art forgery
Fraudulent painting scheme
Art forgery is the creation or alteration of artwork with intent to deceive—passing off a fake as genuine, usually for profit.
The term covers everything from paintings falsely attributed to old masters to sculptures with forged signatures.
A successful art forgery exploits gaps in provenance and the difficulty of authenticating works: The Vermeer turned out to be an art forgery.
The practice has plagued the art world for centuries.
- old masterRenowned pre-19th-century European painter
- copyingReproducing something exactly
- imitationCopy of the original
- falsificationDeliberate alteration of truth
- counterfeitingMaking fake money
forger · con artist · aging · old masters · infrared imaging · replication · carbon dating · spectroscopy · chemical analysis · authentication · provenance · paper trail · patination · reproduction · fraud · white collar crime · signature verification · fake
- art forgeryfake paintings, master forger, forger, forged documents, fakes
- fraudscam, fraud, swindle, con, deceive
- art crimemuseum theft, stolen paintings, heist, tomb raiding
- forgerycounterfeit, fake, falsification, forged signature, forged letter
- scamsscam, scams, fraud, frauds, swindle
- heritage crimesmuseum theft, tomb robbery, museum heist, stolen paintings, illegal export
art forgeryart restoration
Repairing deteriorated creative works
art conservation · art authentication · art preservation · art scholarship · art appraisal