A tautly paced investigation of one the 20th centurys most audacious art frauds; which generated hundreds of forgeries-many of them still hanging in prominent museums and private collections todayProvenance is the extraordinary narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate deceptions in art history. Investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo brilliantly recount the tale of a great con man and unforgettable villain; John Drewe; and his sometimes unwitting accomplices. Chief among those was the struggling artist John Myatt; a vulnerable single father who was manipulated by Drewe into becoming a prolific art forger. Once Myatt had painted the pieces; the real fraud began. Drewe managed to infiltrate the archives of the upper echelons of the British art world in order to fake the provenance of Myatts forged pieces; hoping to irrevocably legitimize the fakes while effectively rewriting art history. The story stretches from London to Paris to New York; from tony Manhattan art galleries to the esteemed Giacometti and Dubuffet associations; to the archives at the Tate Gallery. This enormous swindle resulted in the introduction of at least two hundred forged paintings; some of them breathtakingly good and most of them selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of these fakes are still out in the world; considered genuine and hung prominently in private houses; large galleries; and prestigious museums. And the sacred archives; undermined by John Drewe; remain tainted to this day. Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller; filled with unforgettable characters and told at a breakneck pace. But this is most certainly not fiction; Provenance is the meticulously researched and captivating account of one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery.
#2892798 in eBooks 2009-06-26 2013-04-25File Name: B002GYHV9Q
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