Forgeries are an omnipresent part of our culture and closely related to traditional ideas of authenticity, legality, authorship, creativity, and innovation. Based on the concept of mimesis, this volume illustrates how forgeries must be understood as autonomous aesthetic practices - creative acts in themselves - rather than as mere rip-offs of an original work of art. The proceedings bring together research from different scholarly fields. They focus on various mimetic practices such as pseudo-translations, imposters, identity theft, and hoaxes in different artistic and historic contexts. By opening up the scope of the aesthetic implications of fakes, this anthology aims to consolidate forging as an autonomous method of creation.

Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their accomplices are proportionately elaborate. The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history's most notorious yet untold cons. They involve stolen art hidden for decades; elaborate ruses that involve the Nazis and allegedly plundered art; the theft of a conceptual prototype from a well-known artist by his assistant to be used later to create copies; the use of online and television auction sites to scam buyers out of millions; and other confidence scams incredible not only for their boldness but more so because they actually worked. Using interviews and newly released court documents, The Art of the Con will also take the reader into the investigations that led to the capture of the con men, who oftentimes return back to the world of crime. For some, it's an irresistible urge because their innocent dupes all share something in common: they want to believe.

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.

Hildebrand Gurlitt zahlte zu jenen Kunsthandlern, die sich an dem Verkauf der 1937 in deutschen Museen als "entartet" beschlagnahmten Kunstwerke beteiligten. Rund 400 Kunstwerke aus dem Kontext der Einziehung verblieben in seinem Besitz. Sie befinden sich heute als Legat Cornelius Gurlitt im Kunstmuseum Bern. Der Band basiert auf umfangreichen Forschungen zur Entstehung des Kunstbesitzes Hildebrand Gurlitts. Die Beitrage thematisieren die Positionierung des Museumsleiters und Kurators Gurlitt zur deutschen Moderne und seine Rolle als Kunsthandler wahrend des Nationalsozialismus und in der Nachkriegszeit. Die Autor:innen analysieren Gurlitts Rolle im Kontext des Kunsthandels, der nationalsozialistischen Kunst- und Verfolgungspolitik und problematisieren die Strategien des Kunstbetriebs nach 1945. Der Katalog enthalt alle Kunstwerke im Legat Cornelius Gurlitt mit belegtem Bezug zur Aktion "Entartete Kunst" sowie Reproduktionen zentraler Dokumente.

Restitutions of high-priced artworks have given the public the impression that items stolen from Jewish citizens during the National Socialist era were almost exclusively works of art and objects of great value. The opposite is the case: Most of the possessions seized were things used in everyday life, including furniture, or simple household goods. They ended up not only in public authorities or museums, but also in private households. How should museums deal with objects that were - allegedly - once in the possession of Jewish individuals and that are now often off ered to them by descendants of the individuals who subsequently acquired them? Are the stories that have been handed down in the family true? Can they be verified?Should museums accept such historically charged objects at all?

The story of an infamous crime, a revered map dealer with an unsavory secret, and the ruthless subculture that consumed him.

Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers—both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. But to those who collect them, the map trade can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of extremely rare objects.

Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief —until he was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. The Map Thief delves into the untold history of this fascinating high-stakes criminal and the inside story of the industry that consumed him.

Acclaimed reporter Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction story, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World, and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly coveted objects. Though pieces of the map theft story have been written before, Blanding is the first reporter to explore the story in full—and had the rare privilege of having access to Smiley himself after he’d gone silent in the wake of his crimes. Moreover, although Smiley swears he has admitted to all of the maps he stole, libraries claim he stole hundreds more—and offer intriguing clues to prove it. Now, through a series of exclusive interviews with Smiley and other key individuals, Blanding teases out an astonishing tale of destruction and redemption.

The Map Thief interweaves Smiley’s escapades with the stories of the explorers and mapmakers he knew better than anyone. Tracking a series of thefts as brazen as the art heists in Provenance and a subculture as obsessive as the oenophiles in The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Blanding has pieced together an unforgettable story of high-stakes crime.