After all, in this fool’s paradise they are happy and undisturbed--so very few realize either that they have been totally duped by a fake or partially cheated by over-restoration. Most of the modern collectors too often resemble that type of art lover: ... Qui croit tenir les pommes d’Hesperides Et presse tendrement un navet sur son coeur.[2] [2] .. : Who thinks he holds the apples of the Hesperides Whilst pressing tenderly a turnip to his heart. CHAPTER XVIII THE FAKED ATMOSPHERE AND PUBLIC SALES The art of producing a faked atmosphere--Private sales of faked objects of art--Real and spurious noblemen as elements in creating the desired atmosphere for an antique--The various and endless possibilities in private dealing--Public sales-- Auction sales--Various characters among frequenters of public sales--_La Bande Noire_--The trick of the sale catalogue as a proof of authenticity, etc.--The part played in public sales by Peter Funk and the transformations of this helpful personage. In most cases the art forger is provided with an indispensable accessory in the person of a co-worker who helps to dispose of the artist’s questionable product advantageously. This may be done by one agent or by many, according to circumstances, but the spirit of the mission is always the same, to steep faking, namely, in another kind of fakery, no less illusive and delusive, the deception that serves to misguide judgment through false information about some particular object of art, or to create a misleading suggestion around the work of art offered for sale. The trick might be termed “producing a faked atmosphere,” in plain words the creation of a false atmosphere of genuineness is an additional fakery to the success of a faked object of art or curio, and it is a most multiform species of imposture and a very dangerous adjunct to the already deceptive trade. So multifarious is the deception practised that an attempt to classify it in its diversity would probably fail to illustrate in full the metamorphoses of this supplement to the art of faking. As this support to faking is chiefly concerned with the sale of objects of art, our investigation can be broadly divided according to the kind of sale, private or public, the latter generally taking the form of an auction.