Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents (see
false document), with the intent to
deceive. The similar crime of
fraud is the crime of deceiving another, including through the use of objects obtained through forgery. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful
misrepresentations. In the case of forging
money or
currency it is more often called
counterfeiting. But
consumer goods are also
counterfeits when they are not manufactured or produced by designated manufacture or producer given on the
label or flagged by the
trademark symbol. When the object forged is a record or
document it is often called a
false document.
In the 16th century imitators of
Albrecht Dürer's style of printmaking improved the market for their own prints by signing them "AD", making them forgeries.
In the 20th century the art market made forgeries highly profitable. There are widespread forgeries of especially valued artists, such as drawings originally by
Picasso,
Klee, and
Matisse.
A special case of
double forgery is the forging of
Vermeer's paintings by
Han van Meegeren and in its turn the forging of Van Meegeren's work by his son
Jacques van Meegeren.
This usage of 'forgery' does not derive from metalwork done at a 'forge', but it has a parallel history. A sense of "to
counterfeit" is already in the Anglo-French verb
forger "falsify."
Forgery is one of the techniques of fraud, including
identity theft. Forgery is one of the threats addressed by
security engineering.
A forgery is essentially concerned with a produced or altered
object. Where the prime concern of a forgery is less focused on the object itself— what it is worth or what it "proves"— than on a tacit statement of criticism that is revealed by the
reactions the object provokes in others, then the larger process is a
hoax. In a hoax, a
rumor or a genuine object "planted" in a concocted situation, may substitute for a forged physical object.
Forgery as a subject in film
The
Orson Welles documentary
F for Fake concerns both art and literary forgery. For the movie Welles intercut footage of
Elmyr de Hory, an art forger, and
Clifford Irving, who wrote an "authorized" autobiography of
Howard Hughes that had been revealed to be a
hoax. While forgery is the ostensible subject of the film, it also concerns art, film making, storytelling and the creative process.
In the
Steven Spielberg 2002
motion picture Catch Me If You Can which is based on the real story of
Frank Abagnale, a
con man who stole over $2.5 million through forgery, imposture and other frauds is dramatized. His career in crime lasted six years from 1963 to 1969.
Documentary art
Before the invention of
cameras, people commonly hired painters and engravers to "re-create" an event or a scene. Artists had to imagine what to illustrate based on the information available to them about the subject. Some artists added elements to make the scene more exotic, while others removed elements out of modesty. In the 18th century, for example, Europeans were curious about what North America looked like and were ready to pay to see illustrations depicting this faraway place. Some of these artists produced prints depicting North America, despite many having never left Europe.
Topics in forgery
- * The Lady of Elx saw a controversy circa 1995 regarding its authenticity. Recently (2005), the Spanish National Research Council concluded in a research that the pigmentation was, in fact, from ancient times.
- * William Chaloner (died 1699 at Tyburn), forger, coiner, coin clipper and counterfeiter,
- Literary forgery - these literary forgeries all had some effect on the course of cultural history. Other literary forgeries, such as the Hitler diaries, briefly achieve wide notoriety, without affecting subsequent history; they are brought together as literary hoaxes.
- *The Book of the Zohar, a primary text of medieval Kabbalah, was written by a 16th century Spanish Rabbi but attributed to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, an ancient sage of the Second Temple period. It was widely accepted as genuine until the advent of modern scholarship.
- Musical Forgery (Music allegedly written by composers of past eras, but actually composed later by someone else)
- * J. C. Bach, Cello Concerto in C minor (by Henri Casadesus)
