How To Spot a Really Good Art Forgery

Video written by Amy Muller

[yoymate]

i vaguely remember reading about a mexican art forger who made such good fakes that he got arrested for trafficking ancient pre-columbian art. he then asked his lawyers for clay and produced a fake inside his cell, which was appraised as genuine by the same specialist that police used to send him to prison, thus proving he was a forger and getting him released. iirc he got hired by a museum as an appraiser

[doomslayerobama]

That's why I keep getting caught. Thanks!

[magsgraff]

Just wanted to say that sometimes really old copies weren’t really forgeries—it was and still is common for art students to copy famous works. This is especially common with sketches—is it the prototype for the very famous artwork, or a copy made from a student in a gallery or museum?

[tz]

3:21 - That Tiara is the Tiara of Saitapharnes and the selective damage was only one clue it was faked. Nowadays it's known for certain to be a fake because its creator (Israel Rouchomovsky) proved he had actually made it (embarrassing the Louvre in the process).

[Hiro_Trevelyan]

Fun fact : the Louvre museum (yes, the one in Paris) has the only particle accelerator in the world that is used for art, and to spot art forgeries. It's one of the best way to do it since it doesn't not require removing a piece of material, thus doesn't damage the piece of art if it's actually an authentic one. I don't remember how it works though.
That's how the Louvre discovered that one of their most prized possessions (a blue glass head from Ancient Egypt) was a fake.

Also, I wonder if art museums don't use fakes just to keep the real ones safe. Why would you risk having a precious painting punctured by an idiot or an asshole ? Every single museum on the planet has the same "no touch no flash" rules but somehow, there's still idiots who think they're above everyone else.

[dancoroian]

It's pretty insane that powdered mummified human remains used to just be a regular commodity like any other, widely available and used for all manner of things (including as the crucial ingredient in the aptly named "mummy brown" paint...)
Imagine having that on your shopping list!

[YusriRilke]

One of my art professors was banned from the Met for pointing out fakes. That's how I know she's legit

[reklin]

The stuff in King Tut's tomb wasn't fake.

Glass like that would have been very valuable at the time.

[tomthedespoiler]

I really hope that the frog sculpture side hustle writer is the same one that learned how to crochet on Sam's time. I hope their Etsy store is going well.

[ntlespino]

"What am I supposed to moisturize with now, peasant blood?"

Whoa there, Lady Bathory

[allangibson]

Gold can be traced to its source by trace elements. Western Australian gold for example always has traces of selenium from the copper selenide ore it is extracted from.

[prettypic]

This ties in SO WELL with the repatriation debate- if the vast majority of people can't tell a real work from a fake, why not display a recreation and send the original back to its rightful homeland?

[caglarozdemir]

"Hands are really hard"
HaI is ai, it's confirmed now

[nasis]

Some forgeries by famous forgers are worth a lot of money. The forgeries are so good and so close to the original, it has created a maret for them.

[SalMinella]

I should start making fake art instead of cooking videos with wiener jokes

[BnORailFan]

I visited the British Museum in London long ago and saw the Rosetta Stone. It looked fake because it was in pristine condition and looked like it was made recently. I suspect it really was a fake one on display so the original couldn't be damaged by viewers.

[Kokurorokuko]

How many times did Sam say "Ankcient"?

[IvyroseGullwhacker]

I know how! You bring it to Blathers the owl at the museum and have it assessed.

[jfwfreo]

Regardless of value/price/etc, fakes claiming to be a work by a known artist will always be a lot harder to pass of as legit than fakes of things with no artist attached.

[waderedsox]

"its not legal but it is funny and thats so much more important" Sam-2023 based af