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Art & Art History vocabulary · Collecting & the Art Market

Forgery

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ˈfɔːrdʒəri/nounCommon term

In art & art history, forgery means: A work made to look like the genuine work of another artist or period in order to deceive buyers; also the crime of making such works.

In Turkish: sahte eser, sahtecilik, taklit

How it is used

A forger produces forgeries, and experts detect or expose them through provenance research, style analysis and scientific tests. A copy, or a work ‘after’ an artist, is not a forgery unless it is sold as the original. Fake is the informal word.

Example sentences

  1. Han van Meegeren's forgeries of Vermeer fooled experts in the 1930s and 1940s.

  2. Pigment analysis showed that the painting was a modern forgery.

Common collocations

  • art forgery
  • detect a forgery
  • skilful forgery
  • expose a forgery
  • convicted forger
  • provenanceThe documented history of who has owned an artwork since it was made, used to show that it is genuine and was acquired legally.
  • attributeTo say that a work was made by a particular artist, place or period, based on evidence such as style, documents or scientific tests.
  • pigmentA coloured powder, made from minerals, plants, insects or chemicals, that gives paint its colour when it is mixed with a binder such as oil, egg or gum.
  • auctionA public sale in which artworks or other objects are sold to the person who offers the most money.

More terms: Collecting & the Art Market

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