This book charts the changing status of art forgery from the time of its appearance in the Renaissance, when it was hailed as a true artistic feat, to its condemnation as the art crime par excellence. With the advent in the twentieth century of more scientific attribution, of archaeology, graphology, medical science and, later, criminology, the detection of forgery became increasingly possible. The science of accurately deciphering the artist's characteristic traces has since reached a level of forensic sophistication only matched by the forger's skill and the art world's paranoia.