Egyptian Fakes: Masterpieces that Duped the Art World and the Experts Who Uncovered Them.

• Author: Wernick, Nicholas
• Position: Book review

Egyptian Fakes: Masterpieces that Duped the Art World and the Experts Who Uncovered Them. By JEAN-JACQUES FIECHTER. Paris: Flammarion, 2009. Pp. 252, illus. $45.

The subject of pharaonic art forgery is a very real problem for modern museums and it is curious that more books on the subject have not been published. It is fascinating to learn of the lengths that someone would go to in order to sell their meretricious wares. Unfortunately, one gets the impression that the author was not prepared to set out a specific agenda for this volume, since there is no particular structure for his analysis. Rather than illustrating step-by-step how forgeries have been exposed, we are left with historical anecdotes about the forgeries themselves and the ensuing correspondence. Furthermore, Fiechter does not provide this work with proper references: he illustrates correspondence but does not state the source of his information. Accordingly, this book cannot be used for academic purposes.

The book itself has a very peculiar layout: the publisher has opted to have the print in black while all images are composed in orange, sepia, or dark-brown tones. The result is that some of the images appear distorted and not realistic, certainly a drawback in a book on forgeries. 1 applaud the extensive use of images, but the publisher has had text "flow" around images in curious ways that undermine the composition, leaving the reader...