In this enthralling look at the difficulties facing the professional art historian, David Phillips will take us behind the scenes of the museum world to help us understand the issues and controversies that puzzle and often divide the professionals. Galleries are often wary of giving much information about the condition of artworks for fear of offending lenders or stirring up old and damaging controversies. We shall learn just how dramatically paintings have often been transformed since they left the artists’ studios and look at the divisions in the conservation world when new treatments reveal old damage. Finally David will discuss attribution and authenticity and tell of the human stories behind forgery scandals and public disputes about who painted what. Old, well defended certainties often turn out to be unjustified when the truth emerges.