art fraud
Counterfeit painting scheme
Art fraud is the practice of creating, selling, or misrepresenting artworks with intent to deceive—typically forging works attributed to famous artists or falsifying provenance to inflate value.
The term covers everything from skilled forgeries passing expert authentication to simple misattribution: The gallery was implicated in art fraud after selling fake Basquiats.
Art fraud also includes theft schemes and auction manipulation.
- forgeryCreating fraudulent imitations
- copyIdentical reproduction made
- counterfeitFraudulent imitation
- fakeNot the real thing
- falsificationDeliberate alteration of truth
fraudulence · x-ray imaging · carbon dating · Vermeer · paper trail · authentication · restitution · price inflation · copyright infringement · alteration · criminal liability · chemical analysis · original · misrepresentation · signature · auction · certificate · millions
- art crimemuseum theft, stolen paintings, heist, tomb raiding
- art forgeryfake paintings, master forger, forger, forged documents, fakes
- arts lawfair use, intellectual property, restitution claims, acquisition, antiquities
- heritage crimesmuseum theft, tomb robbery, museum heist, stolen paintings, illegal export
- copyingcopying, copy, plagiarism, repeating, duplicating
- Art Copyrightcopyright, artistic rights, artist rights, reproduction rights, infringement
art fraudart authentication
Determining if works are genuine
art conservation · connoisseurship · fair dealing · art preservation