Geraldine Norman

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Geraldine Norman
Born13 May 1940 (1940-05-13) (age 81)
Wales
OccupationStatistician, writer
NationalityBritish

Geraldine Lucia Norman (born 13 May 1940) is a mathematician and writer who has been instrumental in identifying a collection of forged paintings.

Life and work[]

Born Geraldine Lucia Keen to Harold Hugh Keen and Catherine Eleanor Lyle Cummins. She was educated in St. Anne's College, Oxford. She graduated in 1961 with a Masters of Arts in Mathematics which she followed up by attending the University of California, Los Angeles from 1961 to 62.[1][2]

Career[]

Norman got a job as a statistician for The Times Newspaper in 1962. In 1967 she was the statistician who launched the Times-Sotheby index of art prices which ran from the 1967-71. She progressed in 1969 to become the Sale Room Correspondent of The Times.[1][3] Norman gained a name during that time as Christie's disliked her. She asked awkward questions about secret practices within the industry.[4] She continued her inquisitive nature when she uncovered that 13 drawings by the 19th-century artist Samuel Palmer were forgeries. On 16 July 1976 she published a sensational article in The Times claiming they were modern forgeries and later identified that they had been created by an artist called Tom Keating.[5] She has also investigated authenticity of Van Goghs.[6]

In 1987 she left The Times as she had objected to the Murdoch takeover. Norman joined The Independent newspaper as Art Market Correspondent eventually leaving in 1995 to focus on writing.[7] Roles which she took on after leaving the Independent were as director of The Hermitage Development Trust, editor of the Magazine and chief executive of the Hermitage Foundation UK.

Family[]

She married playwright and novelist John Frank Norman on 16 July 1971. They co-wrote 'The Fake's Progress'. He died in 1980.

Bibliography[]

  • The Sale of Works of Art (as Geraldine Keen, 1971)
  • Nineteenth Century Painters and Painting, A Dictionary (1977)
  • The Fake's Progress (with Tom Keating & Frank Norman, 1977)
  • Mrs. Harper’ Niece (as Florence Place, 1982)
  • Biedermeier Painting (1987)
  • Top Collectors of the World (with Natsuo Miyashita, 1993)
  • The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum (1997)
  • Bob Hecht by Bob Hecht (ed. 2014)
  • Dynastic Rule: Mikhail Piotrovsky and the Hermitage (2016)

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Europa Publications (2003). International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004. Psychology Press. pp. 413–. ISBN 978-1-85743-179-7.
  2. ^ "Person Page". The peerage. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  3. ^ Philip Hook (26 January 2017). Rogues' Gallery: A History of Art and its Dealers. Profile. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-78283-215-7.
  4. ^ FIONA MACCARTHY (1991). "Someone Was Silly". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  5. ^ "The Ultimate In Reality TV? Try Televised Art Forgery". Forbes. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  6. ^ "Are these flowers real?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on February 26, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  7. ^ David I. Grossvogel (2001). Behind the Van Gogh Forgeries: A Memoir. iUniverse. pp. 182–. ISBN 978-0-595-17717-2.
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