Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 23, 2007 15:33:37 GMT -6
Impostors!' gives fakes their day in the sun
n the old days, exploring the heavens was a rich man's game, and Chicago's Adler Planetarium owns many astronomical instruments that are works of art, beautifully worked in expensive materials. But there are a few weeds among the flowers -- fakes, that is.
For the next six months, they, too, will have their day in the sun.
"Impostors!" part of the Adler's ongoing Special Topics Exhibition series, contains more than 30 objects, including decorative reproductions, functional models and a handful of objects that were designed to deceive.
"Every museum has a few fakes," says Bruce Stephenson, curator of the history of astronomy for the Adler. "The collection is built over many decades; some of the older items are not as authentic as one would like. Why be coy about it? Some of these fakes have interesting stories; let's tell those stories."
For example, the Adler has one of the world's great collections of astrolabes, astronomical instruments used to plot and predict the positions of heavenly bodies such as the sun, the planets and the constellations.
"Astrolabes are beautiful, they're valuable and it's hard to tell whether they're real," Stephenson says. "We have some fake astrolabes. I bought a fake one myself in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul just a few years ago."
Full story here: www.suntimes.com/entertainment/galleries/309134,WKP-News-fake23.article
============