Roland Barthes’ seminal essay The Death of an Author and Foucault’s What is an author discussed the role of the author in literary texts. However, much of this theory has been applied to the plastic arts. If authorship is irrelevant, why is their such concern in academia about plagiarism, and such interest in the art world about forgeries? (For example, several months ago there was a sizable exhibition at The National Gallery, London about art and forgery.)