COVER STORY
Fakes
This week in Studio 360, painters forge masterpieces and radio actors impersonate world leaders. Kurt Andersen looks into why we're still being fooled by fakes and frauds.

Forge This
One of the most notorious art forgeries of the 20th century happened in England in the 1990s when two men were arrested for spectacularly exploiting the vulnerabilities of the art market. Art dealer John Drewe handled the paperwork, and John Myatt handled the paintbrush – and they almost got away with it. Produced by Peter Crimmins
John Myatt's Genuine Fakes site
A long investigative article about the Myatt/Drewe case by New York Times writer Peter Landesman
The Art Loss Register, an international database tracking lost and stolen art & antiquities

Airwave Imposters
Would you ever trust a photograph to tell you whether a work of art is real? Well, the same kind of trickery can happen -- might even be easier to pull off -- with sound recordings and radio. We asked WNYC archivist Andy Lanset to burrow into the early days of radio and unearth the fakers.
Learn more about Len Spencer, another early voice imposter
Buy His Finest Hour: The Speeches of Winston Churchill (Audio CD)

Carlos
Imagine if you could project an image and persona that made you massively influential. A conceptual artist named Jose Alvarez did just that. He created an alter-ego – a spiritual channeler named Carlos who drew followers all over the world, including millions in China. Studio 360's Ave Carrillo searched for the truth of Carlos.
Find out more about Jose Alvarez at Ratio3
Go to a page about Jose Alvarez at Western Project

SPECIAL GUESTS
Thomas Hoving
Thomas Hoving was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for 10 years. An international authority on art fraud, he's the author of False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes. He's written over a dozen art history books on everything from King Tut to his latest, American Gothic: The Biography of Grant Wood's American Masterpiece.
Go to an interview with Thomas Hoving
Go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Go to an article about the art forger Brigido Lara
Buy Thomas Hoving's American Gothic
Buy Thomas Hoving's False Impressions

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Design for the Real World
Frisbee
Somewhere, right now, at a picnic or on a playing field, someone is pulling out a plate-sized plastic disk to toss around. Paola Antonelli, design curator at the Museum of Modern Art, tells us about how the Frisbee came about and how it has endured.
Go to the Wham-O Frisbee website
Visit a site about the history of the Frisbee
Buy The Complete Book of Frisbee

Commentary
The Metaphor Zone
When a recent study came out that connected the dots between neuroscience and creativity, Kurt Andersen wanted to know more.
Read the full Text

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