New release from the Ateneo Press will take readers into the dark underbelly of the art world

SPOTLIGHT ON BOOKS (via Ateneo Press) — What happens when you lose everything you hold dear? Many will simply try to move on because we cannot control what life takes from us. But a select few will harness their grief into righteous action.

A new release from the Ateneo University Press, Memoirs of an Art Forger: A Novel, follows one man on a path to punish those who have wronged him and his loved ones, scheming and maneuvering his way through the art underworld.

Dante Cabrera is not a simple criminal. He is one with a purpose, a Jesuit-trained art restorer who creates a forged art masterpiece to bring down the people implicated in the deaths of his mother and lover, and their auction house responsible for large-scale money laundering. Readers will follow a captivating story of deception, conspiracy, and revenge that will put you on the edge of your seat. Memoirs of an Art Forger offers a complex and intricate view into the deep and dark underworld of politics, society, and art.

Julian Tongson Jr. brings his expertise as an artist and forensic art historian into the narrative, making this the perfect book for those interested in the inner workings of the art world and those searching for a little intrigue in their fiction.

About the Author

Julian Tongson Jr. is a freelance forensic art historian, specializing in identifying artists’ materials using the polarized light microscope. He has a graduate diploma and a graduate certificate in Cultural Heritage Studies and Art History, respectively, from the University of Santo Tomas, where he also serves as seminar instructor in heritage forensics in its Graduate School. He is also a figurative oil painter, a researcher on the painting techniques of Filipino masters, and a member of the Royal Microscopical Society since 2012. This is his first novel.

Memoirs of an Art Forger: A Novel is published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press under the Bughaw imprint. The book retails at PHP 550 and is available at the

Ateneo University Press Bookshop in Bellarmine Hall, and the Press’s official Lazada and Shopee stores.

Grab your copy in paperback: Website | Shopee and Lazada — via Ateneo Press