An anarchic desire to undermine the art world’s institutions lends art forgers a roguish, rebellious identity that is both compelling and unsavory.
Forgeries
Posted inNews
Museum to Exhibit Its Impressive Collection of … Fakes?
Art and Artifice at the Courtauld Gallery in London will include 30 artworks once mistaken as originals by Sandro Botticelli, Auguste Rodin, and others
Posted inNews
Two Artists Charged With Faking Indigenous Heritage to Sell Art
Lewis Anthony Rath and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, who separately sold their work at two Seattle galleries, could face prison time for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.
Posted inFilm
A Very Rich Take on the Largest Art Fraud in US History
When you’re surrounded by courtiers who serve your every need, are you really surprised when a few of them end up being jesters and sycophants?
Posted inNews
World’s Largest Native American Art Forgery Ring Distributed $12M of Fakes
The US government attorney supports 18-month sentences and fines for the accused, but in many ways the damage is done, casting both real and fake Native American artworks into doubt.
Posted inIn Brief
Sacré Bleu! French Museum Is Full of Forgeries
The Musée Terrus in Elne recently brought in an art historian to examine its holdings; he found that 82 of the 140 works in the museum’s collection are fake.
Posted inIn Brief
Amede-No! Modigliani Show Shut Down After 21 Works Deemed Likely Fakes
The exhibition, at the Doge’s Palace in Genoa, included pieces on loan from private collections and major institutions like the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Posted inIn Brief
Wall Street Trader Claims Art Historian Sold Him 24 Fake Leon Golubs
A Wall Street hedge fund manager and art collector is suing a mother-son duo who allegedly sold him 24 fake paintings by Leon Golub.
Posted inIn Brief
Old Masters Paintings Worth a Combined $250 Million May Be Forgeries
In what’s being called “the biggest art scandal in a century,” French police are investigating about $255 million worth of paintings attributed to Old Masters that they suspect are forgeries.
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Banksy stencil rats were destroyed in Melbourne, an art dealer accused his former partners of selling him $30 million worth of fakes, and a philanthropist sued to get the millions she’d donated to a museum back.
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a Chinese artist was reprimanded for his “sexual calligraphy” videos, a $20-million trove of stolen art was seized in Istanbul, and a relic containing a drop of Pope John Paul II’s blood was stolen from Cologne Cathedral.
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: people pillaged stones from the quarry where Stonehenge’s giant rocks were sourced, the certificate of authenticity of a Lee Ufan painting recently sold at auction was found to be fake, and a curator bit a fellow passenger on an airplane.
