97-01 The Genius of Art Forgery

Thank you. Very interesting and informative.

///Degas little Dancer - her legs are different.

This lecture would be completely beautiful if that beauty wasn't spoiled by showing abbreviation that is associated with a lack of knowledge - B.C. instead B.C.E.

My surprise at the van Meegerens ever fooling anyone was explained in a TV play once - the figures which look ridiculous to us looked normal to the expectations of people in the 30s and 40s. We can see their daft dated appearance now, but then they could not, since they saw such faces every day.

Just as an academic may develop a "feel" for certain artists they have studied, so does the forger. Hebborn discusses this in a very well made documentary on him, and talks at length about developing that"feel" in his forgeries. Art is unquestionably the most subjective media of all. It is a combination of ideas, many of which the interpreter assumes. If you buy into anything that Marshall McLuhan had to say, the medium IS the message. The ideas and ideals have been replaced by a very bad case of "fear of missing out", as it's referred to in the area of finance. Art has become big business, and it's subjective nature does not fare well against schemers and criminals. Criminals look for weakness to exploit. That is why art theft is one of the biggest crimes on an international scale. There is another interesting documentary called "My Kid Could Paint That" it's a very unflattering look at the detrimental subjective nature of art, and how it affects the way that (seemingly intelligent) people view art. You do not have to be a forger these days, a 5 year old can fool the art world without even trying. Wanting something to be real, does not make it so. This is the playground of the forger! The biggest aspect of belief in anything is WANTING it to be true. Subjectivity and desire are a rotten combination of feelings when it comes to art.

The Laocoon is all or in part a forgery by Michaelangelo. the 2 sons in particular are obviously questionable.

The MMA's Sleeping Eros is not universally accepted as a Hellenistic original but a Roman copy.

High quality content

The face of the Virgin on the left is beautiful along with the color blue...but the Baby can not compete with the beautiful face of the Baby Jesus on the left...The the Forged one wins on this count!!!!

Thank you so much for this informative lecture. I for one don't believe the Belle Principessa is a da Vinci. I would love to hear your analysis of the Salvator Mundi. It raises so many issues, including the aggressive "restoration" of the face. Apparently, the face was scraped down to the bare wood and repainted which explains the weird eyes. As you no doubt know, no log of the steps taken during the restoration has ever been released.

Unbelievable just how superior Dürer's print is to Raimond's. Seeing them together helped me appreciate the quality of the original so much more!

Amazing insight, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

A pity you don't credit Noah Charney, whose book "the Art of Forgery" you have leant on heavily for this, to put it mildly!

This was such an excellent watch.

BRITAIN'S No1 ART FORGER - MAX BRANDRETT, THE LIFE OF A CHEEKY FAKER biography is out now!

Very interesting!

Genius,? Not really i can see right away of Mona Lisa the one on the right friggn fake!!!!!!!!!

very very good documentary. interesting. highly recommend. One thing, why wouldnt a forger also do such a thing as change the position of the head from the under-drawing? of course they would! so that in itself cannot be the only reason to believe it is the true Rogier Van der Weyden

Errr.... One of the best guides to Latin/Etruscan genuinosity is the size of winkie on any sculpture/painting/sketch. Something Eric Hebborn never forgot.....

What a thoroughly enjoyable and well-presented lecture. Thank you.

If this video was titled how to make a boring program, this would be priceless…couldn’t be copied…

This is amazing. Wish my lectures at university had the same quality

Ossian was not a forgery.

Wonderful presentation!! Thank you for putting it together

Great video!!!

The Crucifix Gallino is not true to the scriptures. Jesus was a Jew, most obvious, and also didn't have long hair.

Leonardo 's apprentice pic is more pleasing to the eye in my opinion.

There are probably a Lot more fakes around that the Experts say is the real thing.

Subconjunctival and

Regarding the portrait of that princess, didn't someone (Kemp maybe) find 3 almost invisible holes on the cut border? Made invisible by the glue when it was fastened to the panel. And they lined up perfectly in a very old book being held in Warsaw....being of the exactly right dimension and suggesting it was taken from there. I doubt that art forger would have had access to that book..I didn't hear you mention that and it seems worth mentioning. Some people confess to crimes as a pastime. What are your thoughts about that point?

Some great Trivia! Interestingly informative. Thank you for your accumulative efforts and generously sharing. J NY,NY

Mr. Shafe - I really enjoyed this except for the shortening of its length (by how much, I wonder).Can the entire presentation be viewed? My interest kept being interrupted by jumps to a next section before the current one was ended, as I'm sure you are aware. I'd like to watch it in its entirety. Possible?

Lovely lecture. I am reading The Bolton Forger now.

Duveen who had the Elgin marbles bleached in the British Museum and who ruled the antiques world. Not a reputable character.

A pretty lie is better than an ugly truth and the same goes for forgery.

Thank you very much, this was great

Thank you soo much, this just made my night soo much more productive :-)

Excellent!

Poor Dali, Poor Picasso; IF the Named artist did NOT at any level lift a brush and paint the whole DAMNED Canvas....then if done by any other artist, then it is either Forged, manufactured via a studio system or outright Fraud....that sums up IS the final WORD!

I’m an hour into your excellent lecture and wondering what you think of the Yasuda Sunflowers

Thanks very much, very interesting. :)

Nice job