Forgery
Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see
false document), with the intention to
deceive. The similar crime of
fraud is the crime of deceiving another, including through the use of objects obtained through forgery. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful
mis-attributions.
In the
16th century imitators of
Albrecht Dürer's style of printmaking improved the market for their own prints by signing them "AD", making them forgeries.
In the
20th century the art market made forgeries highly profitable. There are widespread forgeries of especially valued artists, such as drawings meant to be by
Picasso,
Klee, and
Matisse.
This usage of 'forgery' does not derive from metalwork done at a 'forge', but it has a parallel history. A sense of "to counterfeit" is already in the Anglo-French verb
forger "falsify."
Forgery is one of the techniques of fraud, including
identity theft. Forgery is one of the threats that have to be addressed by
security engineering.
A forgery is essentially concerned with a produced or altered
object. Where the prime concern of a forgery is less focused on the object itself— what it is worth or what it "proves"— than on a tacit statement of criticism that is revealed by the
reactions the object provokes in others, then the larger process is a
hoax. In a hoax, a
rumor or a genuine object "planted" in a concocted situation, may substitute for a forged physical object.
In the
Steven Spielberg 2002 motion picture Catch Me If You Can which is based of the real story of
Frank Abagnale,
con man who stole over $2.5 million through forgery, imposture and other frauds is dramatized. His career in crime lasted six years from
1963 to
1969.
*
Archaeological forgery** Discoveries of
Shinichi Fujimura**
James Ossuary**
Piltdown Man**
Moses Shapira**
Tiara of Saitapharne, Louvre
** The
Lady of Elx saw a controversy circa 1995 regarding its authenticity. Recently (2005), the Spanish National Research Council concluded in a research that the pigmentation was, in fact, from ancient times.
**
See also Kensington Runestone controversy
**
Drake's Plate of Brass**
Sinaia lead plates*
Art forgery**
Tom Keating**
Eric Hebborn**
Elmyr de Hory**
Dürer's imitators
**
Camille Corot's imitators
**
Han van Meegeren's
Vermeers
**
Michelangelo's Cupid**
Etruscan terracotta warriors,
Metropolitan Museum of Art**
The Rospigliosi Cup or The 'Cellini Cup'
**
Samson Ceramics forgeries/reproductions
**
Furniture faking*
Literary forgery - these literary forgeries all had some effect on the course of cultural history. Other literary forgeries, such as the
Hitler diaries, briefly achieve wide notoriety, without affecting subsequent history; they are brought together as
literary hoaxes.
*
Epistle to the Laodiceans*
Theology of Aristotle**
Ademar of Chabannes' forged
Life of St. Martial
**
Thomas Chatterton's pseudo-
medieval poetry**
Ossianic poems
*
Manuscript of Dvůr Králové and
Manuscript of Zelená Hora **The
Salamander Letter, which offered an alternative account of
Joseph Smith's finding of the
Book of Mormon, written by master forger
Mark Hofmann.
**Jack the Ripper's Diary
**
Clifford Irving's
Howard Hughes autobiography*
Relic forgery - It is not the efficacy of a relic that is in question, but only its
provenance.
**
cf True Cross**
cf Shroud of Turin*
Biblical Archaeology - Ancient artifacts
**
Moses Shapira*
Political forgery -
false documents used for purposes of
black propaganda.
**
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion**
Secret Circular of the Brahmin Samaj of Balaghat**
Zinoviev Letter**
Tanaka Memorial**
Ems Dispatch (actually more of a document altered by
Otto von Bismarck in order to incite a war response from France against Germany)
*Robert Cohon,
Discovery & Deceit: archaeology & the forger's craft Kansas: Nelson-Atkins Museum, 1996
*Oscar Muscarella,
The Lie Became Great: the forgery of Ancient Near Eastern cultures, 2000
*
Counterfeiting: coins, currency, drugs,
watches and
postage stamps*
identity document forgery*
False documents
**
Yellowcake Forgery**
James Maybrick**
Donation of Constantine**
see also Vinland map controversy
*
Authenticity*
Falsification*
Questioned document examination*
epigraphy*
Phishing*
Superdollar*
Catch Me If You Can*
Wide-ranging bibliographies of archaeological forgeries, art forgeries etc.*
Museum security Network: sources of information on art forgery; gives encyclopedic links.*
Identifying Counterfeit and Replica Watches
