Featuring international contributions from leading and emerging scholars, this innovative Research Handbook presents a panoramic view of how law sees visual art, and how visual art sees law. It resists the conventional approach to art and law as inherently dissonant - one a discipline preoccupied with rationality, certainty and objectivity; the other a creative enterprise ensconced in the imaginary and inviting multiple, unique and subjective interpretations. Blending these two distinct disciplines, this unique Research Handbook bridges the gap between art and law. This highly original Research Handbook provides stimulating and provocative discussions that bring together multiple perspectives on how art and law relate to each other in all of their various manifestations, across diverse legal regimes, fields, contexts, and times. With the objective of starting an interdisciplinary dialogue on visual art and the law, this Research Handbook reflects the varied voices of lawyers, artists, criminologists and curators, and engages with broad notions of the two fields, exploring established themes alongside new areas and unfamiliar questions. Wide-ranging and accessible, the Research Handbook on Art and Law will be of interest to law students and scholars engaged with the fields of law and the visual arts, as well as copyright lawyers, art historians and socio-legal scholars.

For as long as historical annals have been kept, they have recorded the frauds and fakes that have been imposed upon innocent dupes. Perhaps the earliest Christian story of all is that which tells of the deception that Jacob practised on his unsuspecting father Abraham, pretending to be his brother Esau; and today the theft of identity is reported to be the most rapidly spreading crime. And throughout the ages works of art and literature, coinage, and documents of all kinds have been forged for profit, personal status - and even out of pure mischief. Fakes, Scams and Forgeries details many of the most notorious acts of forgery, fraud and fakery that have taken place over the centuries, describing how they were perpetrated, their acceptance by those who considered themselves experts, and how - often after many years - they were eventually detected. As well as providing entertaining and in-depth profiles of famous forgers and legendary frauds, the text deals with the many modern scientific techniques that have been developed for the examination of suspect materials.

This new text provides practical guidance on the modern law relating to cultural objects which have been stolen, looted or illegally exported. It explains how English criminal law principles, including money laundering measures, apply to those who deal in cultural objects in a domestic or international setting. It discusses the recovery of works of art and antiquities in the English courts where there are competing claims between private individuals, or between individuals and the UK Government or a foreign State. Significantly, this text also provides an exposition of the law where a British law enforcement agency, or a foreign law enforcement agency, is involved in the course of criminal or civil proceedings in an English court. The growth of relevant international instruments, which include not only those devoted to the protection of mankind's cultural heritage but also those concerned with money laundering and serious organised crime, provide a backdrop to this discussion. The UK's ratification of the UNESCO Convention on Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970 in 2002 is considered. The problems posed in attempting to curb trafficking in art and antiquities are explored and the effectiveness of the current law is analysed.

Debates about the restitution of cultural objects have been ongoing for many decades, but have acquired a new urgency recently with the intensification of scrutiny of European museum collections acquired in the colonial period. Alexander Herman's fascinating and accessible book provides an up-to-date overview of the restitution debate with reference to a wide range of current controversies. This is a book about the return of cultural treasures: why it is demanded, how it is negotiated and where it might lead. The uneven relationships of the past have meant that some of the greatest treasures of the world currently reside in places far removed from where they were initially created and used. Today we are witnessing the ardent attempts to put right those past wrongs: a light has begun to shine on the items looted from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas and the Pacific, and the scales of history, according to some, are in need of significant realignment. This debate forces us to confront an often dark history, and the difficult application of our contemporary conceptions of justice to instances from the past. Should we allow plundered artefacts to rest where they lie - often residing there by the imbalances of history? This book asks whether we are entering a new 'restitution paradigm', one that could have an indelible impact on the cultural sector - and the rest of the world - for many years to come. It provides essential reading for all those working in the art and museum worlds and beyond.

This book offers a clear, accessible account of the American litigation over the restitution of works of art taken from Jewish families during the Holocaust. For the past two decades, the courts of the United States have been an arena of conflict over this issue that has recently captured widespread public attention. In a series of cases, survivors and heirs have come forward to claim artworks in public and private collections around the world, asserting that they were seized by the Nazis or were sold under duress by owners desperate to escape occupied countries. Spanning two continents and three-quarters of a century, the cases confront the courts with complex problems of domestic and international law, clashes among the laws of different jurisdictions, factual uncertainties about the movements of art during and after the war, and the persistent question whether restitution claims have been extinguished by the passage of time.Through individual case studies, the book examines the legal questions these conflicts have raised and the answers the courts have given. From the internationally celebrated "Woman in Gold" lawsuit against Austria to lesser-known claims against Germany, Hungary, Spain, and museums and private collections in the United States, the book synthesizes the legal and evidentiary materials and judicial rulings in each case, creating a coherent narrative of proceedings that are often labyrinthine in complexity. Written by a leading authority on litigation and procedure, the book will be of interest to readers in various fields of the humanities and social sciences as well as law, and to anyone interested in the fate of artworks that have been called the "last prisoners" of the Second World War.

'The scientific techniques described encompass relevant examples of forgery detection and of authentication. The book deals, to name a few, with the Chagall, the Jackson Pollock and the Beltracchi affairs and discusses the Isleworth Mona Lisa as well as La Bella Principessa both thought to be a Leonardo creation. The authentication, amongst others, of two van Gogh paintings, of Vermeer's St Praxedis, of Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and of Rembrandt's Old Man with a Beard are also described.'Over the last few decades there has been a disconcerting increase in the number of forged paintings. In retaliation, there has been a rise in the use, efficiency and ability of scientific techniques to detect these forgeries. The scientist has waged war on the forger.The Scientist and the Forger describes the cutting-edge and traditional weapons in this battle, showing how they have been applied to the most notorious cases. The book also provides fresh insights into the psychology of both the viewer and the forger, shedding light on why the discovery that a work of art is a forgery makes us view it so differently and providing a gripping analysis of the myriad motivations behind the most egregious incursions into deception.The book concludes by discussing the pressing problems faced by the art world today, stressing the importance of using appropriate tools for a valid verdict on authenticity. Written in an approachable and amenable style, the book will make fascinating reading for non-specialists, art historians, curators and scientists alike.

This book offers a revealing look at the full scope of criminal activity in the art world—a category of crime that is far more pervasive than is generally realized. Forgeries, fakes, fencing, and felony theft—all are pervasive problems in the world of art, where the stakes are high, the networks wide, and the consequences profound. In recent years, suspicious acquisitions, unreliable provenances, and shady dealers have found their way into the headlines as museums and private collections have been confronted with everything from fake pieces to stolen antiquities to plain old theft and vandalism. Crimes of the Art World captures the full scope of this staggeringly lucrative field of criminal conduct, showing how its impact reaches well beyond the walls of the museum. Filled with fascinating stories of crime and greed, this revealing volume looks at case after case of thefts, forgeries, fakes, and illicit trafficking, as well as the political/religious victimization of art, white-collar art crime, and vandalism. The book examines each type of crime in terms of frequency, losses, and characteristics of victims and criminals. Concluding chapters focus on preventive measures, art crime investigation, and security issues.

Since the Second World War, art crime has shifted from a relatively innocuous, often ideological crime, into a major international problem, considered by some to be the third-highest grossing criminal trade worldwide. This rich volume features essays on art crime by the most respected and knowledgeable experts in this interdisciplinary subject.

Nasca pots, Quimbaya figurines, Moche porn figures, stone shamans. Fakes and forgeries run rampant in the Andean art collections of international museums and private individuals. Authors Karen Bruhns and Nancy Kelker examine the phenomenon in this eye-opening volume. They discuss the most commonly forged classes and styles of artifacts, many of which were being duplicated as early as the 19th century. More important, they describe the system whereby these objects get made, purchased, authenticated, and placed in major museums as well as the complicity of forgers, dealers, curators, and collectors in this system. Unique to this volume are biographies of several of the forgers, who describe their craft and how they are able to effectively fool connoisseurs and specialists. This is an important accessible introduction to pre-Columbian art fraud for archaeologists, art historians, and museum professionals alike. A parallel volume by the same authors discusses fakes in Mesoamerican archaeology.

This book brings together empirical and theoretical case-study research on art and heritage crime. Drawn from a diverse group of researchers and professionals, the work presented explores contemporary conceptualisations of art crime within broader contexts. In this volume, we see 'art' in its usual forms for art crime scholarship: in paintings and antiquities. However, we also see art in fossils and in violins, chairs and jewellery, holes in the ground and even in the institutions meant to protect any, or all, of the above. And where there is art, there is crime. Chapters in this volume, alternatively, zoom in on specific objects, on specific locations, and on specific institutions, considering how each interact with the various conceptions of crime that exist in those contexts. This volume challenges the boundaries of what we understand as "art and heritage crimes" and displays that both art, and criminality related to art, is creative and unpredictable.

'A fascinating and deeply rewarding book' Adam Zamoyski, Daily Telegraph Napoleon's Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history and, in doing so, sheds new light on the complex origins of what was once called the Musee Napoleon, now known as the Louvre. It centres on the story of Napoleon's theft of Paolo Veronese's Wedding Feast at Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that in 1797 the French army tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Feast was just one of Napoleon's spoils of war, which he claimed for the French nation and displayed in a public museum - the Louvre. He filled the former palace of the French kings with his acquisitions, and Europe flocked to Paris and hailed the Louvre as the greatest museum in the world. Did he take it for himself? Or for France? Or for the world at large? Saltzman interweaves the stories of Napoleon's military campaigns, uncovering the treaties through which he obtained his loot, with the histories of the plundered works themselves, exploring how these masterpieces came into being. As much as a story of military might, this is an account of one of the most ambitious cultural projects ever conducted.

'Wide-ranging, witty and fresh ... a stimulating read. Authentic fun' Tim Harford, Financial Times Best Summer Books 2022 'Brilliantly witty, profoundly illuminating, Alice Sherwood is a master storyteller' Simon Schama 'Thought-provoking and beautifully written' Adrian Wooldridge, Washington Post 'A sweeping and persuasive manifesto ... witty and wide-ranging ... a pleasure' Literary Review 'Terrific ... the sheer breadth of her subject matter is extraordinary' Matthew d'Ancona, Tortoisemedia.com 'Alice Sherwood is the real deal' Marcus du Sautoy 'Fascinating and hugely entertaining' Brian Eno 'Unfailingly compelling and often shocking' Philip Mould, presenter of Fake or Fortune? 'Riveting ... captivating ... a thoroughly enjoyable debut' Financial Times We live in an age when the pursuit of authenticity - from living our 'best life' to eating artisan food - matters more and more to us, but where the forces of inauthenticity seem to be taking over. Our world is full of people and products that are not what they seem. We no longer know whether we are talking to a person or a machine. But we can fight back - and this award-winning book shows us how. Authenticity argues that, although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of evolution, economics, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Along the way, we meet the world's greatest impostor, who finally became what he'd pretended to be; the wartime counterfeiter who fooled a nation; nature's most outrageous deceivers; the artist who encouraged people to forge his pictures; the 'authentic' brand that was anything but. But we also meet people living unexpectedly rewarding lives in virtual worlds, and foot soldiers in the 'armies of truth' who are taking down today's conspiracies and cons. Provocative, insightful and original, Authenticity is that once-in-a-generation revelation: a work rich in histories but supremely and urgently of our own time. You'll never think about deception and reality in the same way again.

Covering key aspects of provenance research for the international art market, this accessible publication, co-published with the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), explores a range of themes including challenges and best practice to considerations specific to Nazi looted art and the trade in illicit antiquities. Provenance research is a crucial component of any art-market transaction. Without a provenance it is often difficult to establish a work's authenticity, its true value or who has legal title. Whether buying, selling or simply maintaining an artwork in either a private or a public collection, the days when a blind eye could be turned to the history (or the lack of a known history) of a work have long gone. Proper, thorough and effective provenance research is the minimum required and demanded in today's art world - a world that is increasingly recognising the need for greater and more effective self-regulation in the face of fakes, forgeries and challenges to ownership or authenticity that are now commonplace. Provenance Research Today is essential reading for a broad audience, from those studying to become part of the art world or professionals starting a career in provenance research, to collectors or would-be collectors, dealers, galleries, auction houses, police and art lawyers.

Discover the secrets, mysteries, hidden meanings and stories behind famous works of art. A book full of surprises, discoveries, forgotten treasures and lost tales, The Secrets of Art takes us on a journey through the art world's mysteries to reveal that works of art are not always what they seem. A long-lost medieval masterpiece unearthed in the Tower of London. A secret message that only an elite few can read encoded in a painting. A glimpse of a ghostly image beneath the surface of a portrait. The intriguing stories of these works, and many more, are brought to life by author, historian and art detective Debra N. Mancoff, as she reveals secret symbols used by Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer and Caravaggio, uncovers layers of meaning in paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso and Dali, and provides insight into works by Frida Kahlo, Kara Walker and Marina Abramovic. Drawing upon the findings of advanced technology, new research, scientific analysis and old-fashioned curiosity, The Secrets of Art unveils the layers of meaning beneath the surfaces of great works of art in a collection of tales that are fully based in fact but are as fascinating as fiction.

Wolfgang Beltracchi is a phenomenon of the international art world. His name is inextricably entwined with one of the greatest upheavals in the global art market. Emulating numerous world-famous artists, he developed and painted new paintings, continued their narrations and biography, and concluded them with a forged signature. His wife Helene Beltracchi then smuggled them onto the art market. Many experts were deceived by Beltracchi's stupendous skill and auctioneers cast many doubts aside in the interests of insatiable market demand, selling the paintings as authentic works by the purported artists. Reading the artistic handwriting of a painting requires an exceptional willingness and ability to be able to empathise and identify with the artist, until you "can feel what the other feels" (Wolfgang Beltracchi). Through extensive discussions with the painter and his wife, the psychoanalyst Jeannette Fischer explored this capability that is so pronounced for Beltracchi. In her new book, she places this in relation to the disappearance of Beltracchi's own signature. As with her previous highly successful book about the performance artist Marina Abramovic, Jeannette Fischer has created an exceptionally insightful portrait of a fascinating artist personality.

Featuring international contributions from leading and emerging scholars, this innovative Research Handbook presents a panoramic view of how law sees visual art, and how visual art sees law. It resists the conventional approach to art and law as inherently dissonant - one a discipline preoccupied with rationality, certainty and objectivity; the other a creative enterprise ensconced in the imaginary and inviting multiple, unique and subjective interpretations. Blending these two distinct disciplines, this unique Research Handbook bridges the gap between art and law. This highly original Research Handbook provides stimulating and provocative discussions that bring together multiple perspectives on how art and law relate to each other in all of their various manifestations, across diverse legal regimes, fields, contexts, and times. With the objective of starting an interdisciplinary dialogue on visual art and the law, this Research Handbook reflects the varied voices of lawyers, artists, criminologists and curators, and engages with broad notions of the two fields, exploring established themes alongside new areas and unfamiliar questions. Wide-ranging and accessible, the Research Handbook on Art and Law will be of interest to law students and scholars engaged with the fields of law and the visual arts, as well as copyright lawyers, art historians and socio-legal scholars.

The world's most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the Masters-exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio.The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you've ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro's "Rembrandts," "Caravaggios," "Miros," and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe. In 2019, it was revealed that Prince Charles received into his collection a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, insuring them for over 200 million pounds, only to later discover that they're actually "Tetros." And the kicker? In Tony's words: "Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what's he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy. It's the way things work for guys like me." That scandal is the subject of a forthcoming feature documentary with Academy Award nominee Kief Davidson and co-author Giampiero Ambrosi, in cooperation with Tetro Throughout Tetro's career of over forty-five years, his inimitable talent has been coupled with a reckless penchant for drugs, fast cars, and sleeping with other con artists. He was busted in 1989 and spent four years in court and a one in prison. His voice-rough, wry, deeply authentic-is nothing like the high society he swanned around in, driving his Lamborghini or Ferrari, hobnobbing with aristocrats by day, and diving into orgies when the lights went out. He's a former furniture store clerk who can walk around in Caravaggio's shoes, become Picasso or Monet, with an encyclopedic understanding of their paint, their canvases, their vision: and hide it all in a grubby California townhouse with a secret art room built into the bathroom. (Press #* on his phone and the mirror pops open.) Pairing up with one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the 2019 scandal, Tetro and coauthor Ambrosi unveil the fascinating truth of the art world in an epic, alluring, utterly believable, and all-true narrative.

'The scientific techniques described encompass relevant examples of forgery detection and of authentication. The book deals, to name a few, with the Chagall, the Jackson Pollock and the Beltracchi affairs and discusses the Isleworth Mona Lisa as well as La Bella Principessa both thought to be a Leonardo creation. The authentication, amongst others, of two van Gogh paintings, of Vermeer's St Praxedis, of Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and of Rembrandt's Old Man with a Beard are also described.'Over the last few decades there has been a disconcerting increase in the number of forged paintings. In retaliation, there has been a rise in the use, efficiency and ability of scientific techniques to detect these forgeries. The scientist has waged war on the forger.The Scientist and the Forger describes the cutting-edge and traditional weapons in this battle, showing how they have been applied to the most notorious cases. The book also provides fresh insights into the psychology of both the viewer and the forger, shedding light on why the discovery that a work of art is a forgery makes us view it so differently and providing a gripping analysis of the myriad motivations behind the most egregious incursions into deception.The book concludes by discussing the pressing problems faced by the art world today, stressing the importance of using appropriate tools for a valid verdict on authenticity. Written in an approachable and amenable style, the book will make fascinating reading for non-specialists, art historians, curators and scientists alike.

This is the only book by a criminologist to look at the full range of crime involving works of art: forgery, fraud, theft, smuggling, and vandalism. It is up to date, drawing on much material from the boom years of the art market in the 1980s and continuing up through the 1990s, and assimilating information from a variety of sources: art magazines, newspaper accounts, and the relatively small amount of scholarship on art crime by art historians and criminologists. In addition to considering the motives of thieves, the book looks at the way art theft is socially organized: the types of thefts that are committed, the ways thieves locate art to steal and how they gain access to it, their use of insiders and fronts, and the way they launder stolen art. The relationship between art theft and organized crime, especially drug traffickers, is investigated. After looking at explanations of art vandalism and the way vandals explain their behavior, the book concludes with a consideration of policies to curb art crime. The entire book is written in a highly entertaining way, packed with case studies of numerous crimes and stories of smuggling, grave-robbing, and skullduggery, that will appeal to a general audience as well as professionals and academics in criminology, sociology, and art history.

This collection of eleven essays by leading literary studies and cultural studies scholars examines the double meaning of the word "forge"-to create or to form, on the one hand, and to make falsely, on the other. These notable scholars take on a broad range of topics, including the falsified Hitler diaries, the creation of national identity in Bohemia, and Jean-Etienne Liotard's fraudulent "Turkish" identity. Each essay asks how forgery-at once the work of a criminal and a "master"-has shaped modern culture and challenged our understandings of authorship and value.

Crystal skulls, imaginative codices, dubious Olmec heads and cute Colima dogs. Fakes and forgeries run rampant in the Mesoamerican art collections of international museums and private individuals. Authors Nancy Kelker and Karen Bruhns examine the phenomenon in this eye-opening volume. They discuss the most commonly forged classes and styles of artifacts, many of which were being duplicated as early as the 19th century. More important, they describe the system whereby these objects get made, purchased, authenticated, and placed in major museums as well as the complicity of forgers, dealers, curators, and collectors in this system. Unique to this volume are biographies of several of the forgers, who describe their craft and how they are able to effectively fool connoisseurs and specialists. An important, accessible introduction to pre-Columbian art fraud for archaeologists, art historians, and museum professionals alike. A parallel volume by the same authors discusses fakes in Andean archaeology.

The essays contained in this volume address issues surrounding the use, dissemination, and reception of copies and even deliberate forgeries within the history of art, focusing on paintings, prints and sculptures created and sold from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century. The essays also probe contemporary sensibilities about the art of "inganno," or deception, sometimes even viewed as pleasurable deception, in the making and viewing of copies among artists and their audiences. Through specific case studies, the contributors explore the fine line between imitations and fakes, distinctions between the practice of copying as a discipline within the workshop and the willful misrepresentation of such copies on the part of artists, agents and experts in the evolving art market. They attempt to address the notion of when a copy becomes a fake and when thoughtful repetition of a model, emulation through imitation, becomes deliberate fraud. The essays also document developing taxonomies of professionals within the growth of the "business of art" from the workshops of the Renaissance to the salons and galleries of eighteenth-century London. As a whole, this volume opens up a new branch of art historical research concerned with the history and purpose of the copy.

In February 2012, in a Munich flat belonging to an elderly recluse, German customs authorities seized an astonishing hoard of more than 1,400 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. When Cornelius Gurlitt's trove became public in November 2013, it caused a worldwide media sensation. Catherine Hickley has delved into archives and conducted dozens of interviews to uncover the story behind the headlines. Her book illuminates a dark period of German history, untangling a web of deceit and silence that has prevented the heirs of Jewish collectors from recovering art stolen from their families more than seven decades ago by the Nazis. Hickley recounts the shady history of the Gurlitt hoard and brings its story right up to date, as 21st-century politicians and lawyers puzzle over the inadequacies of a legal framework that to this day falls short in securing justice for the heirs of those robbed by the Nazis.

Mapping out the world’s most infamous art thefts, forgeries, and acts of vandalism, this unique and visually striking reference illuminates the prevalence, motivations, and consequences of art crime in every corner of the globe.

Art history is filled with stories of art crime―but the depth and breadth of these incidents is not generally understood. This first book of its kind illustrates and contextualizes seventy five incidents in a unique format that allows readers to visualize the geography of art crime from the past two centuries. Divided into sections on thefts, vandalism, and forgeries, each crime is profiled with an absorbing narrative and images of the artworks, perpetrators, and scenes of the crime, alongside a map of where it took place.

Additional sidebars feature compelling information about the artist and/or the subjects of the work of art. Including renowned crimes such as the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, the 1975 attack on Rembrandt’s Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and Han van Meegeren’s forgery of Vermeer’s Supper at Emmaus in 1936, this book also includes lesser known incidents: the remarkably unnoticed theft of a two-foot high statue weighting fifty pounds; a young couple who mistook an exhibition canvas displayed with the paint cans used to create it for an interactive piece; and a Chinese librarian who stole one hundred forty-three paintings by famous Chinese artists and replaced them with his own fakes.

Filled with intrigue, controversies, and power dynamics, this is a captivating exploration of the darker side of art history.