In conjunction with the exhibition, Benjamin West and the Venetian Secret, organized by Angus Trumble, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA; Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator of Paintings, YCBA; and Helen A. Cooper, Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Yale University Art Gallery. This two-day event will examine the remarkable fraud perpetrated upon Benjamin West and his colleagues at at the Royal Academy of Arts by Thomas Provis and his artist daughter, Ann Jemima, who convinced West and his colleagues of the existence of a manuscript containing long-lost techniques used by Renaissance painters.

Friday, September 19 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Lecture
Angus Trumble, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art, and Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator of Paintings, Yale Center for British Art A Conversation

Saturday, September 20 9:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. Papers/Discussion Speakers: Eric Lee, Director of the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati; Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, Conservators, Lyman Allyn Art Museum; and Ian McClure, Chief Conservator, Yale University Art Gallery.

The symposium is free and open to the public; advance registration is recommended. Please register online at http://ycba.yale.edu/departments/depart-ser-research.html For more information, email ycba.research@yale.edu.