No comments about Trade in Antiquities: Reducing Destruction & Theft.

No comments about Behind the Van Gogh Forgeries: A Memoir.

No comments about Fakes & Forgeries: The true Crime stories of History's Greatest Deceptions.

No comments about Faking it: Art and the politics of forgery.

No comments about The Clyde Mystery: a Study in Forgeries and Folklore.

1 comments about Lords and Liars.

1. Between 1993 and 2000, Sotheby's and Christie's employees traded their clients' artwork like others trade energy or pork belly futures: With no talk about the pieces' innate and priceless beauty, to the auction houses it was all about the bucks. Christopher Mason is a master storyteller and the picture he paints of these self-important people is a work of art.
   
   A marketing genius, Alfred Taubman conceptualized the indoor mall and built his first, Southland, in 1964 in Hayward. He thereafter built, owned, and operated malls throughout the country. Universities sought him out to lecture on his business success; he donated millions of dollars to them and had buildings named in his honor. After looking for another investment, in 1983 Alfred Taubman bought New York-based Sotheby's auction house with the intention of opening up the world of auctions to the public instead of merely art dealers.
   
   Across the Pond, London-based Christie's, with many members of the aristocracy on its board of directors, named Sir Anthony Tennant its chairman in 1993. He was so successful at his prior job at Guiness, using market allocation, that the Queen knighted him.
   
   The two chairmen met twelve times, ultimately fixing prices, and were joined in their conspiracy by their number-two-in-command. Even though all the meetings were held at Sir Anthony Tennant's suggestion, because he could not be extradited to this country, he escaped prosecution and is a fugitive from justice. Despite the main players' persistent proclamations that they were helping clients by making a simple commission schedule, the two houses were ordered to repay $512 million in illegal fees to their customers. David Boies represented the clients after having won an "auction" set up by Judge Kaplan that determined which lawyer could make the most money for the customers.
   
   In addition to giving to universities and other charities, Alfred Taubman even arranged for Rosa Parks' housing. During the trial, Judge Daniels noted that the Law does not approve of a Robin Hood, giving to the poor and stealing from the rich. Taubman alone was given jail time, flying there on his private jet. In the aftermath, hundreds of Sotheby's employees lost their jobs and their widely-held stock options became worthless. This book has it all--human relations, finances, ethics, how to not run a business, and best of all, it's all true.

2 comments about Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land.

1. Since I once worked on the City of David archaeological dig in Jerusalem and spent the better part of a year living in Israel, I was looking forward to reading this tale about recent, high-profile forgeries of historical relics from the Holy Land. Unfortunately, I can only hope that the uncorrected proof I read bears little resemblance to the version you'll purchase. The problem isn't the text itself. I'm sure the editors at HarperCollins will streamline the prose, which looks like a typical first draft. The real problem is that two different books have been merged, willy-nilly, into one.
   
   One book describes the theft and grey market in minor antiquities in Israel and the Palestinian areas. It's a serious problem and one that little is being done about. Street vendors openly sell artifacts, real and bogus, on the streets of the Old City. I bought some allegedly old coins that way. A friend who bought a small vase took it to an archaeologist on the dig. Unperturbed by the theft, he told her that the vase was probably genuine, but showed her indications that it was made from broken pieces glued together, an intact vase being much more valuable than fragments. I found that part of the book interesting only because I'd experienced what it describes first hand. Most people are likely to find it boring. The material in it might have been better used as background for a murder mystery situated in the crowded streets of the Old City.
   
   The other book discusses three recently exposed fakes: the James Ossuary (with an inscription claiming it contained the bones of James, the brother of Jesus), the Jehoash Tablet (with an inscription confirming the existence of the Solomon's Temple), and an ornamental pomegranate thought to come from that same temple. In each case, the forgery technique was the same. Legitimate but unimportant artifacts from the proper era had inscriptions added that made them historically significant and those inscriptions were then altered to look ancient. Scholarly texts were consulted to make the inscriptions appear as genuine as possible.
   
   Muddled together, the irrelevancies of the first book distract the reader from the more important events in the second book. And the events in the latter are so long in coming, that quite a few readers are likely to give up and toss the book aside. The space taken up by the first might have been better taken up giving more background for the second, with graphics showing what these contested objects look like.
   
   One final note. Journalists, and this author is one, often have trouble getting inside the heads of people whose perspective on life is different from their own. They compensate in the oddest of ways. Rather than admit this failing, they become more dogmatic, giving a portrait so shallow and one-dimensional it's entirely unconvincing. In this book that is true, not just of religious believers, Jewish and Christian, but of the typical Israeli "sabras," a term for native-born Israelis, with their distinctive personalities. Her cops seem more like Manhattan than Israel.
   
   --Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II



2. There are some very interesting elements to this book--but at the same time it seems to frequently wander off-track. It should be about the James Ossuary--the "discovery", the exploitation and publicity, and then the exposure of the forgery. This information is indeed in the book, but as a "summer read" it's a bit like having to walk 2 miles to get to the beach, so to speak. I would be nicer if you could park a whole lot closer. There's quite a lot that doesn't really add much to what you think you're getting. So what could have been a gripping tale becomes not as exciting as it could have been.
   
   It's estimated in the book that perhaps 90% of what is offered for sale as anitquities/relics in the shops in Israel is fake. The problem is that there is a huge appetite for Holy Land relics, and this appetite has been there for more than a thousand years. Think back about the people who sold pieces of the True Cross, toenails of the venerated Saint Gorgonzola, etc. Those who paid for these items wanted to believe, needed to believe. This appetite for holy relics was strong in the Middle Ages, and has made regular reappearances. Think of how often in the news you hear about a discovery of Noah's Ark. So the "discovery" of the James Ossuary was something that aroused much interest--including people with huge amounts of money to spend. You'll find in this book lots of tales about the large numbers of diggers and looters, the slightly smaller number of fakers who are skilled--often very skilled--at producing authentic-looking objects, and the very small number of law enforcement officials who try to prevent the looting and forgery.
   
   A lot of what's described in the book is very sad--especially the gullibility. The author describes the discovery of the blood of Jesus--the proof being that it had only 24 chromosomes (normal human blood has 46)--23 from Mary and 1 from God. People want to believe--that has made the Shroud of Turin popular. Forgery might be described as the 2nd or 3rd oldest profession, perhaps. You'll read about the factory where the ossuary was created--the factory had large numbers of half-finished other forgeries, tools and chemicals. Some of the details described are fascinating, others are less so. It's a cautionary tale, well-told.

No comments about The Mormon Murders - A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death.

5 comments about The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin.

1. This is the breathtaking--literally breath taking--true story of the author's years living as an undocumented Jew in Berlin during the Nazi madness. Spared initially by his skilled-labor designation for work in a war factory, soon even that was not enough to save him from the order that he be evacuated to the East, code for the concentration camps. Already he had seen his parents, grandmother, and aunt and uncle off on the train. Thus, it is time for him to go underground.
   
   Underground, however, for Schonhaus does not mean invisibility. Indeed, he is the most visible invisible person imaginable, eating in restaurants packed with high-ranking Nazis, for example, on the theory that such would be the last place to look for a Jew. Theory is fine on paper, but in real life it takes either a madman or a fool. The author is a bit of both and lucky beyond reason.
   
   Trained as a graphic artist, Schonhaus is asked one day whether he can copy a Nazi stamp on some papers. He can, and soon he is working with anti-Nazi non-Jews and forging all manner of documents. Fully aware of what fate awaits him (and his colleagues) if he is caught, he carries on with almost youthful bravado. Indeed, it is this insouciance that is at the heart of his numerous heart-pounding near disasters and his brilliant bluffs that allow him to escape over and over again.
   
   Written decades after he lived the adventure, The Forger is a series of vignettes that concludes with Schonhaus's several-day bicycle ride in broad daylight down highways and through checkpoints--miles and miles and miles--from Berlin to Switzerland. He crossed that border in 1943 and still lives in that country. Steve McQueen could not have done it better, even with the motorcycle.



2. I was VERY disappointed in this book. One has to read half of the book before finding any information on his experience as a forger of documents. There is too much information on his female conquests, one of whom was a German officer's wife. Those exploits added nothing to the story, were unnecessary and detracted from the main theme. It's a shame he had to use half of the book for this sort of thing before getting to the main gist.



3. The Forger is a story that has been written many times over. The "Last Jews In Berlin," by Leonard Gross, comes to mind, although being presented in the first person increases its poignancy. Schonhaus' characterization of himself is quite credible, and it must be assumed that the original German version must read well. Unfortunately, the English translation is not as good as it could be. Finally, Cioma's crossing the Suisse border was rendered as being much too easy. The reader gets the impression that the author was in a hurry to complete the story.



4. The writing style is very choppy, doesn't flow. The story is very good, though!



5. Holocaust memoirs are big business and range from the highly erudite, acute and sentient observations of a "favored Jew" (Victor Klemperer), the exquisitely dangerous role of an active resister (Jan Valtin) to the inane (this book) with everything in between. As the book's subtitle suggests, this is an "extraordinary story of survival in wartime Berlin".
   
   Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this memoir is the author's total lack of perspective and oblivious unconcern about his life. He has the slightly sociopathic character of a petty criminal operating in a democracy, wherein the worst possible outcome would be a few years in jail (where he could further perfect his methods). In this case, however, the undoubted outcome of his apprehension would be a grizzly death in the hands of the Gestapo: document forgery would certainly command the specific attention of the SD and it's most expert "interrogators". In comparison, not even a "train to the East" would be frightening. A few sessions in the Gestapo dungeon broke just about every man and that, most assuredly, is what the author would have faced. This fate would have been explicitly known by him (as proof see, for example, Eric Johnson's seminal work on the role of the Gestapo in maintaining domestic security before and during the War), yet the author suggests that he is (or was) blithely (and foolishly) unconcerned. Frankly, only a complete fool would caper about as he did, even allowing for the theory that the best place to hide is "out in the open". I suspect the author's recollections have been massaged for the sake of improved sales.
   
   The book is a "quick read" and the reader's interest is maintained, despite the pre-ordained good outcome (to wit, he escapes and lives happily ever after and writes this book!). I was reminded of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories (flirting with danger and invested with much drama and decadence), but those adventures took place in the (relative) safety of the Weimar Republic.
   
   Perhaps the author's duplicity, which allowed him to prosper and even enjoy capering about amidst the dire perils for Jews in wartime Germany persists in this book: he hints that, maybe, with a little "luck and pluck" (a la Horatio Alger) everyone could have avoided The East.