The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World by Anthony M. Amore
Published 2015 · 76,144 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World to read?
The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World scores 40 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 57 out of 100
- Art history and forensic vocabulary is accessible and introduced with sufficient context for general readers.
- Sentence structure: 52 out of 100
- Abstraction: 65 out of 100
- Abstract arguments about expertise and value construction are grounded in concrete fraud cases throughout.
- Information density: 70 out of 100
- Multiple major fraud cases synthesized with analytical commentary on the art world's structural vulnerabilities.
- Narrative indirection: 14 out of 100
- Case outcomes occasionally withheld across sections to maintain narrative interest; analysis is otherwise direct.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Expository prose with minimal figurative elaboration; occasional irony toward art world pretension.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Sustained irony toward the art world's preference for connoisseurship over scientific verification.
- Resolution withholding: 14 out of 100
- Each fraud is ultimately unmasked in the narrative, though broader questions about art authentication remain open.
- Structural complexity: 32 out of 100
- Case-by-case structure with thematic cross-cutting chapters on expertise, incentives, and institutional failure.
How The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World is regarded
The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World holds a literary regard score of 31 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.