Fakes, Forgeries and Fear

Hello All,

I popped into the V&A last week, had a look at the new Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, which are fabulous....I'd certainly recommend them..the V&A is beginning to change quite radically I think....it's becoming much more interdisciplinary in it's presentation of objects. Maybe it could go one post-post-modern step further and ignore/disrupt historical 'periods' such as Medieval-Renaissance....(I think it's trying to do that to be fair in these new galleries...)
But anyway, the most interesting part of my visit was the 'The Metropolitan Police Service's Investigation of Fakes & Forgeries' exhibition (hardly a snappy title!)....it's very interesting actually...There used to be a rather subliminal 'fakes' display in the British Galleries, right near the end of the route, in a case with 'dealers and the museum' displays....it's curious how when the dealer makes an appearance in the biography of an object, the work 'fake' is never far behind....but anyway, I thought this new exhibition (sadly now closed I think?) articulated a similar subliminal response....here the 'fakes' are hived off, in there separate 'cage', locked away like the 'criminals' that they are....And by extension of course, the rest of the objects in the museum are not to be contaminated by these aberrant objects...I think there is a 'fear' here....don't you think?.....
Maybe a much better strategy would have been to diffuse these objects throughout the museum, and have them pop up in unexpected places (as fakes do, in real life!)...that would highlight in a much more sophisticated way the critical role that 'fakes' play in the discourse....and it would be fun.....and there's not much fun in fakes if you're a museum!
Mark