Art Appreciation: Art Copies, Forgeries and Fakes (Free London Taster)

Artworks have been copied for centuries, whether as part of the artistic training of artists in Renaissance workshops, or by women artists copying the great masters in the Louvre for tourists to take home as souvenirs in the 19th Century. Copies of great artworks have existed, in the form of prints, making them accessible to a wider audience, than just the wealthy art collector who can own the original. This taster explores how copies have fooled wealthy art collectors and the art dealers who sold them knowingly or not.

The forgers, brilliantly skilled artists themselves, experts on the artworks they copy, faking the materials and processes used to produce them. Also, with ability to create the lost artworks of a great master, provide the provenance, and appeal to the egos of art historians looking for the lost masterpiece to seal their professional reputations. How were they caught, punished, and how did they reinvent themselves? Meet the forgers made famous by their discovery, celebrities, now in their own right; either selling their own original artworks or ‘Genuine Fakes’, while some of their forgeries are still circulating in the art market today.