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Art and Crime: Forgeries, Theft and Fraud
Short course
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Expert lecturers include: Clare Ford-Wille, independent art historian, lecturer for the National Gallery, the V&A and Birkbeck College; Vernon Rapley FSA, Chair of ICOM International Committee for Museum Security ICMS; Justine Hopkins, freelance lecturer, specialist in 19th and 20th century art and design.
Join us at V&A South Kensington for a 12 week art history course where we will explore the fascinating relationship between art and crime from antiquity to the present day. Expert lecturers will consider art crime themes including forgery, the pillaging of cities, museum heists, artist convicts and Nazi looting. We will consider how artists from Salvator Rosa to Sidney Nolan have celebrated the world of thieves and outcasts, the rise of the celebrity forger, the shadier aspects of 19th century archaeology, the systematic state-led pillaging of art collections, thefts from museums, the role of criminality in the modern art market, and the investigation of stolen art.
Expert lecturers include: Clare Ford-Wille, independent art historian, lecturer for the National Gallery, the V&A and Birkbeck College; Vernon Rapley FSA, Chair of ICOM International Committee for Museum Security ICMS; Justine Hopkins, freelance lecturer, specialist in 19th and 20th century art and design.
Course Leader
Dr Kathy McLauchlan
Kathy graduated at Oxford University and the Courtauld Institute. In 2001 she completed a PhD thesis on French painters in Rome during the 19th century. A lecturer specialising in 19th-century art history, she is currently a course director at the V&A, where she organises courses and study days on the history of art and design.
Please pass on my congratulations to Kathy and her whole team for such a brilliant course. Previous V&A Academy Course Attendee
Course overview
Explore the fascinating relationship between art and crime from Antiquity to the present day. Expert lecturers will consider themes including forgery, artist convicts and Nazi looting.
Discover the impact of the looting of art from major cities like Rome and Constantinople impacted the development of the arts across Europe.
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Short course: Art and Crime: Forgeries, Theft and Fraud
15 January 2025 - 2 April 2025
£500.00
Need help enrolling? Talk to the admissions team:
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Open 10.00 - 13.00, Monday to Sunday (closed 24-26 December)
Header image: Anonymous pictorial advertisement for Zog, a cleaning product for white painted surfaces. Great Britain, circa 1890-1910. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London