.
• the pastiche made up of original parts that do not go together.
• workshop artifacts attributed to the master.

History of forgeries

NOTABLE FORGERS Throughout history art forgeries have been made whenever creative works have been considered valuable for a collection. The Romans copied Greek original sculptures, and many of the copies have at some time or other been considered originals. Today these copies are in museums, valued for what they are. Coins have been counterfeited since they were first minted by King Gyges of Lydia (died about 648 bc). Sometimes molds were made of originals and copies produced by castings. At other times original dies were used to strike an unauthorized issue. Various Byzantine emperors debased their coinage with base alloys—a form of deception—and coins were even produced in base metals and gilded to be passed off as solid gold. Jean de France, Duc de Berry, an art patron and coin collector, had modern copies made of old Dutch and French coins to fill in gaps in his collection. The Italian artists Giovanni Cavino and Pirro Ligorio were master coin counterfeiters of the 16th century. Even the great Michelangelo forged an “antique” marble cupid for his patron, Lorenzo de Medici. In the 18th century a forger produced a marble head of Julius Caesar that had been purchased by London's British Museum in 1818 as being authentic. Perhaps the most prolific production of art forgeries has occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries during periods of avid collecting, when profits for a successful deception have been enormous. The Louvre Museum in Paris bought its gold Tiara of Saïtaphernes for 200,000 gold francs and declared it a genuine work of the 3rd century bc, although it had been made in 1880 by the goldsmith Israel Ruchomovsky of Odesa, Russia. He was commissioned to execute a number of works in the antique manner by unscrupulous dealers, who then sold the objects as antiquities. The Italian artist Giovanni Bastianini, in the third quarter of the 19th century, executed in good faith a number of fine sculptures in the manner of Donatello, Verrocchio, Mino de Fiesole, and other Italian old masters, which were subsequently sold as genuine to—among others—the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Perhaps the most famous master forger of all time was Alceo Dossena, who successfully produced sculptures of such high quality that they were accepted as genuine by many art critics, museum directors, and famous collectors. Apparently Dossena, a master artist, did not know he was defrauding a third party, as he merely supplied work in various styles—archaic, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Gothic, and Renaissance. When he discovered that a Madonna and Child he had sold for 50,000 lire was in turn sold for 3 million lire, he stepped forward and proclaimed that the works were modern. Of almost equal notoriety is the story of Hans van Meegeren; he painted a number of fake Vermeers and Pieter de Hoochs that were accepted as genuine by eminent art critics and sold to important collectors and museums for fabulous sums. When he was accused of collaborating with the enemy in having sold, through an intermediary, Vermeer's The Woman Taken in Adultery to Hermann Göring during World War II, he was able to prove the “Vermeer” was by his own hand; van Meegeren was sent to prison for one year. In recent years skillful forgeries of paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and other modern masters have appeared. Often these are declared fake by art historians, frequently after a technical examination.

Forgeries

DETECTING FORGERIES By use of special illumination such as ultraviolet black light infrared photography, and X-ray radiographs, inconsistencies and changes in paintings may be detected. Instrumental analyses may reveal anachronisms in a work of art, and techniques such as carbon-14 dating, thermoluminescence dating, and dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) are all helpful in detecting forgeries in works of art. The dates when many pigments were introduced into the artist's palette are known; thus, if the 18th-century pigments Prussian blue and zinc white appear in a painting purported to be of an earlier date, then the work is obviously a forgery. Paint extending over an old crackle pattern may be evidence of repainting. Signatures are often changed by a forger; frequently, the binocular microscope is used to detect the alteration. Radiographs will reveal changes made by the original artist as well as those made on an old object by a forger. Pottery from archaeological sites is often “restored” from pieces that do not belong together by filing down edges of similar pieces from a second object. These, and fills of plaster or other materials, may show up in the X-ray. The best detector of a false work of art however, is the trained human eye. For example, a banker who is thoroughly familiar with printed currency can detect counterfeit money just by casual scrutiny, just as a fraudulent signature on a check is glaringly obvious when compared with a true signature. The detection of forgeries should be carried out jointly by art historians, art conservators, and scientists who have specialized in analysis of art and archaeological materials.

Works of Art

ART on Paper The conservation of works of art containing paper:

• watercolors
• drawings
• prints
• photographs
• posters
• documents
• books
• constructions
• collages
• sculpture

Presents special problems. Paper is fibrous material containing cellulose felted together in thin sheets. The cellulose can come from flax, cotton, jute, hemp, the inner bark of mulberry or other trees, and pulverized wood. The greater the amount of pure alpha cellulose present, the more permanent is the paper. Wood-pulp papers such as newsprint contain many impurities, which cause them to turn brown and become brittle and acidic. The paper conservator must analyze the types of fibers in a particular paper as well as diagnose the deterioration problems and treat them. Treatment may include :

• deacidification
• washing
• bleaching
• lining
• laminating
• matting
• removing old restoration
• providing proper storage or exhibition conditions.

Two-Dimensional Form

Graphic Arts, pictorial arts in two-dimensional form; in its most general application, graphic arts encompasses such forms as drawing, painting, prints, and photography. Specifically, the term is restricted to prints and, by extension, to artworks created for reproduction by a printing process. The term also includes the design and production of publications and commercial art.

• Advertising books
• Computer Graphics
• Drawing
• Illustration
• Lithography

History of Photography 20th Century

• Commercial Functions
• Posters
• Printing
• Printing Techniques
• Prints and Printmaking
• Xerography.

Sale Promotion

A point-of-sale display (POS) is a specialized form of sales promotion that is found near, on, or next to a checkout counter (the "point of sale"). They are intended to draw the customers' attention to products, which may be new products, or on special offer, and are also used to promote special events, e.g. seasonal or holiday-time sales. POS displays can include:

• shelf edging
• dummy packs
• display packs
• display stands
• mobiles, posters
• banners

Usually, in smaller retail outlets, POS displays are supplied by the manufacturer of the products, and also sited and restocked and maintained by one of their regular salesperson. This, however, is less common in large supermarkets as they can control the activities of their suppliers due to their large purchasing power, and prefer to use their own material designed to be consistent with their corporate theming and store layout.

Common items that may appear in POS displays year-round are:

• batteries
• soft drinks
• candy
• chewing gum
• magazines
• comics,
• tobacco
• writable CDs and DVDs.

These displays are also useful in outlets with limited floor space, as there tends to be much wasted space around counters. The displays are normally covered with branding for the product they are trying to sell, and are made out of cardboard or foamboard, and/or a covering over a plastic or Perspex/Plexiglass stand, all intended to be easily replaceable and disposable.

This allows designers to make full use of color and printing to make the display visually appealing. Some displays are fixed or non-disposable; these may include lighting to make the display more visible and may also contain a cooler, e.g. for drinks or ice cream. Some are no more than a metal basket, with no design on the outside, simply showing a price; these types of display are easier to refill.