"The Fabulous Frauds" details true stories of art fraud and gives insight into the psychology of the perpetrators. The book offers a special slant on the forgers of great art. Frequently, the perpetrators take great pride in their accomplishments and produce even finer creations than the originals! A series of accounts gets across the means used by successful frauds in creating, buying or stealing paintings and sculpture. In many cases, customers are their own worst enemies, wanting to believe that their purchases are authentic. The law frequently relegates these cases to the back burner since they are not violent crimes and since there is little sympathy for rich patrons of art. Some of the best authorities have been duped over the years, including museum directors. Processes for creating antique finishes are explained. Methods for tricking unsophisticated buyers also appear. For example, although the artist Corot painted four hundred works in his lifetime, over 3,000 supposedly exist in the United States alone! The methods of detection are also exposed, but more often than not, the frauds trip themselves up through jealousy or greed. -- amazon.com
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