Monday, December 12, 2011

Forging Right Ahead

I love the historical research involved in writing the novels I write. Yesterday, as I was looking up a recent site I'd bookmarked on thoroughbreds, I came across another site I'd visited earlier this year on art forgeries.

In A Lasting Impression, the female protagonist, Claire Laurent, is an art forger, and the story unfolds as Claire seeks to leave behind the "falseness" in her life and strives to become more authentic.

Along that theme, did you know that…

In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre and "held" for two years by a forger?

The "single largest forger of art works in America" forged pieces by a number of well known artists from Rembrandt to Dali to Chagall, and was only caught when artist Hiro Yamagata was surprised to see "his own" painting hanging in a gallery?

Ely Sakhai ran a forgery business in the attic of his gallery where Chinese immigrants copied paintings by impressionists, and was only caught when, in 2000, two large auction houses, Christie's and Sotheby's, offered the same painting (Paul Gauguin's Vase de Fleurs) for sale at the same time?(Whoopsie...)

Read the entire article on these forgers and others. Very interesting!

It's pieces like this that I read and think start thinking, "What if..." And then often, stories are born! You could say that they ah…made a lasting impression on me. : )

Blessings on your Monday, and get ready! In between long stints of writing, I'm baking and will share pics and recipes here this week.

Tammy