I watched the old 1974 movie F for Fake last night. It's a strange semi-documentary about deception, fraud and fakery with Orson Welles, the creator and narrator of this film. It's mostly about infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory, who painted and sold great works of art to art dealers for more than twenty years without getting caught. Clifford Irving is also featured prominently, who wrote a best selling book about Elmyr [Fake!] and also went on to write an unauthorized biography of Howard Hughes, which he eventually admitted was a hoax. It's a pretty decent movie, a little dated but has a lot of fun with its subject matter [especially towards the end!] and really makes you question who the real fakes are, the art forgers or the art establishment.

Strangely enough, I started reading Phillip K. Dick's 1962 novel The Man in the High Castle this morning, an alternate history novel that explores what life would be like if the Axis powers had won World War II. What I didn't know until I got a little ways into the story, is that it also deals with fraud in the form of fake American collectibles. The themes it explores in that regard are very, very similar to what Orson Welles explores in his movie, especially the dealers who know their products are fake but continue to maintain the fraud because it's in their best interests. Weird. A good book though, not as crazy as some of his work, as least so far, but meticulously constructed and very enjoyable.