- Hardcover: 243 pages
- Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; First Edition. Hardback. No Dustjacket. edition (Jun 1969)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0070320470
- ISBN-13: 978-0070320475
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 514,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
FAKE!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Very professional, product matched description, well packed.
Delivery was slow (possibly due to post delays) and arrived a bit later than announced.
Delivery was slow (possibly due to post delays) and arrived a bit later than announced.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A terrific read
27 Jan 2008
Format:Hardcover
Subtitled The Story of Elmyr de Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time, Fake! is the only kind of true-crime book I can get into: not the story of a murderer, but of a classy kind of con artist.
As any fan of Orson Welles's F for Fake will already know, Elmyr de Hory was responsible for a real shake-up in the art community. For decades, he sold all over the world paintings of his own as the work of old masters. But his story never reads as a mean-spirited attempt to get rich, mostly due to the approach.
Author Clifford Irving (who would, just a few years after writing this book, pull off his own fake -- with the fictional Autobiography of Howard Hughes) portrays Elmyr as a sympathetic figure. He only did it when he needed money; when he was flush, he focused on his own art career, and never painted in others' styles during those periods.
Sadly, his own career never took off, and so he was repeatedly forced to go back into his particular bag of tricks and produce works in the styles of Picasso, Modigliani, Derain, Renoir, and others until he was finally caught, though he was never convicted due to what was essentially a technicality. Elmyr always claimed to have never signed any of the paintings (although his business partners may have) which keeps the paintings from being outright forgeries.
Fake! is a terrific book. Part biography, part crime story, part world travelogue, and probably part fiction, it remains wholly engaging and eminently readable.
As any fan of Orson Welles's F for Fake will already know, Elmyr de Hory was responsible for a real shake-up in the art community. For decades, he sold all over the world paintings of his own as the work of old masters. But his story never reads as a mean-spirited attempt to get rich, mostly due to the approach.
Author Clifford Irving (who would, just a few years after writing this book, pull off his own fake -- with the fictional Autobiography of Howard Hughes) portrays Elmyr as a sympathetic figure. He only did it when he needed money; when he was flush, he focused on his own art career, and never painted in others' styles during those periods.
Sadly, his own career never took off, and so he was repeatedly forced to go back into his particular bag of tricks and produce works in the styles of Picasso, Modigliani, Derain, Renoir, and others until he was finally caught, though he was never convicted due to what was essentially a technicality. Elmyr always claimed to have never signed any of the paintings (although his business partners may have) which keeps the paintings from being outright forgeries.
Fake! is a terrific book. Part biography, part crime story, part world travelogue, and probably part fiction, it remains wholly engaging and eminently readable.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating glimpse into the art world
4 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
Remarkably well told, true story of the long career of the world's most successful art forger. Irving knew Elmyr De Hory well when they both lived on the Spanish island of Ibiza in the 1960s. The story of De Hory, and his two accomplices reads like a mystery as they manage to continue their shady careers, just one step ahead of the art world. How they managed to do so gives us fascinating insights into the arena of upscale galleries and world-famous collectors. A must read for aficionados of art and painting.
Finding Uri
Finding Uri
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A FAVORITE CLIFFORD IRVING BOOK!
19 Jan 2012
I am a Clifford Irving fan, and this is one of my very favorite Irving books. The story of art forger Elmyr de Hory is a fascinating one. It is obvious that Irving has a strong art background as he is able to explain in detail how de Hory succeeded in duping the art world with his "fakes". Irving met de Hory when they both lived on the island of Ibiza, and, in addition to the intriguing story of de Hory's ability to perfectly recreate well known and coveted works of art, Irving entertains with his stories of life on Ibiza. I really loved this book.
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