Egyptian Fakes: Masterpieces that Duped the Art World and the Experts Who UncoveredThem by Jean-Jacques FiechterReview by: Nicholas WernickJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 130, No. 3 (July-September 2010), p. 495Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23044983 .
Accessed: 16/06/2014 12:27
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:27:53 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Brief Reviews of Books 495
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 fasci
nating 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 pre
pared 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. Accord
ingly, this book cannot be used for academic purposes. The book itself has a very peculiar layout: the pub
lisher 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 dis
torted and not realistic, certainly a drawback in a book on forgeries. I applaud the extensive use of images, but
the publisher has had text "flow" around images in curi
ous ways that undermine the composition, leaving the
reader with the impression that this book is not about
a serious topic. The discussion of Borchardt's analysis of Egyptian
pieces in European collections (chap. 4) is fascinating,
demonstrating how the academic world responded to
his claims that some prized museum pieces were fakes. In particular, the exchange between Borchardt and the
outraged Adolphe Stoclet (a collector from Brussels) makes for very interesting reading. Fiechter also brings the forger Oxan Aslanian to the forefront of the history of pharaonic art forgery. He illustrates how Aslanian
was responsible for a large number of forgeries and how
they were produced. The discussion of the "Carnarvon
Bust" is particularly noteworthy in that Fiechter relays the discovery that this remarkable piece was, indeed, a fake. The section on modern techniques for forgery detection is also very interesting and Fiechter does an
commendable job in laying out Thomas Hoving's crite
ria for determining if a piece is genuine. All things considered, this volume makes for a good
read, but it cannot be utilized for any purpose other than
entertainment.
Nicholas Wernick
University of Liverpool
This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:27:53 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
