In most exhibitions in the Sainsbury Wing the pictures are dominant, the words on the walls discreet. In Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries the words are large and insistent. It is as though the pictures are being publicly shamed, like criminals paraded with their offences written on placards round their necks. While some of the pictures here are arraigned for no more than hiding behind dirty varnish, inept repairs or later 'improvements', and while others must carry the can for not being what they never claimed to be, there are also those that have persistently refused to answer straight questions about their origins and those that are truly fakes, pictures made to deceive. But investigation can go in both directions: there are pictures here that once caused doubts and have now been rehabilitated.

LRB 22 July 2010 | PDF Download