INVISIBLE HANDS

What is art?

Art historian Graves investigates the creation of forged and fabricated antique Islamic ceramics to meet the demands of the international art market, focusing on the period between the 1880s and 1914 in Europe and since the early 20th century in the U.S. A lust for ancient objects incited an explosion of forgeries and fabrications, involving, Graves writes, “a vast range of deceptive modifications” by diggers, dealers, brokers, and especially craftspeople who wielded “crucial forms of artistic skill.” First, objects, or fragments of objects, needed to be severed “physically and intellectually” from their original sites in order to be transformed into “exchangeable assets.” Most often, sherds, rather than intact objects, were extracted, requiring skilled restoration. This process involves suturing whole objects together from small bits, constructing new ceramic pieces to fill gaps, and reconstructing surfaces by painting and glazing. Sometimes, however, craftspeople created a true forgery: a new object made to look old. Pottery would be artificially aged, sometimes broken deliberately in places, buried, and excavated. These pieces required restoration by experts who, often unknowingly, abetted the forgery. After World War I the intense demand for Islamic ceramics abated in Europe but took off in the U.S., where collectors and institutions engaged in a buying frenzy, involving a global network of dealers, brokers, and scholars. Not surprisingly, with the advent of thermoluminescence testing to determine the last firing and computed tomography to determine suturing, museums have uncovered fabrications. “Once you start wondering about the true condition of canonical artworks,” Graves notes, “it is hard to stop.” Throughout, she focuses on the history, physical attributes, and provenance of particular objects—the chalice of Antioch, Raqqa pottery—illustrated in color plates in this beautifully produced volume.

Meticulous scholarship informs an illuminating history.