The future of art fraud

An artist’s memoir 

Featured in

  • Published 20230207
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-80-1
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook
Ongoing auction session. auctioneer and buyers in frame

THE ART DEALER said, blithely, ‘I understand why he did it. He needed money. He had a particular set of skills. What else would he do?’

She didn’t use the words art fraud or forgery

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

Share article

More from author

Broken

MemoirSelected for The Best Australian Essays 2013 FOR NEARLY A decade, my art has been concerned with aspects of female identity and sexuality and the...

More from this edition

From Russia with love

Non-fictionThe 'socialisation of women' narrative arose from journalistic innovations associated with the First World War. In response to an unprecedented demand for up-to-date news, the Australian press had embarked on rapid technological change. Editors installed steam- and rotary-powered printing machines, established distribution fleets of automobiles and trucks, and hooked up their newsrooms to telephone lines. They also embraced the wire services that provided near real-time reportage of European battles. The ‘Bureau of Love’ tale epitomised that new journalistic internationalism. It seems to have originated with a Moscow anti-Bolshevik paper called Svoboda Rossii, which, in April 1918, published a ‘private letter’ detailing the socialisation plans of the Saratoff Anarchist Club. When the anarchists denied the allegation, another right-wing paper in Moscow explained that the ‘free love’ bureau (and an accompanying ‘League of Men Free for Selection’) had, in fact, been established in Khvalynsk – and by Bolsheviks rather than anarchists.

A passing phase

In ConversationI went to Tim’s Guitars years ago and I saw Grant Hart from Hüsker Dü do a solo thing and he had a Q&A after the solo. And some guy went, ‘How often do you practise guitar?’ And then Grant Hart said, ‘I never practise guitar, practising guitar gets in the way of my personality.’ And I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s actually really true.’

Run River: An exercise

PoetryLittle space in this town for dead game. Steal a teal Corvette, hit the drive-in, Find the tatty shop. They serve a fish dish.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.