如果你以為艺术大师的每一件作品都是大师的亲手之作，那你就错了。有些作品确实是大师亲手制作，有些是大师和学生共同完成，有些则是复制品。下面，我们来揭开艺术作品背后不为人知的故事，教你如何分辨作品的真伪。

Fakes， Forgeries， and Mysteries—How Experts Figure Out if Artworks Are Authentic

Dave Davies （Host）： If you had the artistic talent to create impressive paintings or sculpture， could you imagine devoting that skill to copying the work of past artists and trying to pass your creations off as authentic？ Our guest， art scholar Noah Charney， says youd be surprised how many people have done just that over the years， some successfully selling hundreds of fakes as the real thing. Youd also be surprised， he says， at how many art forgers want to get caught， so they can embarrass the art world that wasnt interested in their original work but was too dim to tell forgeries from true masterpieces.

Noah Charney， I learned from your book that it was really only around the Renaissance that art collecting in the modern sense developed， and that before that， people cared about works of art more for what they were than for their origin. And one of the best stories of forgery involves the famous Michelangelo， who was not copied—he was the forger. Tell us what happened.

Noah Charney： Its an amazing true story cause most people dont realize that Michelangelo began his career before he was the Michelangelo， as a forger of ancient Roman sculptures. And that was at a time in the Renaissance when an ancient Roman sculpture was far more valuable than a work made a few weeks ago by this character， Michelangelo Buonarroti， who no one had ever heard of. And so he， in cahoots with an art dealer， contrived to make a marble sculpture called “Sleeping Eros”， and it was buried in a garden and dug up， broken， repaired and sold as an antiquity to a cardinal who was an expert in antiquities and should probably have known better. But the cardinal， after a few years， started to get suspicious and tried to return the sculpture to the dealer. But by this time， Michelangelo was the most famous sculptor in Rome， so the dealer was very happy to take the sculpture back. And he sold it very easily on as now a Michelangelo original.

Davies： So essentially， the forgery was discovered. Did it damage his reputation？

Charney： To the contrary， it actually embellished it. And Michelangelo was the first to admit this story because in order to demonstrate his capability as a great artist， artists have always copied the art of past periods. And artists studying with a master in their studio， their job would be to replicate the masters style as closely as possible so that you really couldnt tell the difference. And it only becomes a problem if you try to pass off the work you create as the work of someone else， and you could commit the crime of fraud. But even to this day， theres no crime called forgery. Forgers commit crime of economic fraud， but thats no problem to copy， or to imitate another artists style.

Davies： You know， today， there are a lot of scientific tests that can help you determine at least the age of a painting and some other relevant information. But in the past， people relied on experts—art connoisseurs—to help authenticate works of art. What kind of expertise did they bring， and how reliable was it？

Charney： One of the odd things about the art world is that there has never been any objective determination of expertise in a specific period or artist. You could have a Ph.D.， or even two， in Rembrandt and that doesnt necessarily mean that you can identify a Rembrandt from a copy after Rembrandt， or something done by someone in his studio. In the world of wine， you need to go through elaborate steps to become a master of wine over many years and fulfill these objective tests. The art world doesnt have that. So expertise has always been a matter of personal opinion， and its been quite subjective. Its very unscientific. And yet for centuries， expertise has been the primary way to authenticate something. The secondary way is provenance research—looking into the documented history of the object. But knowing this， criminals can insert themselves into the history of the object and passoff forgeries with remarkable ease because the art world， unfortunately， is often inadvertently complicit in authenticating forgeries.

Davies： What are some of the physical things， apart from the quality of the art itself， that would you look for in a painting to help determine its authenticity？

Charney： Well， it depends on the type of painting. But if were talking about an oil painting， one of the things that has to be replicated in order for it to appear old is called craquelure. And craquelure is the web of cracks that appears naturally in oil paint over time as it expands and contracts， and it literally looks like little webbing on the surface. And you can study that and you can determine whether it was artificially induced to make it look old quickly or whether it appeared naturally. And therere various tricks to try to make it appear that it was old when it was artificially induced， but thats usually a good clue for oil paintings.

Davies： How do you recreate craquelure？

Charney： Well， we actually have some accounts voluntarily presented by famous forgers for their own recipes for how to make forgeries. And a handful of the forgers in the book volunteered themselves—they were never caught because they wanted the notoriety. And one of them is Eric Hebborn—and if Im allowed to have a favorite forger， it would be him. And he published a book called The Art Forgers Handbook， which was literally—it was like a cookbook of recipes for how to create forgeries and artificially age them. And one of the techniques is to take an oil paint and cover it in a shortening， like Crisco or Bakelite， and you literally bake it in an oven at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time， and it artificially induces something that looks like craquelure. He also explained how you could paint on craquelure， which is very painstaking， but he was able to successfully pull it off.

Davies： What else—labels， inscriptions on frames， or on the material that its painted on？

Charney： Well， its very important to look at the back of objects， particularly paintings and prints. And theres a lot of information on the back that people tend not to look at， things like old auction stamps. There might be stamps by previous owners. There might be information on the support itself—where the canvas was purchased. These sort of details are very important， but people tend to look at the front of a painting but not turn it over. Theyre particularly loath to take something out of its frame if its nicely matted and framed. And this you really need to do， especially if youre buying， for instance， 20th-century lithographs. Those are the most frequently forged objects in all of art. And unfortunately， laser printers and Photoshop—you can forge these without any artistic skill， thanks to computers. And if its matted-up and framed， you cant tell a lot about it. And its very difficult to distinguish a lithograph from something that was printed out a few weeks ago， so its important to take things out of the frame and look at the back and see if there are any markings that suggest age and suggest the origin of the object.

Davies： And when a forger actually paints a work of art intended to look like that of a master， can you tell a difference in brush-strokes？

Charney： Yes， you usually can. And brush-stroke analysis is one of the tools that experts will use and that scientists can use， too， although science is rather late in coming to the analysis and authentication of works of art. It tends to be more mystical than that. The great scholar， Walter Benjamin， wrote a famous article that said， we dont understand why great art is great， but it has some sort of aura that people respond to. And the shorthand is that， if we could scientifically explain away what we found beautiful or moving about it then it would sort of detract from the mysticism of it. And in terms of authenticating things， its a lot down to personal opinion of experts. Theyll look at brush-strokes， but， you know， within any one artists oeuvre， their style might change. They mightve had a funny day. They arent always exactly the same when they paint， and so finding brush-strokes that look a bit different isnt a specific determination that its a forgery. There are lots of works that are copies after original works. There are works that were made by people in the studio of the master with the masters supervision that are almost certainly sanctioned by the master， but theyre not originals. And it wasnt long ago that at Museo del Prado in Madrid， they found a “Mona Lisa”that looked just like the original. And they wouldve said its a copy after the “Mona Lisa”， except that it had under-drawings that matched the original， which suggests that the concept of it was developed alongside the original， and it was almost certainly painted by one of Leonardos pupils alongside the original while he was painting it.

Davies： So in a case like that， where theres a studio system—the master supervises students who are copying a work， that work gets out into the art world—how different is that from a work by the master？

Charney： Its a great question because we tend to think of artists as individuals creating the work of art in their entirety， and that is not the way it has been for many centuries. Thats a very romantic notion of how art is created. And in fact， centuries-long process is the studio system， and all of the great， old masters ran art studios. And depending on how much you paid them， they would create themselves a relevant proportion of the work of art. So if you want a Rubens， for example， you pay him the maximum amount then he paints everything himself， and he designs it too. You pay him the minimum， its still called a Rubens， but he supervises and designs the object， but it might be entirely painted by his pupils. And in practice， its usually a mixture. Faces， eyes and hands are almost always done by the master cause theyre considered the more difficult， if youre talking about portraits. But backgrounds， architectural elements， still lifes， those were almost never painted by the master， and yet anything coming out of the masters studio is considered the work of Rubens. So when people get upset about artists like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst， who design works and supervise it but they have a team of people in a factory making it for them， thats actually in keeping with a centuries-old artistic tradition.

戴夫·戴維斯（主持人）：假如你拥有创作让人印象深刻的绘画或者雕塑的艺术天赋，你能想象将这种手艺致力于复制过往艺术家的作品，并试图拿你的制成品冒充真品吗？我们的嘉宾，艺术学者诺亚·查尼说，你会惊讶于多少人多年以来一直从事此项工作，有些人成功售卖了数百件赝品，以假乱真。他说，你还会惊讶于多少艺术伪造者想被揭发，这样他们就能让艺术界蒙羞，因为艺术界对他们的原创作品不感兴趣，却又太迟钝而无法分辨真正的杰作与赝品。

诺亚·查尼，我从你的书中了解到，原来确实大约在文艺复兴时期，现代概念的艺术收藏才发展起来，而在此之前，人们更关注艺术作品本身，而不是它们的来源。有关伪造的最佳故事之一，则是关于著名的米开朗基罗，他不是被模仿者——而是伪造者。我们来聊聊这事。

诺亚·查尼：这是个奇妙而真实的故事，因为大多数人都没有意识到米开朗基罗在成名之前就开始了其职业生涯：伪造古罗马的雕塑。那是在文艺复兴的某一段时期，一尊古罗马雕塑远比几周前由这位不为人知、名为米开朗基罗·邦纳罗蒂的人所创作的作品更值钱。于是他与一位艺术商人合谋，设法造出一尊大理石雕塑，名为“睡着的厄洛斯”。……