The Shifting Values of Authenticity and Fakes

Abstract

The present article discusses the shifting values of authenticity and fakes. Using a biographical approach and the notion of things’ social life it examines an Egyptianised relief which according to the author is probably the work of the ‘Master of Berlin’, Oxan Aslanian, and investigates the wider context in which the object was conceived. The period under consideration is from the 19^th century to the first half of the 20^th century. The article goes on to explicate that fakes of ancient Egyptian art were circulated through multiplex social networks involving antiquities dealers, fakers and academics from different cultural backgrounds. By following the trajectories of these objects we may reconstruct their environments and map the web of social networks tied to them.