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Books

Museum curators and art forgers are two of a kind: they’re both vain and self-deluded

The duped party in a forgery is not all that duped, says Jonathan Meades. He is mutely complicit with the swindler

16 May 2015

9:00 AM

16 May 2015

9:00 AM

The Art of Forgery Noah Charney

Phaidon, pp.294, £19.95

Louis the Decorator and his chums in the antiques trade use the word ‘airport’ adjectivally and disparagingly. It signifies industrially produced folkloric objects (prayer mats, knobkerries, masks, toupins, necklaces, tribal amulets, djellabas etc) which are typically sold by hawkers to departing holidaymakers.

This is the basest level of fakery and is ignored by the otherwise doggedly catholic Noah Charney.

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