Caveat Emptor

May 14, 2012
Painter, draft dodger, and art world huckster Perenyi offers a facile account of the glory days of his 30-year career as an art forger. His story begins in “the Castle,” a dilapidated New Jersey estate inhabited by two beatnik artists who take in the younger Perenyi as one of their own. With his new mentors, Perenyi pays frequent visits to Max’s Kansas City and rubs shoulders with Warhol acolytes, inspiring him to try his hand at painting. Soon enough, he’s replicating 16th-century Flemish portraits, which he sells to antique dealers and galleries. As his exploits grow in value and range, the threat of being caught rises and the FBI draws near. In theory, there’s enough to this story to pique a discerning reader’s interest; on the page, however, Perenyi’s tale unravels with vacuous prose and a lack of self-awareness or genuine insight; he offers little more than rote, blow-by-blow accounts of his scandals. Most interesting is Perenyi’s description of aging and distressing his forgeries so that they might appear authentically weathered. Unfortunately, he never presents the reader with an authentic depiction of the mind of a pathological fraud. Illus. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident Media Group.

August 1, 2012

Perenyi tells the story of his decades-long career as an art forger and how his fakes attracted international audiences eager to bid on his works. Though it began as a simple money-making scheme, the sales of Perenyi's forgeries evolved into a risky, lucrative enterprise. Perenyi channels Holden Caulfield with his forthright, unadorned prose style and straightforward accounts of his past exploits. However, this book could do with more of the navel-gazing and philosophizing that made Caulfield such a sympathetic antihero. While Perenyi reveals the details of his forging endeavors, he remains silent about his post-adolescent personal life, which makes the story feel incomplete, and the book ends with many unanswered questions. Nevertheless, the details of Perenyi's forgeries are fascinating, as is the development of his artistic though duplicitous techniques. VERDICT As the title warns, "Let the buyer beware." This book will make collectors and flea-market shoppers reconsider past and future purchases. It will appeal to fans of Laney Salibury and Aly Sujo's Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art or Edward Dolnick's The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century.--Rachael Dreyer, American Heritage Ctr., Laramie, WY

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Perenyi, who barely finished ninth grade, illustrates how he became America's top art forger. When the author met Tony Masaccio, who lived in a building called the "Castle" near the author's hometown of Fort Lee, N.J., Perenyi was a blank slate just waiting for someone with chalk. The Castle was a center of cosmic energy where dozens of people showed up for Masaccio's parties and long, lost weekends. When he discovered his talent for art, Tom Daly, a local artist, took Perenyi under his wing, sharing his artistic knowledge and encouraging his eager student to learn by copying great works. A book about Han van Meegeren, a Dutch art forger, taught the author the basic principles of forgery, and a job working for a conservator allowed him to hone his talents. Visits with Daly and Masaccio to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the auction rooms of New York City gave Perenyi all he needed to begin producing his "Flemish" paintings. He began with Dutch paintings and moved on to American art and then British sporting pictures. He never copied known works, but he developed an eye for what inspired the artists and created paintings that they could very well have done, always using authentic materials. His eager buyers ranged from local shops to the great auction houses of New York and London. Readers will be captivated as they follow the development of this remarkable talent over a 40-year career.

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August 1, 2012
Perenyi spent decades forging paintings, fooling expert appraisers, and subsequently making millions. Although he was the subject of an FBI investigation, he was never indicted, and the statute of limitations has run out on his case. This means he can finally reveal his secrets. In the opening chapters, Perenyi name-drops the likes of Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick as he recalls the New York art scene in the 1960s and the picaresque circumstances under which he first started forging. For all the movers and shakers he mentions, however, this is no mere braggadocio. Perenyi is a skilled painter and restorer, and his vast network of wealthy and well-connected friends allowed him to continue painting and selling fakes. The most fascinating parts of his account are his meticulous descriptions of the forging process. Throughout his career, he developed ever-more intricate methods for fooling appraisers, such as recycling antique varnish left over from restorations to use on brand-new paintings. While the pacing is occasionally haphazard, Caveat Emptor is a captivating story rich in illuminating details.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)