What if Those Paintings... Are Fakes? French Art Museum Discovers Half of its Collection are Fake

It's every art gallery's worst nightmare: given the ability of forgers down the centuries, what if some of those priceless works of art hanging on the walls are... not real?

A state-owned French art museum has discovered that more than half of its collection consists of worthless fakes and experts fear that other public galleries may also be stuffed with forgeries. An art historian raised the alarm after noticing that paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus showed buildings that were only constructed after the artist’s death in 1922.

Experts confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in Elne, the artist’s birthplace in southern France, were fakes. Many of the forged oil paintings, watercolours and drawings were bought with £140,000 of municipal funds over the past few decades. Others were given to the museum by two local groups that raised money to buy them by appealing for donations. Some were bequeathed by a private collector.
Yves Barniol, the mayor of Elne, near the Spanish border, said: “It’s a catastrophe. I put myself in the place of all the people who came to visit the museum, who saw fake works of art, who paid an entrance fee. It’s intolerable and I hope we find those responsible.” The municipality has filed legal complaints for forgery and fraud. Police have seized the fakes and are trying to trace the forgers and dealers who sold them.

Among my prize possession are two Brueghels, Jan pere et fils, (the son and grandson of Pieter Brueghel) both fake, but beautifully painted by a Viennese-born artist, a dear friend long since dead, who worked "in the style of" as a hobby.

Fake but accurate?

I read a book on art thefts a year or two ago.

Granted, buildings that didn't exist prior to the artist's death is somewhat definitive of fraud.

However, in the early part of the 20th century, a fraudster would have multiple copies of a famous work made, bribe a museum guard on the night shift, place a copy behind the original, bring in his buyer, have the buyer "mark" the back of the "framed" art, repeat for all the buyers, and deliver the goods.

Sometimes, the con would also steal the original for publicity before being able to collect from each "copy" buyer to give the illusion of a copy being real.

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