Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds

Today’s Nonfiction post is on Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds by Nancy Moses. It is 195 pages long including notes and is published by Rowmen and Littlefield. The cover is a white page with a tear on the left side and the title in red. The intended reader is someone who is interested in fakes, forgeries, and frauds. There is some mild foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- 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: 

Shakespeare--How an enterprising teenager in the 1790s faked Shakespeare and duped Literary London. 

Rembrandt--How art history, connoisseurship, and science are re-shaping our view of what Rembrandt painted and how the canvas changed over time. 

Relics--Was 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 Pollock--How do experts pick out the real Pollocks from the thousands of fakes? Nuremberg--How repeated reconstructions of medieval Nuremburg--including one by Adolf Hitler--show 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 eye--and might even reconsider what's real, what's fake, and why they should care.

Review- An excellent and interesting look into what makes something ‘real’ and what makes something else a ‘fake’. Moses is knowledgeable about her subject, she has great research, and she is a good writer. She does so much to help the reader understand the language used by museum directors, art critics, and others in very narrow and particular jobs. Her notes are interesting and great if you have found a subject you want to learn more about. I really had a fun time with this book and I would like to read more by this author.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.