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October 14, 2012
Rich "Sophisticated" Suckers Plucked Bare By Hippie Art Scammer
had passed off his own paintings as newly discovered masterpieces by Max Ernst, André Derain, Max Pechstein, Georges Braque, and other Expressionists and Surrealists from the early 20th century. Helene Beltracchi, along with two accomplicesâincluding her sisterâhad sold the paintings for six and seven figures through auction houses in Germany and France, including Sothebyâs and Christieâs. One phony Max Ernst had hung for months in a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Steve Martin purchased a fake Heinrich Campendonk through the Paris gallery Cazeau-Béraudière for $860,000 in 2004; the French magazine-publishing mogul Daniel Filipacchi paid $7 million for a phony Max Ernst, titled The Forest (2), in 2006. For the 14 fakes that the Beltracchis were eventually charged with selling, their estimated take was around â¬16 million, or $22 million. Their total haul over the years must have been far more. -- The Incredible Rise and Fall of High-Flying Art Scammers Helene and Wolfgang Beltracchi
Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 14, 2012 10:27 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I love these stories. Makes you wonder about all the deep things art historians and such have to say about the nature of art.
Posted by: chuck at October 14, 2012 11:57 AM
Steve Martin purchased a fake Heinrich Campendonk
That's thing about Campendonks. Some of the are fakes, but none of them are real.
Posted by: Fat Man at October 14, 2012 12:45 PM
I think the Fat man has been at the adult refreshments, but even so, he has the right of it.
In hopes of emulating his clear and cool logic, I shall have a clear and cool gin and tonic.
Posted by: Fred Z at October 14, 2012 5:46 PM
Gerard, go and watch a video called, "The Great Piano Scam."
Now there's a good scam!
Posted by: Jewel at October 14, 2012 9:48 PM
The pointy-headed pronouncers of what is and ins't art just grab your ankles.
First rule of buying art is: Buy it because you like it, not for the 'name' on the canvas.
Posted by: Peccable at October 15, 2012 3:23 AM
I think the Beltracchis should be declared folk heroes, just like the guys who planted two football-fields worth of marijuana in Chicago.
Having myself once painted several Gene Davises (Washington Color School) for a charity auction, I don't see that these two did anything wrong, because making even bigger fools of people who are fools by both nature and profession should not be considered a crime.
Posted by: Don Rodrigo at October 15, 2012 9:23 AM
"I can fake a Picasso as well as any thief in Europe." -- Pablo Picasso
Posted by: Skorpion at October 15, 2012 4:06 PM