The collectable fakes eventually became “more genuine for having been fake in the first place.” In the chapter titled “The Truth About the Lying Stones,” Pyne recounts how an expert was duped by three young men’s forged fossils. In the late 18th century, William Henry Ireland began forging all things Shakespeare-autographs, wills, even whole plays-using period ink and paper. In the late 19th century, the “Spanish Forger” plied his-or her the forger’s identity was never known-trade in the art world, becoming “one of the most skillful, and successful, and prolific forgers of all time.” Many museums had his Renaissance replicas-some 350 of them-until the ruse was uncovered years later. She offers examples “where a ‘real’ object ends and where a ‘fake’ (or less than real) object begins,” drawing from a variety of disciplines including art, literature, mineralogy, natural history, archaeology, and wildlife documentaries. An intriguing exploration of “frauds, forgeries, and fakes.”īecause of recent “worries about ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts,’ the question of authenticity has taken on particular urgency,” writes historian Pyne ( Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils, 2016, etc.).
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