Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-185) and index.

"What's real? What's fake? Why do we care? In these times of false news and fake science, these questions are even more important than ever because they hold a mirror to the unsettling reality in which we live. Fakes Forgeries and Frauds goes beyond the headlines, tweets, and blogs to explore the true nature of authenticity and why it means so much today. The book delivers nine fascinating true stories that introduce the fakers, forgers, art authenticators and others that populate this dark world. Examples include: ·Shakespeare -- How an enterprising teenager in the 1790s faked Shakespeare and duped Literary London ·Rembrandt - How is art history, connoisseurship, and science re-shaping our view of what the great Rembrandt painted and how the canvas changed over time? ·Relics - Was Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music a real teenage girl who lived in 3rd century Rome and was martyred in the same location as the church that bears her name? ·Jackson Pollock-How do experts pick out the real Pollocks from the thousands of fakes? ·Nuremberg -How repeated reconstructions of medieval Nuremburg -- including one by Adolph Hitler --shows how historic preservation becomes a tool for propaganda Fakes, Forgeries and Frauds also raises provocative questions about the essential nature of reality. For example: What happens when spiritual truth conflicts with historic fact? Can an object retain its essence when most of it has been replaced? Why did some art patrons place a higher premium on an excellent copy than on the original? Why do we find fakes so eternally fascinating, and forgers such appealing con artists? Fakes Forgeries, and Frauds is a full-color book with 30 color photos. It shows that reality, exemplified by discrete physical objects, is actually mutable, unsettling, and plainly weird. Readers discover things that are less than meet the eye -- and might even come to reconsider what's real, what's fake, and why they should care"--,Provided by publisher.