FAKE! -- Adventures of the Greatest Art Forger of our Time

by Clifford Irving

Overview

The Chicago Tribune called FAKE! "The wild, true story of three men who raped the art world . . . one of the most sophisticated suspense sagas of our time."

FAKE! is an incredible and often hilarious tale of three rogues -- a Jewish aristocrat, an American con man, and a beautiful Canadian boy -- who in the last century swindled oil tycoons, movie stars, top art galleries and great museums, and almost caused the collapse of the international art world.

It is considered the best book ever written about fake art and was the inspiration for filmmaker Orson Welles' last major movie, "F For Fake," now a cult classic.

Where? - London, Paris, New York, Texas, Tokyo, and the decadent, sunny Mediterranean island of Ibiza, the disco capital of Europe.

Who? -- Elmyr de Hory: an elegant Hungarian whom World War II had stripped of everything but his genius at imitating Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Renoir, and other great painters of the 20th century.

Fernand Legros: a ruthless Egyptian-born American who decreed that museums, art galleries and millionaire collectors should finance his love of luxury and pretty boys.

Reál Lessard: an Adonis-like Canadian youth who began as Fernand's protegé and in the end out-dueled the master in avarice and cunning.

"A delightfully vicious book, a joy to read and contemplate." -- Pablo Picasso

"A story to remember and revel in." -- St. Louis Globe-Democrat

BONUS: This 2014 edition includes a freshly updated 30-page Author's Postscript dealing with Elmyr de Hory's alleged suicide.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149250400
Publisher:	Clifford Irving
Publication date:	03/16/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	243
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Hello. I’m Clifford Irving. I was once on the cover of Time Magazine, and Hollywood made a movie about part of my life, with Richard Gere playing me.

I traveled twice around the world before most people living in it today were born, stood guard in an Israeli kibbutz, crewed on a 56' three-masted schooner that sailed the Atlantic from Mexico to France, smuggled whisky from Tangier to Spain, and one spring I lived on a houseboat on Dal Lake in Kashmir from where I rode horseback intoTibet.

Growing up in Manhattan, I studied painting at the High School of Music & Art. At Cornell University I chased beautiful but unconquerable Ivy League coeds, rowed on the crew, and dreamed of becoming a great writer. I sailed to Europe, settled on the decadent Mediterranean island of Ibiza, and wrote my first novel. I sent it to a literary agent in New York. G. P. Putnam’s Sons published it.

Was it really as easy and as quick as that? Of course not. I was lucky. And determined.

I taught at UCLA graduate extension school, with Betsy Drake and Cary Grant among my pupils. I became a correspondent to the Middle East for NBC. And I kept writing books.

In 1970, I created a writing event which became the Howard Hughes Autobiography Hoax. Many believe that the threat of the book’s publication, with its revelations of the Hughes-Nixon bribes, caused Nixon to approve the Watergate break-in.

My reward in 1972 for these accusations (and lunacy) was 16 months in three federal prisons.

Over time I wrote write 20 books that were published to varying degrees of success in many languages. (In the USA by Putnam, McGraw-Hill, and Simon & Schuster.)

Almost all of my books are on Nook and Kindle, and at affordable prices: $2.99 to $5.99. That’s cheaper than a paperback and a lot cheaper than a movie. A good read is one of the amazing pleasures offered to us by civilization.

“Move over, Butch and Sundance, it’s not that I love you both less, just that I’ve come to love Pancho and Tom more”– so said the New York Times Book Review about “Tom Mix and Pancho Villa,” which I believe is my best book, although “Trial,” by far, followed by “Daddy’s Girl,” and “Final Argument” – all legal thrillers – are the top sellers.

My manuscripts, notes, journals and correspondence are stored permanently at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, which acquired the archive in 2013.

Editorial Reviews

“A delightfully vicious book, a joy to read and contemplate.” — Pablo Picasso

letter - Pablo Picasso