China: Faking It

Among some of the interesting things highlighted in the 26-minute documentary 'China: Faking it' were:

Ø     How a new enthusiastic crowd of collectors are entering the antiques market

Ø     How the Chinese are trying to buy back part of their ‘history’

Ø     99.99% of what we see in the market is fake according to Nicolas Chow of Sotheby’s

Ø     The piecing together of the history of Hongshan, China’s oldest civilization through the study of jade artifacts found alongside the skeletal remains at an excavation site turned museum.

Ø     The constant challenge of differentiating between real and fakes.

Ø     A tour of an exaction site by a government official where items from the Qing Dynasty workshop were discovered.

Ø     Really good Ming and Qing era fakes can be made in Jingdezhen.

Ø     All auction houses have fakes.

Ø     In this complex market, clients must also educate themselves.


Below is the link to the documentary:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2015/11/china-

fake-antiques-151125104456921.html