Intro to Art History for High School: Art Crime! Heists, Forgeries, and More!

 Students will spend a portion of class going over classroom expectations and with introductions to the group. The majority of our first day will be spent discussing what constitutes "art crime" and who makes those decisions, discussing national and international committees dedicated to the stop of crimes related to art. We will also discuss, historically, what steps museums and collectors have taken to protect their collections before we learn about how they can be easily deceived! 

 Week Two will introduce famous art heists to the students, unpacking how these sleuths find their way into collections and take artwork straight out of them! While not all of them will be Oceans Eleven style elaborate, students will look at the many ways these sneaky thieves have swindled millions of dollars worth of artwork into the black market, some of which has never been recovered. Students will learn how these thefts impact museums, their communities, and the artworks themselves. 

 Students will take the lessons learned from the previous two lessons and apply them to some of the most nefarious art crimes in history. In this class, students will discuss the pilfering of art collections by the Nazis throughout World War II, highlighting their reasoning for the theft, what they did with the works they collected, and the impact on the art world after the end of the War. Students will discuss the responsibilities museums have for the return of stolen artwork. 

 Week four is all about forgeries. Students will learn about famous forgery artists, such as Han van Meergren, Wolfgang Beltracchi, Xiao Yuan, and more! Students will learn about popular methods of forgery and how curators and preservation staff can identify a forgery through its materials, signatures, documentation, etc. Students will learn about Art "CSI", or tools used to detect forgeries, such as ultraviolet light, pigment testing, PXRF technology, and carbon dating.