Art forger biography

Above, on the right, a copy Landis created of a watercolor by the French painter Paul Signac, using an image from a catalogue on the left. Mark Landis is believed to have presented more than forged works of art to museums across 20 U. To make these donations seem authentic, Landis used aliases and even dressed as a Jesuit priest. He says he was first motivated by a desire to please his mother and honor his father, then became addicted to the VIP treatment he received from museum staff.

He never received money or tax benefits. The work above is a copy Landis made of one of Picasso's paintings, based on the image in the catalog to the left, and donated to a museum in Florida. Yes, this is the Michelangelo of the Sistine Chapel. He began his sculpting career by passing off his early marble sculpture, Sleeping Eros as an ancient Roman statue in order to fetch a much better price.

With help from a dealer, Michelangelo damaged and buried the sculpture in the dealer's yard, in order to "discover" it as an ancient sculpture, according to Charney. Joni spent many years as a successful art forger, fooling the art historian Bernard Berenson. When Berenson realized he had purchased fakes, he traveled to Italy to meet Joni, expressing his admiration.

It is said that Berenson sold several of Joni's works as originals afterward, while keeping a few of the pieces in his collection as reminders. In , Joni published a memoir titled "Affairs of a Painter," in spite of antique dealers' attempts to bribe him into not to publishing, according to Charney. Four years later, the two began a life together in Suffolk , where they started an art restoration business.

In February , Geraldine Norman , sale room correspondent for The Times of London, reported the sale of a rare painting from Samuel Palmer's Shoreham period, which mainly depicted moonlit scenes of shepherds and sheep from around his home in Shoreham , Kent. A nearly life-sized photo of the picture accompanied the article. A month later, The Times published a letter from art expert David Gould claiming the picture to be a fake.

Norman continued to receive reports of more new Palmer pictures appearing in the market, along with claims from David Gould that all of them were fakes. In March , she began investigating them, enlisting the assistance of Palmer experts from the Ashmolean Museum , the Tate Museum , the British Museum , and the Fitzwilliam Museum , as well as author Geoffrey Grigson.

In July the first of a series of articles by Norman on fake Palmers was published on page one of The Times. Five of them had come from a single source: Jane Kelly. Norman was unable to reach Miss Kelly but received several phone calls with tips including one from Miss Kelly's brother, who brought photos from Keating's studio, revealing that Tom Keating was the forger she was looking for.

He welcomed her inside, told her all about his life as a restorer and artist, and poured out an extensive rant about his fight against the art establishment as a working-class socialist. He initially refused to discuss anything about Samuel Palmer or Jane Kelly. In fact, I openly confess to having done them. Instead, he said that she was sympathetic, respectful of his radical politics, and appreciative of him as an artist.

The ensuing investigation and build up to trial received expansive coverage in the London press and around the world. Keating identifies 28 paintings as his own work". In January , Keating visited top galleries in Canada, and the vast private collections of billionaire newspaper and television magnate, Ken Thompson , to see if they had any of his fake Cornelius Krieghoffs.

The artist being something of a national favourite, the Canadian press trailed him throughout his stay. Dozens of letters to the editor appeared in the London press — a few from art dealers venting outrage; most from readers expressing amusement and delight with Keating's exploits and roguish charm. Kelly pleaded guilty, and promised to testify against Keating.

Keating pleaded innocent, claiming that he had never intentionally defrauded anyone, and had left clues that ought to have revealed his deceptions to any expert who examined them. His defence barrister, Jeremy Hutchinson , QC, mounted a strong case intended to "arouse in the minds of the jury a suspicion that the greedy dealers were well aware that the works might not be genuine, but that the possibility of making a substantial profit overcame their scruples.

His final witness was Brian Sewell , "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic" [ 64 ] who later said, "my role was to pour cold water on the art establishment. As far as I could see, it was the establishment which should be in the dock, not Tom Keating, for being so credulous and setting themselves up as experts when they had been so easily seduced.

Kelly received a felony conviction, for obtaining money by deception, and a was given an month custodial sentence, suspended for two years. After two days giving evidence, Keating was hospitalised for a motorbike accident. He returned for a third day in court, during which he collapsed in the witness box, and was returned to hospital. The prosecutor dropped the case, declaring nolle prosequi.

The same year Keating was arrested , he published his autobiography with Geraldine and Frank Norman. A article in The Guardian stated that after the trial was halted, "the public warmed to him, believing him a charming old rogue. Through and , however, Keating rallied at the prospect of finally fulfilling a long-held ambition to be a teacher; to encourage others to paint.

Though still in fragile health, he accepted a proposal to star in a UK Channel 4 television series called Tom Keating on Painters see more below. A year before his death, Keating stated in a television interview that in his opinion, he was not an especially good painter. Yet many art collectors and celebrities, such as the ex-heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper , had already begun to collect his work.

In December , hoping to raise sufficient funds to buy himself a new cottage, Keating sent of his pictures to be auctioned at Christie's in London. In a significant policy change—selling commercial pictures by a self-confessed faker—they accepted them, signed by Keating, but "in the style of" other artists. Five more auctions of his works were held.

Christie's auctioneer David Collins later said: "The prices paid represented the ground swell of public support for Keating. He was a talented artist and a great character in the art world. A third sale at Bonhams in August featured some Keatings alongside paintings by forger Elmyr de Hory. The final sale held in December by Vost's of Newmarket , of 85 mainly small, unframed watercolours, pastels and drawings, and a few oil paintings, came from the estate of Jane Kelly, who died of brain cancer in It was held at Layer Marney Tower , not far from Keating's old studio.

More than people turned up. Keating's work has itself been faked. The Guardian article states: "Dodgy paintings in Keating's original style, proudly bearing what looks like his signature, are finding their way into the market. But if uncovered they are virtually worthless, much like Keating's 20 years ago. If you can pick them up for next to nothing, they may be a better investment than an original Keating counterfeit.

Subtitled An exclusive study of a master forger , this BBC1 special broadcast on 3 May , featured an interview of Keating in his studio, demonstrating how he produced fakes of Renoir , Degas and Palmer. He claimed he duped the so-called experts because he wanted to expose the dubious practices of art dealers. He also discussed his relationship with Jane Kelly, and their restoration business at Wattisfield Hall , in East Anglia , and later at Vilaflor in Tenerife.

Keating's award-winning first educational series began airing on 4 November , two days after the launch of Britain's fourth television station. Channel 4 enticed viewers by inviting them to: "Watch the great 16th century Italian painter Tom Keating who believes the spirits of the Old Masters sometimes enter him as he works on a canvas.

Tonight, in the first of a series, watch Titian paint ' Tarquin and Lucretia ' through Keating. The painting proved to be fake and the Berlin dealer was given a suspended sentence in The painting was withdrawn from auction when questions were raised about its authenticity. When asked about the painting, Beltracchi commented he "had painted many bouquets of flowers during his life".

Research by Die Zeit revealed that two versions of the painting exist. The painting offered in Dubai had actually been sold by Sotheby's in The painting sold by Sotheby's in is different and its whereabouts are unknown. In early , Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus tried, unsuccessfully, to sell this painting via Parisian art dealers. Experts identified old gallery labels on the back of the painting as fake.

Art forger biography

Trasteco sued for damages, and on 28 September a court in Cologne ruled in its favor: Lempertz was to reimburse Trasteco the full amount. Lempertz announced it would appeal. This is the first instance of Beltracchi's refunding a buyer of one of his forgeries. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools.

Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. German art forger and artist. This article is about the German art forger and artist. For the German military officer, see Wolfgang Fischer. Helene Beltracchi. Biography [ edit ]. Forgeries [ edit ]. Arrest and trial [ edit ]. Aftermath [ edit ].

Art [ edit ]. Exhibitions [ edit ]. Solo exhibitions [ edit ]. Group exhibitions [ edit ]. Art projects [ edit ]. The American art network thereby learned of the suave collector and seller of dubious works by modern masters. In , de Hory sold several forgeries to Chicago art dealer Joseph W. Faulkner, who later discovered they were fakes.

Faulkner pressed charges against de Hory and initiated a federal lawsuit against him, alleging mail and telephone fraud. De Hory later moved to Mexico City, where he was briefly detained and questioned by the police, not for his artistic endeavors but regarding his connection to a suspect in the murder of a British man, whom de Hory claimed he had never met.

When the Mexican police attempted to extort money from him, de Hory hired a lawyer, who also attempted to extort money from him by charging exorbitant legal fees. De Hory paid the lawyer with one of his forgeries and returned to the United States. On his return, de Hory discovered that his paintings were fetching high prices at several art galleries, and he was incensed that the galleries had only paid him a fraction of what they thought the works were worth.

This unwanted attention may have prompted de Hory to temporarily abandon his fakery and resume creating his own artwork once more. This led him to an ascetic existence in a low-rent apartment near Pershing Square in Los Angeles. Here, he had limited success, mostly selling paintings of pink poodles to interior decorators. However, his self-imposed exile was not to his liking.

He decided to return to the East Coast return to producing art forgeries, for which he always found an eager buyer—eventually. In Washington, D. In , suffering from depression, he attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. A friend rescued him and called an ambulance. His stomach was pumped, and after a stay in the hospital de Hory convalesced in New York City, helped by an enterprising young man, Fernand Legros.

Legros's account of his dealings with de Hory [ 2 ] differs substantially from de Hory's own. He portrays de Hory as an aggressive and persistent con man, who suckers Legros into the belief that he is a needy impoverished aristocrat deserving of Legros's charity, whereas in reality he is a person wanted by Interpol under a multitude of different aliases and convicted of a variety of crimes, forgery and fraud being not the least of them; de Horys is the object of pursuits, convictions and expulsions from France, Switzerland, Italy, Federal Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, for false check writing without funds, check forgery, committing forgery while carrying a false name, theft, receiving and purveying of stolen goods, and embezzlement.

In de Hory's account, Legros accompanied de Hory back to Miami where he continued to regain his health. With Legros, de Hory again toured the United States. The two had a volatile relationship, and in late de Hory decided to leave the two and return to Europe. In Paris, de Hory unexpectedly ran into Legros. De Hory revealed to him that some of his forgeries were still back in New York.

According to de Hory, Legros devised a plan to steal the paintings and sell them, making a name for himself and his art gallery in the process. Later that year, de Hory's account continues, Legros persuaded de Hory to resume their partnership. De Hory always denied that he had ever signed any of his forgeries with the name of the artist whom he was imitating.

This is an important legal matter, since painting in the style of an artist is not a crime—only signing a painting with another artist's name makes it a forgery. This may be true, as Legros may have signed the paintings with the false names. In , then 58 years old, de Hory began to tire of the forgery business, and soon his work began to suffer.

Consequently, many art experts began noticing that the paintings they were receiving were forgeries.