Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

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Part 2 of 2

I was not unaware, most revered Fathers, that this present disputation of mine would be as acceptable and as pleasing to you, who favor all the good arts and who have consented to grace it with your presence, as it would be irritating and offensive to many others. I am also aware that there is no dearth of those who have condemned my undertaking before this and continue to do so on a number of grounds. But this has always been the case: works which are well-intentioned and sincerely directed to virtue have always had no fewer --- not to say more --- detractors than those undertaken for questionable motives and for devious ends. Some persons disapprove the present type of disputation in general and this method of disputing in public about learned matters; they assert that they serve only the exhibition of talent and the display of opinion, rather than the increase of learning. Others do not disapprove this type of exercise, but resent the fact that at my age, a mere twenty-four years, I have dared to propose a disputation concerning the most subtle mysteries of Christian theology, the most debated points of philosophy and unfamiliar branches of learning; and that I have done so here, in this most renowned of cities, before a large assembly of very learned men, in the presence of the Apostolic Senate. Still others have ceded my right so to dispute, but have not conceded that I might dispute nine hundred theses, asserting that such a project is superfluous, over-ambitious and beyond my powers. I should have acceded to these objections willingly and immediately, if the philosophy which I profess had so counseled me. Nor should I now undertake to reply to them, as my philosophy urges me to do, if I believed that this disputation between us were undertaken for purposes of mere altercation and litigation. Therefore, let all intention of denigration and exasperation be purged from our minds and with it that malice which, as Plato writes, is never present in the angelic choirs. Let us amicably decide whether it be admissible for me to proceed with my disputation and whether I should venture so large a number of questions.

I shall not, in the first place, have much to say against those who disapprove this type of public disputation. It is a crime, --- if it be a crime --- which I share with all you, most excellent doctors, who have engaged in such exercises on many occasions to the enhancement of your reputations, as well as with Plato and Aristotle and all the most esteemed philosophers of every age. These philosophers of the past all thought that nothing could profit them more in their search for wisdom than frequent participation in public disputation. Just as the powers of the body are made stronger through gymnastic, the powers of the mind grow in strength and vigor in this arena of learning. I am inclined to believe that the poets, when they sang of the arms of Pallas and the Hebrews, when they called the barzel, that is, the sword, the symbol of men of wisdom, could have meant nothing by these symbols but this type of contest, at once so necessary and so honorable for the acquisition of knowledge. This may also be the reason why the Chaldeans, at the birth of a man destined to be a philosopher, described a horoscope in which Mars confronted Mercury from three distinct angles. This is as much as to say that should these assemblies and these contests be abandoned, all philosophy would become sluggish and dormant.

It is more difficult for me, however, to find a line of defense against those who tell me that I am unequal to the undertaking. If I say that I am equal to it, I shall appear to entertain an immodestly high opinion of myself. If I admit that I am unequal to it, while persisting in it, I shall certainly risk being called temerarious and imprudent. You see the difficulties into which I have fallen, the position in which I am placed. I cannot, without censure, promise something about myself, nor, without equal censure, fail in what I promise. Perhaps I can invoke that saying of Job: ``The spirit is in all men'' or take consolation in what was said to Timothy: ``Let no man despise your youth.'' But to speak from my own conscience, I might say with greater truth that there is nothing singular about me. I admit that I am devoted to study and eager in the pursuit of the good arts. Nevertheless, I do not assume nor arrogate to myself the title learned. If, consequently, I have taken such a great burden on my shoulders, it is not because I am ignorant of my own weaknesses. Rather, it is because I understand that in this kind of learned contest the real victory lies in being vanquished. Even the weakest, consequently, ought not to shun them, but should seek them out, as well they may. For the one who is bested receives from his conqueror, not an injury but a benefit; he returns to his house richer than he left, that is, more learned and better armed for future contests. Inspired by such hope, though myself but a weak soldier, I have not been afraid to enter so dangerous a contest even against the very strongest and vigorous opponents. Whether, in doing so, I have acted foolishly or not might better be judged from the outcome of the contest than from my age.

I must, in the third place, answer those who are scandalized by the large number of propositions and the variety of topics I have proposed for disputation, as though the burden, however great it may be, rested on their shoulders and not, as it does, on mine. Surely it is unbecoming and captious to want to set limits to another's efforts and, as Cicero says, to desire mediocrity in those things in which the rule should be: the more the better. In undertaking so great a venture only one alternative confronted me: success or failure. If I should succeed, I do not see how it would be more praiseworthy to succeed in defending ten theses than in defending nine hundred. If I should fail, those who hate me will have grounds for disparagement, while those who love me will have an occasion to excuse me. In so large and important an undertaking it would seem that a young man who fails through weakness of talent or want of learning deserves indulgence rather than censure. For as the poet says,

if powers fail, there shall be praise for daring; and in great undertaking, to have willed is enough.
In our own day, many scholars, imitating Gorgias of Leontini, have been accustomed to dispute, not nine hundred questions merely, but the whole range of questions concerning all the arts and have been praised for it. Why should not I, then, without incurring criticism, be permitted to discuss a large number of questions indeed, but questions which are clear and determined in their scope? They reply, this is superfluous and ambitious. I protest that, in my case, no superfluity is involved, but that all is necessary. If they consider the method of my philosophy they will feel compelled, even against their inclinations, to recognize this necessity. All those who attach themselves to one or another of the philosophers, to Thomas, for instance or Scotus, who at present enjoy the widest following, can indeed test their doctrine in a discussion of a few questions. By contrast, I have so trained myself that, committed to the teachings of no one man, I have ranged through all the masters of philosophy, examined all their works, become acquainted with all schools. As a consequence, I have had to introduce all of them into the discussion lest, defending a doctrine peculiar to one, I might seem committed to it and thus to deprecate the rest. While a few of the theses proposed concern individual philosophers, it was inevitable that a great number should concern all of them together. Nor should anyone condemn me on the grounds that ``wherever the storm blows me, there I remain as a guest.'' For it was a rule among the ancients, in the case of all writers, never to leave unread any commentaries which might be available. Aristotle observed this rule so carefully that Plato called him: auagnooies, that is, ``the reader.'' It is certainly a mark of excessive narrowness of mind to enclose oneself within one Porch or Academy; nor can anyone reasonably attach himself to one school or philosopher, unless he has previously become familiar with them all. In addition, there is in each school some distinctive characteristic which it does not share with any other.
To begin with the men of our own faith to whom philosophy came last, there is in Duns Scotus both vigor and distinction, in Thomas solidity and sense of balance, in Egidius, lucidity and precision, in Francis, depth and acuteness, in Albertus [Magnus] a sense of ultimate issues, all-embracing and grand, in Henry, as it has seemed to me, always an element of sublimity which inspires reverence. Among the Arabians, there is in Averroës something solid and unshaken, in Avempace, as in Al-Farabi, something serious and deeply meditated; in Avicenna, something divine and platonic. Among the Greeks philosophy was always brilliant and, among the earliest, even chaste: in Simplicus it is rich and abundant, in Themistius elegant and compendious, in Alexander, learned and self-consistent, in Theophrastus, worked out with great reflection, in Ammonius, smooth and pleasing. If you turn to the Platonists, to mention but a few, you will, in Porphyry, be delighted by the wealth of matter and by his preoccupation with many aspects of religion; in Iamblichus, you will be awed by his knowledge of occult philosophy and the mysteries of the barbarian peoples; in Plotinus, you will find it impossible to single out one thing for admiration, because he is admirable under every aspect. Platonists themselves, sweating over his pages, understand him only with the greatest difficulty when, in his oblique style, he teaches divinely about divine things and far more than humanly about things human. I shall pass over the more recent figures, Proclus, and those others who derive from him, Damacius, Olympiodorus and many more in whom that to theion, that is, that divine something which is the special mark of the Platonists, always shines out.

It should be added that any school which attacks the more established truths and by clever slander ridicules the valid arguments of reason confirms, rather than weakens, the truth itself, which, like embers, is fanned to life, rather than extinguished by stirring. These considerations have motivated me in my determination to bring to men's attention the opinions of all schools rather than the doctrine of some one or other (as some might have preferred), for it seems to me that by the confrontation of many schools and the discussion of many philosophical systems that ``effulgence of truth'' of which Plato writes in his letters might illuminate our minds more clearly, like the sun rising from the sea. What should have been our plight had only the philosophical thought of the Latin authors, that is, Albert, Thomas, Scotus, Egidius, Francis and Henry, been discussed, while that of the Greeks and the Arabs was passed over, since all the thought of the barbarian nations was inherited by the Greeks and from the Greeks came down to us? For this reason, our thinkers have always been satisfied, in the field of philosophy, to rest on the discoveries of foreigners and simply to perfect the work of others. What profit would have dervied from discussing natural philosophy with the Peripatetics, if the Academy of the Platonists had not also participated in the exchange, for the doctrine of the latter, even when it touched on divine matters, has always (as St. Augustine bears witness) been esteemed the most elevated of all philosophies? And this in turn has been the reason why I have, for the first time after many centuries of neglect (and there is nothing invidious in my saying so) brought it forth again for public examination and discussion. And what would it have profited us if, having discussed the opinions of innumerable others, like asymboli, at the banquet of wise men, we should contribute nothing of our own, nothing conceived and elaborated in our own mind? Indeed, it is the characteristic of the impotent (as Seneca writes) to have their knowledge all written down in their note-books, as though the discoveries of those who preceded us had closed the path to our own efforts, as though the power of nature had become effete in us and could bring forth nothing which, if it could not demonstrate the truth, might at least point to it from afar. The farmer hates sterility in his field and the husband deplores it in his wife; even more then must the divine mind hate the sterile mind with which it is joined and associated, because it hopes from that source to have offspring of such a high nature.

For these reasons, I have not been content to repeat well-worn doctrines, but have proposed for disputation many points of the early theology of Hermes Trismegistus, many theses drawn from the teachings of the Chaldeans and the Pythagoreans, from the occult mysteries of the Hebrews and, finally, a considerable number of propositions concerning both nature and God which we ourselves have discovered and worked out. In the first place, we have proposed a harmony between Plato and Aristotle, such as many before this time indeed believed to exist but which no one has satisfactorily established. Boethius, among Latin writers, promised to compose such a harmony, but he never carried his proposal to completion. St. Augustine also writes, in his Contra Academicos, that many others tried to prove the same thing, that is, that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were identical, and by the most subtle arguments. For example, John the Grammarian held that Aristotle differed from Plato only for those who did not grasp Plato's thought; but he left it to posterity to prove it. We have, in addition, adduced a great number of passages in which Scotus and Thomas, and others in which Averroës and Avicenna, have heretofore been thought to disagree, but which I assert are in harmony with one another.

In the second place, along with my own reflections on and developments of both the Aristotelian and the Platonic philosophies, I have adduced seventy-two theses in physics and metaphysics. If I am not mistaken (and this will become clearer in the course of the proposed disputation) anyone subscribing to these theses will be able to resolve any question proposed to him in natural philosophy or theology on a principle quite other than that taught us in the philosophy which is at present to be learned in the schools and is taught by the masters of the present generation. Nor ought anyone to be surprised, that in my early years, at a tender age at which I should hardly be permitted to read the writings of others (as some have insinuated) I should wish to propose a new philosophy. They ought rather to praise this new philosophy, if it is well defended, or reject it, if it is refuted. Finally, since it will be their task to judge my discoveries and my scholarship, they ought to look to the merit or demerit of these and not to the age of their author.

I have, in addition, introduced a new method of philosophizing on the basis of numbers. This method is, in fact, very old, for it was cultivated by the ancient theologians, by Pythagoras, in the first place, but also by Aglaophamos, Philolaus and Plato, as well as by the earliest Platonists; however, like other illustrious achievements of the past, it has through lack of interest on the part of succeeding generations, fallen into such desuetude, that hardly any vestiges of it are to be found. Plato writes in Epinomis that among all the liberal arts and contemplative sciences, the science of number is supreme and most divine. And in another place, asking why man is the wisest of animals, he replies, because he knows how to count. Similarly, Aristotle, in his Problems repeats this opinion. Abumasar writes that it was a favorite saying of Avenzoar of Babylon that the man who knows how to count, knows everything else as well. These opinions are certainly devoid of any truth if by the art of number they intend that art in which today merchants excel all other men; Plato adds his testimony to this view, admonishing us emphatically not to confuse this divine arithmetic with the arithmetic of the merchants. When, consequently, after long nights of study I seemed to myself to have thoroughly penetrated this Arithmetic, which is thus so highly extolled, I promised myself that in order to test the matter, I would try to solve by means of this method of number seventy-four questions which are considered, by common consent, among the most important in physics and divinity.

I have also proposed certain theses concerning magic, in which I have indicated that magic has two forms. One consists wholly in the operations and powers of demons, and consequently this appears to me, as God is my witness, an execrable and monstrous thing. The other proves, when thoroughly investigated, to be nothing else but the highest realization of natural philosophy. The Greeks noted both these forms. However, because they considered the first form wholly undeserving the name magic they called it goeteia, reserving the term mageia, to the second, and understanding by it the highest and most perfect wisdom. The term ``magus'' in the Persian tongue, according to Porphyry, means the same as ``interpreter'' and ``worshipper of the divine'' in our language. Moreover, Fathers, the disparity and dissimilarity between these arts is the greatest that can be imagined. Not the Christian religion alone, but all legal codes and every well-governed commonwealth execrates and condemns the first; the second, by contrast, is approved and embraced by all wise men and by all peoples solicitous of heavenly and divine things. The first is the most deceitful of arts; the second, a higher and holier philosophy. The former is vain and disappointing; the later, firm, solid and satisfying. The practitioner of the first always tries to conceal his addiction, because it always rebounds to shame and reproach, while the cultivation of the second, both in antiquity and at almost all periods, has been the source of the highest renown and glory in the field of learning. No philosopher of any worth, eager in pursuit of the good arts, was ever a student of the former, but to learn the latter, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato and Democritus crossed the seas. Returning to their homes, they, in turn, taught it to others and considered it a treasure to be closely guarded. The former, since it is supported by no true arguments, is defended by no writers of reputation; the latter, honored, as it were, in its illustrious progenitors, counts two principal authors: Zamolxis, who was imitated by Abaris the Hyperborean, and Zoroaster; not, indeed, the Zoroaster who may immediately come to your minds, but that other Zoroaster, the son of Oromasius. If we should ask Plato the nature of each of these forms of magic, he will respond in the Alcibiades that the magic of Zoroaster is nothing else than that science of divine things in which the kings of the Persians had their sons educated to that they might learn to rule their commonwealth on the pattern of the commonwealth of the universe. In the Charmides he will answer that the magic of Zamolxis is the medicine of the soul, because it brings temperance to the soul as medicine brings health to the body. Later Charondas, Damigeron, Apollonius, Osthanes and Dardanus continued in their footsteps, as did Homer, of whom we shall sometime prove, in a ``poetic theology'' we propose to write, that he concealed this doctrine, symbolically, in the wanderings of his Ulysses, just as he did all other learned doctrines. They were also followed by Eudoxus and Hermippus, as well as by practically all those who studied the Pythagorean and Platonic mysteries. Of later philosophers, I find that three had ferreted it out: the Arabian, Al-Kindi, Roger Bacon, and William of Paris. Plotinus also gives signs that he was aware of it in the passage in which he shows that the magician is the minister of nature and not merely its artful imitator. This very wise man approves and maintains this magic, while so abhorring that other that once, when he was invited to to take part in rites of evil spirits, he said that they ought rather to come to him, than he to go to them; and he spoke well. Just as that first form of magic makes man a slave and pawn of evil powers, the latter makes him their lord and master. That first form of magic cannot justify any claim to being either an art or a science while the latter, filled as it is with mysteries, embraces the most profound contemplation of the deepest secrets of things and finally the knowledge of the whole of nature. This beneficent magic, in calling forth, as it were, from their hiding places into the light the powers which the largess of God has sown and planted in the world, does not itself work miracles, so much as sedulously serve nature as she works her wonders. Scrutinizing, with greater penetration, that harmony of the universe which the Greeks with greater aptness of terms called sympatheia and grasping the mutual affinity of things, she applies to each thing those inducements (called the iugges of the magicians), most suited to its nature. Thus it draws forth into public notice the miracles which lie hidden in the recesses of the world, in the womb of nature, in the storehouses and secret vaults of God, as though she herself were their artificer. As the farmer weds his elms to the vines, so the ``magus'' unites earth to heaven, that is, the lower orders to the endowments and powers of the higher. Hence it is that this latter magic appears the more divine and salutary, as the former presents a monstrous and destructive visage. But the deepest reason for the difference is the fact that that first magic, delivering man over to the enemies of God, alienates him from God, while the second, beneficent magic, excites in him an admiration for the works of God which flowers naturally into charity, faith and hope. For nothing so surely impels us to the worship of God than the assiduous contemplation of His miracles and when, by means of this natural magic, we shall have examined these wonders more deeply, we shall more ardently be moved to love and worship Him in his works, until finally we shall be compelled to burst into song: ``The heavens, all of the earth, is filled with the majesty of your glory.'' But enough about magic. I have been led to say even this much because I know that there are many persons who condemn and hate it, because they do not understand it, just as dogs always bay at strangers.

I come now to those matters which I have drawn from the ancient mysteries of the Hebrews and here adduce in confirmation of the inviolable Catholic faith. Lest these matters be thought, by those to whom they are unfamiliar, bubbles of the imagination and tales of charlatans, I want everyone to understand what they are and what their true character is; whence they are drawn and who are the illustrious writers who testifying to them; how mysterious they are, and divine and necessary to men of our faith for the propagation of our religion in the face of the persistent calumnies of the Hebrews. Not famous Hebrew teachers alone, but, from among those of our own persuasion, Esdras, Hilary and Origen all write that Moses, in addition to the law of the five books which he handed down to posterity, when on the mount, received from God a more secret and true explanation of the law. They also say that God commanded Moses to make the law known to the people, but not to write down its interpretation or to divulge it, but to communicate it only to Jesu Nave who, in turn, was to reveal it to succeeding high priests under a strict obligation of silence. It was enough to indicate, through simple historical narrative, the power of God, his wrath against the unjust, his mercy toward the good, his justice toward all and to educate the people, by divine and salutary commands, to live well and blessedly and to worship in the true religion. Openly to reveal to the people the hidden mysteries and the secret intentions of the highest divinity, which lay concealed under the hard shell of the law and the rough vesture of language, what else could this be but to throw holy things to dogs and to strew gems among swine? The decision, consequently, to keep such things hidden from the vulgar and to communicate them only to the initiate, among whom alone, as Paul says, wisdom speaks, was not a counsel of human prudence but a divine command. And the philosophers of antiquity scrupulously observed this caution. Pythagoras wrote nothing but a few trifles which he confided to his daughter Dama, on his deathbed. The Sphinxes, which are carved on the temples of the Egyptians, warned that the mystic doctrines must be kept inviolate from the profane multitude by means of riddles. Plato, writing certain things to Dionysius concerning the highest substances, explained that he had to write in riddles ``lest the letter fall into other hands and others come to know the things I have intended for you.'' Aristotle used to say that the books of the Metaphysics in which he treats of divine matters were both published and unpublished. Is there any need for further instances? Origen asserts that Jesus Christ, the Teacher of Life, revealed many things to His disciples which they in turn were unwilling to commit to writing lest they become the common possession of the crowd. Dionysius the Areopagite gives powerful confirmation to this assertion when he writes that the more secret mysteries were transmitted by the founders of our religion ek nou eis vouv dia mesov logov, that is, from mind to mind, without commitment to writing, through the medium of of the spoken word alone. Because the true interpretation of the law given to Moses was, by God's command, revealed in almost precisely this way, it was called ``Cabala,'' which in Hebrew means the same as our word ``reception.'' The precise point is, of course, that the doctrine was received by one man from another not through written documents but, as a hereditary right, through a regular succession of revelations.

After Cyrus had delivered the Hebrews from the Babylonian captivity, and the Temple had been restored under Zorobabel, the Hebrews bethought themselves of restoring the Law. Esdras, who was head of the church [sic!] at the time, amended the book of Moses. He readily realized, moreover, that because of the exiles, the massacres, the flights and the captivity of the people of Israel, the practice established by the ancients of handing down the doctrines by word of mouth could not be maintained. Unless they were committed to writing, the heavenly teachings divinely handed down must inevitably perish, for the memory of them would not long endure. He decided, consequently, that all of the wise men still alive should be convened and that each should communicate to the convention all that he remembered about the mysteries of the Law. Their communications were then to be collected by scribes into seventy volumes (approximately the same number as there were members of the Sanhedrin). So that you need not accept my testimony alone, O Fathers, hear Esdras himself speaking: ``After forty days had passed, the All-Highest spoke and said: The first things which you wrote publish openly so that the worthy and unworthy alike may read; but the last seventy books conserve so that you may hand them on to the wise men among your people, for in these reside the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom and the river of knowledge. And I did these things.'' These are the very words of Esdras. These are the books of cabalistic wisdom. In these books, as Esdras unmistakably states, resides the springs of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the precise metaphysical doctrine concerning intelligible and angelic forms; and the stream of wisdom, that is, the best established philosophy concerning nature. Pope Sixtus the Fourth, the immediate predecessor of our present pope, Innocent the Eight, under whose happy reign we are living, took all possible measures to ensure that these books would be translated into Latin for the public benefit of our faith and at the time of his death, three of them had already appeared. The Hebrews hold these same books in such reverence that no one under forty years of age is permitted even to touch them. I acquired these books at considerable expense and, reading them from beginning to end with the greatest attention and with unrelenting toil, I discovered in them (as God is my witness) not so much the Mosaic as the Christian religion. There was to be found the mystery of the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word, the divinity of the Messiah; there one might also read of original sin, of its expiation by the Christ, of the heavenly Jerusalem, of the fall of the demons, of the orders of the angels, of the pains of purgatory and of hell. There I read the same things which we read every day in the pages of Paul and of Dionysius, Jerome and Augustine. In philosophical matters, it were as though one were listening to Pythagoras and Plato, whose doctrines bear so close an affinity to the Christian faith that our Augustine offered endless thanks to God that the books of the Platonists had fallen into his hands. In a word, there is no point of controversy between the Hebrews and ourselves on which the Hebrews cannot be confuted and convinced out the cabalistic writings, so that no corner is left for them to hide in. On this point I can cite a witness of the very greatest authority, the most learned Antonius Chronicus; on the occasion of a banquet in his house, at which I was also present, with his own ears he heard the Hebrew, Dactylus, a profound scholar of this lore, come round completely to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

To return, however, to our review of the chief points of my disputation: I have also adduced my conception of the manner in which the poems of Orpheus and Zoroaster ought to be interpreted. Orpheus is read by the Greeks in a text which is practically complete; Zoroaster is known to them in a corrupt text, while in Chaldea he is read in a form more nearly complete. Both are considered as the authors and fathers of ancient wisdom. I shall say nothing about Zoroaster who is mentioned so frequently by the Platonists and always with the greatest respect. Of Pythagoras, however, Iamblicus the Chaldean writes that he took the Orphic theology as the model on which he shaped and formed his own philosophy. For this precise reason the sayings of Pythagoras are called sacred, because, and to the degree that, they derive from the Orphic teachings. For from this source that occult doctrine of numbers and everything else that was great and sublime in Greek philosophy flowed as from its primitive source. Orpheus, however (and this was the case with all the ancient theologians) so wove the mysteries of his doctrines into the fabric of myths and so wrapped them about in veils of poetry, that one reading his hymns might well believe that there was nothing in them but fables and the veriest commonplaces. I have said this so that it might be known what labor was mine, what difficulty was involved, in drawing out the secret meanings of the occult philosophy from the deliberate tangles of riddles and the recesses of fable in which they were hidden; difficulty made all the greater by the fact that in a matter so weighty, abstruse and unexplored, I could count on no help from the work and efforts of other interpreters. And still like dogs they have come barking after me, saying that I have brought together an accumulation of trifles in order to make a great display by their sheer number. As though all did not concern ambiguous questions, subjects of sharpest controversy, over which the most important schools confront each other like gladiators. As though I had not brought to light many things quite unknown and unsuspected by these very men who now carp at me while styling themselves the leaders of philosophy. As a matter of fact, I am so completely free of the fault they attribute to me that I have tried to confine the discussion to fewer points than I might have raised. Had I wished, (as others are wont) to divide these questions into their constituent parts, and to dismember them, their number might well have increased to a point past counting. To say nothing of other matters, who is unaware that one of these nine hundred theses, that, namely, concerning the reconciliation of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle might have been developed, without arousing any suspicion that I was affecting mere number, into six hundred or more by enumerating in due order those points on which others think that these philosophies differ and I, that they agree? For a certainty I shall speak out (though in a manner which is neither modest in itself nor conformable to my character), I shall speak out because those who envy me and detract me, force me to speak out. I have wanted to make clear in disputation, not only that I know a great many things, but also that I know a great many things which others do not know.

And now, reverend Fathers, in order that this claim may be vindicated by the fact, and in order that my address may no longer delay the satisfaction of your desire --- for I see, reverend doctors, with the greatest pleasure that you are girded and ready for the contest --- let us now, with the prayer that the outcome may be fortunate and favorable, as to the sound of trumpets, join battle.

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Eric Hebborn - Portrait of a Master Forger
by BBC
Mar 14, 2012

A documentary featuring an interview with Eric Hebborn at his home in Italy. Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) was a British painter and art forger and later an author. On January 8, 1996, Eric Hebborn was found lying in a street in Rome, his skull crushed with a blunt instrument. He died three days later in the hospital on January 11, 1996.



Transcript

0:33
the dealer is not interested in art he's interested in
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well basically money but you know worth of artists as good or bad as the price it fetches the art historian is not
0:47
really very interested in art I mean he studies it but he's much more interested in his career whether he's going to go
0:53
up in the nobody's we can come the head of some great museum look this is what he's really interested in and whether he
1:01
can get a knighthood because he knows a lot about Rembrandt you know but no one
1:06
would have ever given Rembrandt a knighthood for being Rembrandt you know serve it's all false values and art is
1:14
neglected nobody is studying it really and truly with the kind of honesty that
1:20
is necessary and although I can't myself claim to be a very honest man in fact
1:25
though many people think I'm an old clock I do feel that in this case at
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least that I am honest I mean I do try to understand something about
1:48
medieval hilltop village of antiquity Corrado to the east of Rome as for centuries been home to painters and
1:54
sculptors 25 years ago English artist Eric had one came to live here how I
2:03
shall freeze after all this son Here I am a gentleman at home a palace and thy
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loving and I love London and I love my English friends but when I'm in the
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Piazza here a local the old boys you know I feel that we may do the same
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stuff and they're not going to say all your your working-class guy I'm not
2:33
going to say to them in all peasant make it on we have our grass of wine together happy about I think I would
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have been happy as artists in the relations and in the 20th century but I
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would have liked to have been employed in a different way rather than sort of having to be on the fringes of society
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were them being a little bit shaking all that heaven has devoted much of his life
3:03
to the study of the Renaissance artists in particular the drawings made by the old masters as preparatory sketches for
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their oil paintings well I think what particularly appeals to people who are interested no mas joins it that they are
3:16
of spontaneous expression of the artists are obviously drawing very great deal in
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whether they were made just sitting down doodling on his paper or of elaborate
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finished drawing of made a say as the cartoon for a painting but you do get a much more personal feel I think from the
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drawing how the artist I mean it is just I'm often Lee starting with Leonardo artists were really kind of thinking on
3:46
paper I've made drawings in the Dutch style in the Flemish style in the German
3:53
style in the Swiss style in the Italian style and I've even deigned to a few
3:59
english drawings and some French toys and I've normally
4:04
chosen important masters not necessarily the greatest because it's very hard to convince people nowadays when you turn
4:11
up with a Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Leonardo they say let's go tell somebody
4:17
else you know but nevertheless I've turned up with people like stefano delle
4:24
bella and caste Leonean 17th century martyrs of some importance including Rubens and then Dyck so I have done some
4:34
very very important artists and I wouldn't call gain for a wine artist
4:39
normal I call constable a minor artist and all these people I have I have done nothing for ebon claims to have made
4:48
over a thousand drawings in the style of scores of different artists from the 14th to the 20th century many of these
4:54
drawings are now in the possession of some of the greatest private and national collections around the world from the British Museum to the
5:00
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
5:09
I'm not a crook I'm just doing what people have always done during the
5:14
history of the world I mean ever since art was invented people have made
5:20
imitations of it shall we say and I believe that the real criminal if there
5:25
is one is the person who makes the false description I mean if I were to tell you
5:31
that these this statue here is by facts
5:36
Italy's for whoever it's been copied from I would be making false description even if I said it was Roman I would be
5:43
making a post description because it's a modern copy but that doesn't mean to say that you can't enjoy it I mean you can
5:50
enjoy the fake isn't necessarily bad as a work of art it is simply something
5:56
that's wrongly described and age sometimes gives dignity to imitations
6:04
providing there of some quality and they should be enjoyed for what they are rather than being questioned for what
6:10
they're not the sale of several drawings in the style of Gustus John to a specialist dealer in
6:16
London help finance have ones permanent moved to Italy in the summer of 1964 for
6:23
the next decade business was brisk on the top floor of an old Palazzo in the heart of Rome's antique district a
6:29
conveniently short walk from the Christie's sale room in Piazza Navona
6:37
for a christie's sale in rome in 1974 everyone supplied twenty-four drawings
6:42
in the style of various old masters these were attributed by Christie's to 16th century artists such as stefano
6:49
delle bella luca cambiaso FR Bartolomeo as a
6:55
self-styled dealer in old master drawings he born was able to offer his own efforts alongside perfectly genuine
7:01
examples he called this bread and butter business panini galleries and quickly re-established links with the London art
7:07
trade very soon after I went to court argues when a drawing was sent from
7:15
Italy from some galleries called - Neely galleries by the Ambrogio either old or
7:22
younger which had been in colleges in the 1930s it could be traced in a stock
7:29
book and I think it may even been exhibited I really can't remember the state and this seemed to us a perfectly
7:37
genuine nice drawing which the further they pleased to purchase back and as a
7:42
result I think I'm going to be asleep fairly shortly after us I thought I might call on Erica Berlin who lived
7:48
that time in room I bought a drawing in a sale not in one of the great sale room
7:56
such as Christie's and Sotheby's and I noticed on the back of it a label the
8:04
label of a dealer called corn Rd and I thought well you know if they had it's
8:09
probably a decent drawing and I took it home and it said that it was by Blue Eagle so I hung it on the wall nice play
8:16
proud I'd bought a boy girl for only 40 pounds I thought how the hell did I get it that cheap if it's a real boy Eagle
8:24
then Wright was there for a few months then I began to look at it Nathan no this is not a
8:30
boggle this is a copy I thought was an engravers coffee because in the old days
8:37
the only ways of only way of reproducing drawings as you know for the engraver to
8:42
make an engraving of it and we produce it so to make his engraving he first made a copy in the medium that the
8:50
artists had used I thought that's what it is is and engravers copy then I wondered to myself well why can't I copy
8:56
that this copy and make it little better then it'll be a little bit more like a viable so I said to work in that way and
9:04
I made a copy a very close copy an almost exact copy but I speeded up the
9:10
lines that if I gave a more vigorous movement and it did look a bit more like
9:16
a boy/girl to me when I'd finished and then I did something I rather regret
9:21
doing now I tore up the thing I copied the thing that been in the corn Rd frame
9:28
I flushed it down the lavatory I rather wish I hadn't because it would be nice now to compare you know perhaps time you
9:36
know perhaps I destroyed an original Weigel I hope not and it seems that the people in the
9:42
Metropolitan Museum think the same thing
9:47
I mean they they seem to be happy with my coffee I have talked very recent in
9:52
the last day or two to the Metropolitan Museum who naturally have subjected it to very close our tests such as tests
9:59
can be made and they say the paper is perfectly genuine the ink looks good for
10:06
drawing of that date and though naturally they're keeping an open mind about it they can see absolutely nothing
10:12
wrong with the dry I don't have to prove what I did it or not if they can't see it what kind of damned experts are they
10:19
I mean they should be able to say this is definitely by Michael but then you ask them they say yes this is definitely
10:25
by broeckel then you say to them is it by jangle the old or the gonca well
10:31
we're quite sure about that professor so-and-so says it's the younger professor so-and-so says it's
10:38
the older but it could be a very late follower that's my claim there are I
10:46
mean I wanted to test you can do for ink but that does P suppose they had to be
10:52
certain substances in the ink which were not known at their particular time but
10:57
for the most part I mean it would not help and anyway in order to do these yes you don't have to ruin the drawing so
11:03
that's up at the end of the day hopefully much better off I've just been in the forest they're freaking calm when
11:10
little water fires collecting oak galls and these I need for making alcohol ink
11:16
which is the kind of ink that parmigianino used in the 16th century
11:22
and this is a common recipe for Oh calling they're about thirty often that
11:30
I have in my collection in terms of recipe going into a drain water gun
11:36
Arabic and a little iron sulphide bian rusts and it eats through the paper many
11:44
old drawings that are consumed in this way in parts of the drawing I imitated that on the Pusa I did it I wouldn't
11:51
have done it on a more important drawing because it lowers the sail ability of the drawing when it's in bad condition I
11:57
mean if I'd meant that boo Center pass as a boo sampler if not I was not have
12:03
aged it in that way because the value would have gone down immensely but in
12:08
this case I thought well you know let's give it a really nice old pattern er make it convincing
12:13
so well that's what I did no ingredient is really secret because really chemical
12:21
analysis can discover it but I don't want to encourage forgery line by giving
12:26
away these tricks of the trade that people might use dishonestly
13:53
early part of my life I think is rather sad my father seems to have been always
13:59
out of work and my mother had many children the poor woman was under great
14:04
stress she seemed to have taken her you know revenge of the world myself and
14:12
she used to treat me well badly at the age of eight I was still trying my hand
14:17
at Roy found that if you light a swan vest a match you have a little piece of
14:25
charcoal at the end that you can draw with and dip it in the school inkwell in those days they had ink wasn't anything
14:31
to have them anymore but anyway I would do that and I would make sketches and the headmaster came around making
14:37
inspection and he saw that in my desk I had this matchstick and a piece of
14:45
sandpaper and he thought that I was playing with fire and he gave me a cleaning for it and I thought well I've
14:51
been punished for the deed no I shouldn't do it and set light to the
14:57
cloakroom and the fire began to spread and I got frightened and I thought I'd
15:02
better tell the headmaster mr. Percy what had happened so I poked my smoky
15:08
face round his door and said to him because I I couldn't I didn't know how
15:15
to put it on him please so I've set light to the school I recited a little poem we'd learn they went fire fire
15:23
mrs. Dyer where where mrs. Claire did
15:28
that map of smoke came into his study and I found myself in the juvenile court
15:33
being charged I was asked what I was guilty or not guilty of arson I didn't
15:39
know either of the words I didn't know the word guilty or arson I didn't know what it means but policemen standing
15:45
next to me said I say guilty son say I'm not safe guilty so that's what I did
15:50
and ended up in borstal that was a nun promising beginning
16:04
Berek he born arrived as a pupil at the Royal Academy about 1950 sound like the
16:10
Academy itself heaven was already steeped in the ways of the old masters very little comment made about one's
16:15
work apart from the odd revelation that
16:21
somebody had won a prize or one happy you see from a lot of prize we didn't
16:26
win any hardly know practically nothing I was a really very good sort of silent
16:34
creature I mean he just kept to himself he didn't mix with other students as far as I remember he was always I never
16:41
remember seeing him in the canteen or anything he was always around there painting these Varanasi green grounds and all
16:48
this time all his old master stuff which he painted very much in the old master
16:54
styluses my man thought he was a joke actually Karen Raye and Nancy Goldsworthy also studied with had one uh
17:02
it was a school that produced a lot of brilliant people of whom Eric was one
17:07
though not appearing too many to be so because he was very quiet but when you
17:12
talked to him you knew he was an interesting person straightaway oh I was madly in love with him yes sure I used
17:19
to say Nance is playing hard to get rid of when he was at the Royal Academy he
17:24
won all the prizes for drawing so we we're dealing with a very gifted
17:30
draftsman while he was still a student at the Royal Academy Eric highborn discovered that he was
17:36
color blind I had this curious thing I believe men
17:42
have it more often than women of being not being able to distinguish between certain grades and certain greens and I
17:49
sometimes paint pictures with fear screens which I just couldn't see and I thought they were delicate pearly grays
17:57
and in fact they were not and I had to look at the tubes of color and read the
18:02
label to make sure that I wasn't falling into this trap there was a time at the
18:08
when the hippies were around people were on LSD and I was given some inner cake I
18:14
didn't know the difference taken ground up and I was suddenly hallucinating and seeing things the most extraordinary way
18:21
and my color blind is seemed to clear up after that one 18th century Italian
18:29
draftsman whose architectural drawings have consistently attracted heaven is Giovanni Battista para Nazy a fine
18:37
example of this masters work a magnificent Roman port was sold to the National Gallery of Denmark for fourteen
18:43
thousand pounds in 1969 by the London dealer hands Kalman who was hence Kalman
18:51
because he's now dead he was an ax dealer in drawings and a very important
18:56
dealer in old masters who perhaps had the best stock in London of old master
19:03
Roy at one point even HAP's even better than Cornell jeez I sold quite a lot of drawings to him I
19:09
mean I imagine it went into the hundreds he you know put my work on the market in
19:19
large numbers and who important people there is a foreign asian in the nursery
19:26
with investigative denmark in a Roman port main minister thought did you do that yes of course I did I have said so
19:33
often enough and so of other people said sir why do you suppose this is not being
19:39
accepted now well I don't know that wishful thinking perhaps on the part of
19:44
the National Gallery of Denmark but in their proof of but I mean it's absolutely
19:50
well I I say but people believe what they want to believe but there's no
19:56
doubt that the drawing passed through my hands I mean I had the drawing that it was I who sold it to hands Kalman and it
20:01
was hands Kalman who sold it to the National Gallery of Denmark and it was not known before everyone's friendship
20:08
with the late Sir Anthony Blunt lent credibility to his activities as a dealer the dealers who work with high
20:15
quality drawings tend to want a scholarly opinion and this is why in the case of Blount he would occasionally
20:22
give his imprimatur on say oh yes I believe that is a genuine Prasad castellone dalla bella or whatever
20:29
artist lund happened to know rather a lot about and of course sometimes mistakes were made but if a mistake was
20:35
made it's basically uncorrectable because without actually someone writing a very serious article in the Leonard
20:42
periodical saying that these attributions are provably wrong the matter just drops
20:47
I knew that Anthony Blunt and this dealer hen's Kalman were antagonists I
20:53
mean they didn't agree with each other hands thought that Denton E was you know not the right Hans who then and Anthony
21:02
thought that hence Calvin wasn't they right so I thought I'd make this drawing to tease them I thought I'd make it near
21:09
enough of taboo sanfur Antony to take it seriously but not close he nothing to accept it and put it there you know
21:14
among the Masters works then I take it to hands and say look Antony blunt says this is a fake what do
21:21
you think but I knew that his reaction would be what to fake if Antony such as
21:27
a failure must be genuine that sort of thing Anthony Blunt was regarded as one of the great experts he was artful in
21:34
charge of the Royal Collection and the Royal Collection has been one of the most magnificent collections of world
21:39
master drawings in the world and who was engaged in cataloguing it and supervising other people's catalogues on
21:46
it his range of expertise knowledge and awareness was immense Christopher white
21:53
at Carnegie's had been one of his pupils just as I had been and I'm sure that
22:00
amongst you out in his pupils there was a level of devotion if not veneration
22:06
which made us all take really seriously anything that he was inclined to suggest
22:13
when I have a friend I treat them slightly differently to I treat the way I treat so I'm not totally objective
22:20
about anything I would hate to ruin his reputation as a scholar when he was alive I didn't want to do it and now
22:26
he's dead I don't want to do it I don't want to put to jeopardize his a well
22:35
I've said did you know his reputation so I still tend always to rather defend him
22:42
I know this is not objective but at least I admit it no we were not
22:50
but we almost were as one evening I came
22:56
back from the Rome scholarship and I hadn't seen him for a number of months and he sent me a telegram sir why you so
23:05
damned standoffish I think the telegram made war why so standoffish telephone and he gave his telephone number and I
23:11
phoned him up and said come round this evening and we'll have a few drinks together I went round he was drinking
23:18
his gin and tonic he laughed and I don't mind it either but I had an empty stomach my god as drunk as a lord and he
23:26
got as drunk as a sir which he was seeing his base and we were wheeling
23:31
around eventually collapsed on his bed and I'm sure if we hadn't drunk him so
23:37
much I mean you know we might have actually made love but we did literally go to bed together and in my book I've
23:45
said that we were suffering from Brewers droop as they called some circles what
23:53
happened did and where he was very clever was that he did deal in old master drawings as well as being a
24:00
brilliant artist himself so he mixed his drawings with those of with those by
24:06
original of original works and I think he probably did show them to blunt and
24:12
blunt quite naturally was a collector and therefore anyway he would have been interested in seeing them and
24:20
I'm sure blunt would comment on them but I don't think there was any collusion there with blunt actually working with
24:27
heaven set and then telling him to go to Sotheby's or Christie's or Cole nagas or
24:33
wherever and sell the drawings it seems as I sold a lot through corner keys
24:40
because Cornell Giza the only people made a public statement saying that I'd sold in 1978 the London dealers Col Nagi
24:48
& Co felt obliged to issue a statement to the press they acknowledged a common hand at work in a number of the drawings
24:54
that they had handled over the previous 10 years the source was Erica born one
24:59
of these was a missing link in the irv of the great Flemish Master Sir Anthony Van Dyck purporting to be a study for
25:05
his painting of Christ crowned with thorns I was looking through a book on
25:11
Van Dyck drawings and I saw a series of drawings preparatory studies for
25:16
painting and I thought you know he's missed a chance there and I CLE would be
25:21
better if that figure was moved over here and a little bit more stress there and on him I'll try that out and so I
25:29
made a drawing in his manner making a variation on the other drawings what was interesting about Eric Evans approach to
25:36
making that drawing was that he found a group of the parrot few studies made by
25:42
Van Dyck for a painting where and I could experimented with different
25:47
positions and this is of a perfect common thing but we are it was unusual but we had though I think about four or
25:53
five drawings for this particular composition and what he very skillfully did was to rearrange the figures taking
26:00
one figure from one drawing and another from another in itself a perfectly reasonable thing for the artist to do I
26:06
mean as he was working through the his ideas to find the ideal solution but
26:12
when you studied them very carefully you see there is something rather suited in way that he extrapolated one figure from
26:20
one drawing and another but but as I say it was it was well I've saved all the
26:25
brilliant people together Cole Maggie's unwittingly sold her bones joined to the British as a VanDyke for an undisclosed sum in
26:32
1970 it is now correctly attributed to Ericka born whoever buys a babe has been
26:42
cheated that is something which causes concern I mean whether it's the public
26:47
institution or private collector they both in Keith here and I think the ones concerned when people are cheated any of
26:54
the drawings that have on claims to have made passed through the hands of leading dealers and the great auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's into the
27:00
possession of private collectors as well as Renaissance masters heaven claims around 80 drawings in the style of
27:07
Augustus John successfully executed stakin Lee attributed and sold in London
27:12
steno Elana Seeley deputy chairman and director of Fine Arts at Christie's was unavailable for comment the Julian stock
27:19
the old master drawings Department of Sotheby's was glad of an opportunity to clarify the conclusion well it's
27:27
possible a thousand drawings but the list that I've been given of what he's admitting
27:33
to only comes to 80 so it seems to me there are another nine hundred or so out
27:39
there one of the drawings that we sold and as long ago as 1967 was this rather
27:48
beautiful drawing of a page which took us in because we cataloged it as
27:54
attributed to Francesco del casas and based on an attribution of another
28:00
drawing in the British Museum which in fact mr. heaven now claims was his
28:06
prototype and we sold it I think it must have been one of the first drawings that
28:12
he actually sent in for sale and it was purchased by Col nagas who then they
28:20
didn't believe our attribution to Francesco del casas they called it just north Italian school 15th century and it
28:28
was purchased by the Morgan live the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York which is one of the most renowned
28:34
libraries in the world I would say he must be one of the very best that
28:39
probably ever lived I think one might go that far although now that one's recognized his work it's very
28:48
easy to see them for me it is anyway it's very easy I'm sure for some people
28:53
they're probably they might still be struggling to actually believe that they can be forged another drawing but we had
29:02
that is apparently claimed by Eric Kevin that he drew was a drawing by Yann
29:07
Bruegel that we sold and this one I must admit is very different from the others
29:14
that we're seeing now the papers foxed which is rather like a sort of fettling
29:19
it's a it's some some of the iron in the paper which has got damp and it's it's
29:26
got it's a disease in the paper and this drawing which is very spontaneous um he
29:31
claims he drew and I'm not actually 100% certain that he did it I wonder really
29:38
whether this is by heaven himself and I'd like him in a way to look at the
29:43
drawing however we sold it and then it went to a dealer in Hamburg and the dealer in Hamburg didn't find a client
29:51
and he gave it to another auction house to sell in Amsterdam and it was sold in Amsterdam and I don't know where it is
29:58
now this this is a Leonardo drawing that was offered to us and I'd looked at it I
30:06
felt that it was a forgery and I'm not certain that it's by Eric heaven but I
30:11
wouldn't be surprised and I would be interested to have mr. heavens comments
30:17
on it because in my opinion and a number of other people it is without doubt a
30:23
forgery why is the facial types is one of the
30:28
main giveaways here although there is pentimenti in the head of of the baptist
30:34
the the faces are too sweet and they don't have the physiognomy that you
30:40
would have in the early 16th century Penta mint is when an artist is rapidly
30:49
working out a position for a figure and he'll move his head like this like that
30:54
like this or like this and each that will all be on one drawing
31:00
now that is Penta meant pent it we call it pentimenti and when we see that that
31:07
gives us lots of confidence that the drawing is an original work of art because normally the copyist doesn't do
31:14
that he just copies one position of the head so heaven knew this probably one
31:21
obviously he he loves of the old masters he must have looked at them very intensely fact that he uses old paper
31:28
and a why didn't he use new paper he didn't use new paper because he would he
31:35
knows that we're not that simple volumes
31:44
containing blank fly leaves are still easily available from antiquarian book shops here I have another book I've
31:51
removed a piece of the Benham and if curiously enough the shape corresponds
31:57
Rolla use me with this drawing if we
32:03
notice blind slopes down at the top and so on this is attributed to personnel
32:10
law strong of an eagle's head the inspiration for that drawing came from a
32:16
photograph in a book called Annie Marley mondo Annie Marley and there's the
32:22
photograph let's have a look at the drawing together with it there we are
32:28
you see it's in exactly the same position and I think there's little
32:33
doubt that in fact that photograph is the inspiration for this drawing this
32:38
drawing was attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist pisanello by the gallery's Salomon a Gastonia grantee at
32:45
their sale in Milan in 85 in the same sale which contained a large group of
32:51
drawings now claimed by heaven was a small study of women attributed to Parma or Giovanni here we have Paul Maynard
33:01
Giovanni Venice 1544 zone and here's my sketch for this or related to it I
33:09
screwed it up I wanted it to away and somehow it survived you sold in this thing and it has here X collection
33:15
old Spencer now how the hell he could have had it before I produced it is
33:21
something I shall never know important drawings often bear one or more collectors marks small stamped monograms
33:29
which indicate their past history with collectors such as Jonathan Richardson and Sir Joshua Reynolds many of the
33:37
drawings that he's now claiming to have done bear fake collectors marks on them
33:42
doing that I would imagine is going beyond just drawing and letting the
33:51
expert make up his mind he's actually making the expert believed that the
33:56
drawing comes from Sir Joshua Reynolds or Sir Peter Lee Lee and therefore it should be an original Reynolds is not
34:03
particularly distinguished collection it contained an awful lot of dross and I
34:10
mean sometimes sheets with the collectors mark on a more interesting for the mark than for the drawing as if
34:17
it was it was quite a shrewd one tools yes why not they're very decorative I
34:22
mean it could be he could be claimed I mean people will claim that it's forgery but that's just their opinion tell me
34:30
about why did you protect his mark well they looked ice one thing I enjoy this
34:35
because they helped convince the experts they were general I don't think so I mean if they were experts I would have
34:41
seen that they were false collectors marks they should have seen in fact they weren't done very well some of them were
34:47
done freehand in watercolor rather than being stamped I mean I did them very in
34:52
a very amateurish way they shouldn't have been fooled at all but you see what is the the whole factoring in in the
34:59
whole affair that seizes people's imaginations the money Eric has never harmed anybody he's crossed a whole lot
35:06
of people a lot of money and I'm very glad
35:13
laughs at the expert and have a certain amount of pleasure in seeing a drawing
35:18
that you did in a museum with the learning catalog entry and you look at
35:25
it and you think well they don't know what they're talking about and I suppose that there's a certain amount of
35:31
pleasure of course in a way I find it amusing myself I became your millionaire
35:37
that you made a million yes I mean that's certainly not a great deal of
35:43
money must have gone through my hands but it goes through everybody's hands nowadays because life is expensive even
35:49
a modest lifestyle like mine cost money and I've had to make a living as an
35:54
artist a painter sculptor and all this sort of thing my own right and some of
36:00
the money I've earned has come through during the fakes as well I don't like the word fake apply to perfectly genuine
36:07
drawings but you know it's a word that people will apply to what I've done I
36:14
think that he is behaved really extremely badly odd people who have
36:21
trusted him and that I find deeply offensive um as far in as sympathy with
36:29
the trade that I have not at all the trade has always been well certainly
36:37
from the great bulk of the last 30 years the trade has been wrong but but no fine
36:42
point on it who ought to know in our business better who all not who had such
36:48
elastic judgment who ought not to have taken risks who knowing once the finger
36:54
had been pointed at Eric as it was very early on that he was a dangerous
37:00
customer to deal with and continue to deal with him for those people we need
37:06
have no sympathy at all my immediate reaction to the idea that Eric made at
37:12
least a thousand drawings would suppose that they were probably rather more than that judging by the rapidity with which
37:17
they are scribbled I believe his do chanise who went out with a lantern in
37:22
the middle of the day was asked what he was doing is ever in search of an honest man and well I
37:30
think you might possibly find an honest man but I don't think you'll find an honest man who's also a dealer new
37:38
dealer is likely to turn down something in which an enormous profit resides on a
37:44
sort of 10% suspicion he would take it on and push it Italian dealers are an
37:51
extremely dodgy lot in general I suppose and I mean Italy has been a source of
37:58
fakes for centuries and that absolutely brilliant and the dealers don't actually
38:04
mind selling them you know if somebody is foolish enough to buy them why not if
38:09
they get something in that looks like Pontormo and they're frightfully keen to set it as Pontormo you know they won't
38:15
go go round and really seriously look into it
38:32
the palazzo stop Seafarer is the kind of place that I try to avoid because it's
38:39
full of all the snobby people and flashy kind of people and I feel also too close
38:45
to the dealers I'd like to see his little liberal in as I possibly can just you have to sell them something
38:51
then I Maus because on the whole I own you know they're not the kind of people
38:57
I like and I believe they don't like me anymore
39:06
addy hmm deals in the north of Italy he asked me if I could find for him a collection of
39:13
old master drawings I said well no I don't deal in drawing anymore he's a world um you know will be very well-paid
39:20
on him and worry about that and I produced for him 30 or so important old
39:28
masters I mean very big names Pontormo and done I'd piss on Ehlo parmigianino
39:38
the sort of thing this dealer took the
39:44
drawings away and put them into sale and gave wrong attribution I mean he must
39:50
have known that the things were fake I mean he commissioned them I mean he'd asked me will you please do this and I
39:55
done it you know and so he knew perfectly well what he was handling and when I saw a sale catalogue with these
40:05
droids reproduced I found that not only had he given the attributions as being
40:11
firm and definite it also made stains on drawing to simulate age which is neat
40:18
because they were on old paper with old materials in any case and he'd also given false provenances I was so
40:26
surprised to find that the prices were so high I mean a hundred and seventy million I think it was for a Pontormo
40:32
that I'd made we're talking about 90,000 pounds or something like that there's quite a lot of money for drawing
40:39
that you've only Spade the artist 750 pounds for if that
40:46
there's quite a markup Eric highborn yes
40:55
it's by Eric highborn Eric he born
41:01
senior Eric airborne ISM is an artist the Salomon a Gastonia our grantee
41:08
catalog then the land sale of November 1985 appeared to confuse the dealer had
41:13
helped to compile it see know the exact
41:20
details of the Milan sale remain shrouded in mystery one magazine reported huge prices while other dealers
41:27
who attended the sale dismissed it as a bad joke little is known of the whereabouts of these drawings that one
41:33
of the Milan highborns the pastoral scene attributed to castee leone was sold for over nine thousand pounds at
41:39
Christie's London in December 1990 it was bought by a leading dealer in New York I have in fact carried out my most
41:50
significant work in the last decade or so but this is merely because I'm
41:57
getting better no one is an artist isn't quite like a footballer who sort of yeah
42:03
gets tired after the age of 25 or whatever it is
42:09
artists can go on forever and ever this beautiful drawing by Goya on the subject saying we still learn of himself as an
42:16
old man with a beard and he's tottering towards the grave but one can still
42:21
learn and master them so even in my fakes I'm getting better
42:27
I don't know when I suppose if you did the perfect fake you you there's no you
42:33
can't get any better I'd like to think I have done one or two perfect one
42:52
the old master toys are usually slight and sketchy all so on and so forth but nevertheless they're very important
42:58
because they are much nearer to the artists original thought noise he's
43:05
dashing down an idea in his first sketch and often this is lost in the final work one is closer to the creative process in
43:14
a drawing and one is in a final piece of sculpture or painting or fresco and this
43:21
this is one of the values of drawing but I believe there's an even deeper value
43:26
to drawing and mankind is in at the point of losing it is becoming a dead
43:33
art and it's the art of line
43:49
I wouldn't say that I've been taken
44:04
seriously by society or by the scholars or by anybody else I'd say I've been totally ignored the only reason people
44:11
are taking notice of me now is because I've made a handful of fakes nobody is truly interested in the art
44:17
side of it what I've really done whether I have a contribution to make or not what they're interested in is the
44:23
scandal of someone having fooled some experts we should enjoy works about what
44:29
they are don't worry too much whether the attributions are correct or otherwise in the long run I think my
44:36
story will be the beneficial effect on the experts and I think they'll take a
44:43
wider view of that matter and not be such fast spots as they are now

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Scams, Schemes & Scoundrels
by A&E
(Highlighting Han Van Meegeren's life and art forgeries, many of which had been confiscated as Nazi loot. Also featuring the stories of Victor Lustig, Soapy Smith, and Media Prankster Joey Scaggs.)
Hosted by skeptic James Randi
1998



Transcript

0:00
the Eiffel Tower up for sale hard to believe but master swindler Victor
0:06
Lustig convinced his mark that it was a medical marvel was dr. Athens box of
0:12
remedy for the sick or only designed to enrich the scoundrel who created it
0:17
these works of art bearing the signature of Dutch master Yule had us Vermeer
0:22
today hanging museums as master works of deception do you believe everything you
0:30
see on the news how about a nationally reported story about a computer that determines the guilt or innocence of
0:36
suspected criminals host James Randi professional skeptic and a bunker of
0:43
frauds takes us through the conception the setup and the payoff of these
0:49
remarkable scams we've all heard that anything too good to be true probably is
0:55
but the charm and ingenuity of a great con artist can make us believe that maybe just this once
1:02
fortune has swung in our favor how does the scam artist do it what principles of
1:07
human nature play into the scoundrels hand and when it's all done are we any wiser or just poorer from seasoned
1:14
swindlers like the globe-trotting Victor Lustig and boomtown hustlers like soapy Smith to the vengeful genius of painter
1:21
Han Van Meegeren and modern day media hoaxster Joey Skaggs the scam and the scoundrel have remained remarkably
1:27
unchanged through the centuries I am James Randi and in this special
1:33
presentation we'll look at the inner workings of some of history's most outrageous scams and the competence men
1:40
behind them now most cons follow a very simple set
1:45
of rules the first rule is that the con artist always wins
1:53
[Music]
2:17
[Applause] few men have earned the title among
2:24
criminals of King Kong Victor listing was one of them an aristocrat of the
2:29
underworld he was known to his peers as count listing the caper that immortalized him as one of the greatest
2:36
confidence artists in history occurred in Paris where he lined up a scheme to
2:42
sell something that weighed 11,000 tons and didn't belong to him it's been said
2:50
that every society gets the crooks it deserves in a world where wealth and prestige are admired the Khan disguises
2:57
himself accordingly often playing the role of an aristocrat or high government official in times of change and social
3:04
upheaval the Khan enjoys a greater freedom to masquerade across the boundaries of class and wealth the
3:11
successful con artist is always a kind of mirror for the time and place in which he operates
3:17
[Music] and there couldn't have been a riper
3:23
time and place for Victor Lustig than Paris 1925 after World War one the youth
3:31
of France was happy to be alive and sought to create a new social order with more freedom and greater opportunity
3:37
expatriates of all kinds descended in droves upon the City of Light a new
3:45
class of entrepreneur emerged made wealthy by the rebuilding of Europe it
3:51
was a city filled with effervescent excess here amidst the creative fervor the nouveau riche mingled with old money
3:59
and exiled from prohibition America and Bolshevik Russia converged in what
4:04
seemed to be one big party Paris was ripe for change and anything
4:10
seemed possible a perfect place for Victor listing to pull off a swindle of a lifetime as a young man Lustig left
4:19
his birthplace in Eastern Europe and by the time he was 20 years old had already proven his talent as a first-rate
4:26
grifter his gift for languages and his easy charm served him well in his partnership with the infamous cardsharp
4:33
Nicky Arnstein together they worked the big ocean liners which sailed between
4:39
Paris and New York ships which were always rife with gullible and wealthy marks when he left Arnstein listing had
4:47
a booty of $35,000 and he headed for Paris
4:56
by now an experienced confidence trickster he will gracefully in society all we stylish always in control and
5:03
more importantly always looking for the next opportunity to work a scam it came
5:09
to him one spring day through an intriguing article in the local newspaper which provided the counts
5:15
cunning mind with enough material for a caper of truly monumental proportions
5:20
according to The Daily Press the Eiffel Tower was in a terrible state of disrepair and estimates on its upkeep
5:27
were astronomically high the price of a new coat of paint alone could reach into the hundreds of thousands of francs
5:33
listings inventive mind went to work which would happen if the city decided
5:39
it could no longer afford the tower would they dare tear down this glorious spire what an enormous and controversial
5:46
job that would be who would do it there would have to be a contract he supposed and where there's a contract there's
5:53
usually a bid listings scheme was taking
5:59
shape always the chameleon listing would transform himself into a high government
6:05
official his disguise would have to be flawless every detail perfect
6:12
he hired a forger to create counterfeit government stationery and sent six of
6:18
Paris leading scrap metal dealers authentic-looking invitations to attend a very secret
6:24
meeting sole secret it couldn't be held at City Hall listing chose a grand
6:32
setting delay is trap the Magnificent Hotel pre-owned on the plastic Accord was an exclusive meeting place for
6:39
diplomats dignitaries and royalty one could hardly under which doors without feeling a certain sense of heightened
6:46
expectation even perhaps a bit of self-importance all six scrap metal
6:51
dealers responded to listings invitation and attended the meeting each one put at ease by the presence of his successful
6:57
colleagues and by the time the count had introduced himself as a deputy director general of the Ministry of posts and
7:04
Telegraph's well they were convinced that they were all going to be part of something very significant and perhaps
7:12
profitable [Music]
7:17
he told the dealers that they had each been hand-picked for their flawless reputation as honorable business men
7:25
then in a hushed voice lifting explained that due to the exorbitant cost of its
7:30
upkeep the city had no choice but to tear down the Eiffel Tower the men were shocked listing pressed on
7:37
because of the certainty of public outcry over this matter the news could not be revealed until all the plans were
7:44
in place he explained that he would have the duty of selecting the man to carry out the demolition the idea that the
7:54
Eiffel Tower was gonna be sold for scrap again wasn't all that goofy it was with
8:00
some serious need of repairs you look at upon it today as this this thing which
8:06
you know Paris wouldn't be Paris without it but back then it wasn't quite as famous no doubt there are many people
8:14
who would have preferred it come down they could not yet see it as a permanent feature of the Parisian landscape
8:20
necessarily it didn't look like any of the most well known monuments of the city like the Opera House or any of the
8:27
Gothic cathedrals and churches it looked more like a machine and as a machine it
8:32
had the look of quickness that's what it felt so again
8:44
from the meeting listing risked all six men into a limousine for a special tour
8:50
of the tower it was a calculated move understanding human nature as he did the
8:55
Stig wanted to dangle the prize before their eyes gentlemen the tower was never
9:02
meant to be permanent as you know it was built for the 1889 exposition with a 20-year concession to mr. Eiffel in 1909
9:10
it was to have been taken down and reassembled somewhere else this of course didn't happen unlike our
9:17
city's other monuments the tower is made of 15,000 prefabricated parts which can
9:24
be assembled and disassembled think of the uses collectible and
9:31
otherwise to which these highly ornamented parts could be put and imagine their value
9:36
[Music] Theoden also gave the count the chance
9:43
to observe the men individually and pick which would be his mark the victim he
9:49
would cut from the herd he had a set of
9:54
rules that in order to sort of get people to trust you one thing is you you
9:59
listen very patiently to people you don't look bored you don't express
10:07
controversial opinions until the mark
10:12
tells you what his opinion is and of course you agree with you know let's you know naturally you do not try to pull
10:21
personal information out of the mark even if you want it and really sincerely
10:29
need it don't try to pull it out because people are gonna tell you just let it
10:34
ride let him talk he's gonna tell you what you want to know you don't brag
10:40
about yourself you brag about yourself people don't trust you you have to exude the authority it has to look right once they were back on the
10:47
ground listing ask the gentleman to submit their bids by the next day and he reminded them that they were in
10:54
possession of a state secret
10:59
the next morning bids from all six dealers arrived but listing had already made his choice the dubious honor would
11:06
go to the socially insecure and very ambitious Andre apostle list to get
11:11
easily picked up on his desire to join the business elite of Paris
11:18
if Lustig was the perfect con artist for the times Hasan was the perfect mark he
11:24
was from the new class of wealthy entrepreneurs who had made a fortune after the war and he had plenty to prove
11:30
the old boy network had shot him out of Parisian high society and pasal wanted
11:36
him what better way than to win the Eiffel towered contract I can imagine
11:43
that a provincial scrap metal dealer would see this as the means to really make his fortune it was really a
11:49
attractive prize for someone like that perhaps the grandeur of the deception
11:55
was the keyword success the tower of course itself was always a grand object
12:02
always subject to very exalted kinds of attentions whether by artists or by
12:08
planners they made people think globally and maybe people think big and certainly may press something big as well five
12:15
lucky scrap metal dealers had narrowly escaped listings traffic with possum in
12:20
his net listing was one step closer to a small fortune but he was also at risk
12:26
impersonating a Deputy Minister larceny listed knew that if he were caught and
12:32
stood in front of a French judge his cheeky scam would be severely punished
12:37
listings fares were justified in fact Paul's wife had become suspicious she
12:43
questioned her husband why was the meeting not held at the ministry did Andre know this official why was the
12:50
city's plan being enacted with such aced now at this point Lucic realized that
12:55
all paths all had to do was make a few discreet inquiries and the game was finished so what did he do quit run oh
13:03
no not as long as there was some chance of saving this game he showed his true
13:08
mettle as a genuine confidence artist he not only had proven he was clever he was now about to show that he had
13:15
nerves of steel well before then he's a risk-taker I mean you know you're out there scamming people and you don't know hey
13:22
well they've got maybe they'll find you up here they put you in jail he didn't go to jail a couple of times maybe they'll shoot you I mean he was a card
13:28
shark for a while you know he times somebody catches you with the wrong cards bang that's it he seemed to
13:34
enjoy that kind of danger that kind of risk [Music]
13:40
listed knew he had to act he set out to meet his mark that evening back at the
13:45
hotel this time in private there he confessed or is so it seemed
13:53
Monsieur Plus aw I'm sorry we have to meet like this but it's important we understand each other I am a government
13:59
official I'm expected to live in a certain style so as to maintain the dignity of friends I must dress well and
14:05
entertain on a lavish scheme I don't have to tell you that I make only a pittance my life is precarious when a
14:12
premier Falls my job is on the line and so it is that in the letting of government contracts I maintain my
14:19
security it is customary for the official in charge to receive
14:25
a commission parcel was relieved finally he understood this officials
14:31
mysterious behaviors listed wanted a bribe quoi saw smugly reached inside his
14:38
jacket and removed his wallet when
14:43
Lustig asked him on top of a blank cheque for also for a bribe for himself
14:48
as a poor government official for a song took this as proof that lipstick was in fact a bonafide government official he
14:54
was used to the idea of bribery as part of the everyday business of government and provided these two checks you know
15:01
he posed as a government official that he posed as a corrupt government official you give me you know you grease
15:08
my palm and I'm gonna give you the inside track on that and all of a sudden here in the mind of this somewhat greedy
15:15
probably not terribly bright but hey you know maybe not so very different from
15:21
the rest of us the scrap dealer came the idea that aha
15:26
now I understand I understand the secrecy I understand you you're a you're
15:32
a crook you're the kind of crook I I'm used to dealing with well he was that he was a crook of course but he was a very
15:38
very different kind of crook you see in
15:44
Poisson listing had discovered the perfect partner the mark who wants to believe the con works one because the
15:54
conman is good but secondly because you know we go we meet in more than halfway
15:59
in a lot of these cases there's more than a little larceny in the heart of
16:04
the of the of the person who is being caught
16:09
listing was endangered fossil would call the Ministry and then very likely the
16:15
police listening hopped a train to Vienna with a suitcase full of fossils money he checked into one of the city's
16:21
best hotels and watched the papers for news of the scam but nothing appeared
16:27
apparently plus all was too embarrassed to tell anyone that he'd been had assault was left calling the city on the
16:35
phone to saying when should I show up to help take down the tower and we can
16:42
imagine that the the ministry was rather amused by the foibles of the unfortunate
16:47
victim six months later
16:53
listing was back in Paris taking advantage of the fact that possum had felt too humiliated to report the scam
16:59
the Stig made his way back to the hotel preowned he reasoned that a possum
17:04
hadn't told the police he certainly would not have told his competitors [Music]
17:14
he worked his racket all over again this time with a different set of scrap dealers and remarkably enough he sold
17:21
that Eiffel Tower a second time the entrepreneurial spirit is crucial to the
17:26
lesson of the tower whether it be Eiffel as the enlightened entrepreneur who through his dynamic
17:32
understanding of the possibilities of Technology build something useful and also profitable so taps into the same
17:41
spirit hoping that he too can be part of this great story and enlisting I don't
17:48
know if we can call him an entrepreneur we certainly can call him someone who understood those desires and capitalized
17:54
on them very very well now would you look at the Eiffel Tower what do you see do you see a magnificent monument to the
18:01
spirit of the city or do you see the opportunity perhaps to make a few fast francs I think listing saw both
18:18
much of Victor listings genius lay in his ability to understand the psychology
18:23
of his mark and anticipate their next move after Paris Lustig returned to the
18:31
US where he pulled off dozens of scams he was finally arrested for counterfeiting and sent to Alcatraz for
18:38
the time of his death in 1947 Lewis takes career had become legendary when the clerk filling out his death
18:44
certificate came to the box marked occupation he paused then wrote salesman
18:50
thus paying a final tribute to the crafty count who sold the Eiffel Tower not once but twice that's right the
19:18
McGregor rejuvenated it reverses the aging process in its time this worthless
19:24
device relieved a lot of people of their money and today can be found here in the
19:30
Museum of questionable medical devices in Minneapolis Minnesota the final resting place we hope of hundreds of
19:37
quack devices that promised miracles but delivered nothing this helmet for
19:43
example promised to cure baldness by means of vacuum let's see
19:53
[Music]
20:01
I guess you have to leave it on a little bit longer but no other apparatus here
20:08
compares with the creations of dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco a brilliant diagnostician whose inventions
20:14
cured tens of thousands of people of deadly diseases or did they in the early
20:21
nineteen hundreds came technical wonders never seen before powered flight
20:27
electricity moving pictures for these inventions science or miracles the line
20:35
between the two had never seen so blurred if the new technologies were
20:40
astonishing and their effects their explanations were even more mysterious to the general public
20:46
Freud's unconscious postures germ theory and Madame Curie's discovery of
20:53
radioactivity all demanded that people believed in the invisible reputations
21:00
were made and industrial empires were built on these new discoveries at a time
21:07
when science was really developing and technology was beginning to explode would have been ready-made for somebody
21:12
to exploit the weak and the vulnerable and if you've got some sort of a device
21:18
that sounds mystical but you have the credentials of a medical doctor and then I put you in a pretty good position to
21:24
control other people from an early age Albert Abrams seemed destined for greatness
21:29
he was born in San Francisco in 1863 and received a medical degree from the
21:34
University of Heidelberg while he was still in his team [Music] he became chief pathologist at the
21:42
Cooper Medical Institute which was to become the Stanford Medical School
21:48
Abraham's was a doctors doctor his diagnostic skills were sought-after by
21:53
other established physicians and he published hundreds of articles in leading medical journals his patients
21:59
came from the elite of San Francisco society Abrams who moved along the Bay Area smart set insisted that his letter
22:07
had lists all his titles and all of his degrees [Music] he was a charismatic person quite a
22:15
handsome well-dressed individual he had a lot of social graces and he managed to
22:21
move in the right society and he seems to have been very convincing he seemed
22:28
to be a consummate manipulator and and that's really the the recipe for success
22:33
as a con artist to kind of know what makes people tick even perhaps better than they know themselves but
22:39
conventional honors however great were not enough for Albert Abraham's in a letter he wrote my goal is to become a
22:46
prophet among men a wise man who will have both wealth and power in 1912 he
22:54
announced that contrary to all that had been taught before electrons not individual cells were the basis of life
23:03
the doctor called his new theory of disease er a electronic reactions of
23:10
errors and unveiled a powerful new machine called the dynamize er it was
23:15
the latest in medical technology with this new invention Abram claimed he
23:20
could diagnose any known disease from a single drop of blood
23:26
now this invention was remarkably similar to another invention a real one called
23:31
wireless or radio and dr. Albert Abrams was able to see but radio was going to
23:37
change the way that people could communicate right across the world and he was among the first to exploit the
23:43
similarity between his so-called invention and real science the current
23:49
mystique surrounding electricity and radio waves provided the perfect environment for Abrams to sell his new
23:55
diagnostic theory to the public
24:09
if a simple box plugged into a wall and captured voice and music from the airwaves
24:14
it seemed that similar electric boxes could do just about anything though
24:30
people might not fully understand how it worked they were ready to accept another exciting example of new technology into
24:37
their homes Abram seems to have had this wonderful innate grasp of the psychology
24:45
of his patients his devices had beautiful cabinets just like the radios
24:52
that people had at home and so they tread this very fine line on the one
24:57
hand they were homey and reassuring enough that people would be willing to
25:02
submit to them they weren't these sort of frightening dr. Frankenstein like devices on the other hand they were
25:09
still high-tech circa 1920 and that already raised people's hopes and made
25:16
them think that there really was something to these wonderful gadgets well he was offering a very comforting
25:23
idea a comforting product there were patients out there who were going to demand it because it seemed
25:29
state-of-the-art it was high tech for its era and and they were going to demand it from their conventional
25:35
practitioners even if those practitioners themselves might have been a bit dubious about it with Abrams solid
25:42
reputation behind it by 1918 the dynamize er was becoming a national
25:47
sensation but Abrams could see that greater opportunities lay ahead while the diagnosis is made only once
25:54
an illness can require many treatments a machine that could cure disease would
26:00
keep patients returning again and again Abrams soon unveiled a second device
26:06
[Music] feel civilized it used the readings from
26:12
the dynamize er to cure the diagnosed illness after the dials were precisely set electrons would be beamed into the
26:19
patient's body and shattered the destructive electronic vibrations of the disease [Music]
26:27
the crux of dr. Abrams technology has really summed up in these two devices the dynamize ER and the asila clast you
26:36
took the sample of blood ran a magnet over to polarize it but the blood sample
26:41
in the dynamize ER but the lid on this would measure the vibration rate of that blood sample and send it to these
26:48
vasilich last dr. Abrams often had his
26:54
chauffeur our valet stand on a metal plate and by tapping this healthy persons abdomen he was able to diagnose
27:02
the patient's illness [Music] these are bearish blood samples sent to
27:09
dr. Abrams in 1920 along with letters from physicians and so forth and healers
27:14
he put those blood samples in his machine was able to diagnose that most
27:20
of them at 4 to 5 ohms of resistance designating that they had syphilis
27:26
cancer and diabetes [Music] hayburn's bolstered that the treatment
27:33
was painless that had eliminated the need for drugs and surgery and that for
27:38
an additional five dollars it could be done over the phone how preposterous you
27:44
say it's important to understand that the medical field at that time was not
27:50
quite what we think of medicine as being today after all during even much of just
27:56
the previous century the man who buried you the man who treated you and the man who cut your hair were probably all the
28:02
same professional medicine was part of the healing arts it had only recently
28:08
started to become something that people would think of as a science with no laws
28:15
regulating the manufacturer of medical devices it was a heyday for quackery of
28:20
every kind phrenology the measuring of bumps on people's heads became a popular
28:26
diagnostic tool and doctors claimed that anything from tuberculosis to the mumps
28:33
could be remedied by a dose of one of the hundreds of patent medicines on the market most of which consisted of a
28:41
mixture of corn syrup and morphine well
28:48
I think it was a famous Canadian physician Sir William Osler who to until about the turn of the century the
28:55
chances that that any average person going to his or her doctor would come away a better rather than worse was only
29:02
about 50/50 by 1920 Abrams electrotherapy felt was booming tens of
29:09
thousands of people sought the painless treatments doctors and alternative healers from around the country flocked
29:15
to his San Francisco clinic where for $200 a piece they too could learn to
29:20
detect the mysterious electronic reactions finally Abrams was receiving
29:26
the acclaim he felt was rightfully his he was also raking in a fortune for two
29:31
hundred and fifty dollars down and five dollars a week a great deal of money for that time his students were allowed to
29:38
lease one of the 4,000 authorized Abrams machines being churned out by a local
29:43
factory there was only one condition the machines could not be opened Abrams
29:48
insisted that this could damage the delicately tuned mechanism the Abrams
29:54
reluctance to let other people look at his little black boxes and so on makes sense from a number of perspectives one
30:01
is maybe there's nothing there and he knows that so why expose it I mean I'm putting on such a good show and
30:06
people are excited about it I'm doing all right as it is so why take a chance and the other possibility is that he may
30:13
actually have sincerely believed that he was on to something and that he wanted to protect it he had proprietary
30:19
interest in it it's almost like a patent in his own mind during his heyday Abrams
30:26
was called upon by laypeople and even the courts for expert testimony in a
30:31
high-profile paternity case he claimed he could identify the father by analyzing the vibrations in his blood
30:38
using his wonderful machines Abrams claimed his machines could do far more
30:44
than merely diagnose illness they could also determine your religion your inclination for romance and whether or
30:51
not you like to bet on the ponies by 1921 over 3,500 medical doctors
30:58
practiced Abrams electrotherapy dozens of clinical reports were published by ER
31:04
a doctors they documented the successful treatment of patients non-surgical non-pharmaceutical cures for uterine
31:11
cancer tuberculosis and syphilis these
31:16
doctors made between 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a week using Abrams leased boxes
31:23
conventional doctors were becoming more and more incensed aside from their unwillingness to believe Abrams
31:29
outrageous claims they had their own reasons for wanting to discredit him thousands of their patients defected to
31:36
medical practitioners using radion ik treatments for the traditional position a new Abrams machine in town and an
31:44
empty waiting room and a vastly reduced income
31:49
then in 1923 came a chilling case report from a leading medical journal a man in
31:55
his 70s was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic as having inoperable cancer of the
32:00
stomach after receiving a series of electrotherapy treatments from an Abrams practitioner he was told by the
32:07
practitioner that his cancer was gone and that he was completely cured a month
32:12
later he was dead Abrams increasingly grandiose claims were about to put him on a collision
32:19
course with the American Medical Association in this world there are many
32:24
different sorts of scoundrels someone who take your money but dr. Abrams was of a higher or perhaps lower order you
32:32
see the states in his scam turned out to be human lives was Abrams a true
32:39
visionary or just a quack preying on the hopes of the desperately ill a nationwide battle raged between AMA
32:46
establishment physicians and Abrams defenders the issue could only be
32:51
resolved by a scientifically respected neutral party so many people had been
33:00
writing to Scientific American saying this wonderful Abrams technique is the
33:05
scientific discovery of the new century surely you'll be learning and writing more about this that it caught the
33:12
editor's attention naturally would be a terrific subject for any kind of scientific investigation there were two
33:19
though these charges by people in the medical community that the whole thing was a fraud that it couldn't possibly
33:25
work the Scientific American put together a team of people to study the Abrams
33:32
technique a senior Abrams practitioner known for purposes of the study as dr. X
33:39
was chosen to conduct the first test six vials containing unknown germ cultures
33:45
were delivered to his laboratory he was to correctly identify the contents of each one the Scientific American
33:52
committee looked on as dr. X carried out the elaborate procedure in accordance
33:57
with Abrams technique a healthy young man wired to the dynamize ER stood on two metal plates facing west under dim
34:05
light when the doctor announced his results they were completely consistent in one respect they were all wrong dr.
34:14
X's results from this trial were spectacularly unsuccessful he managed to get all six vials completely wrong
34:22
naturally he was trying to figure out what had gone wrong so he then asked to
34:27
examine the vials and he said oh well there's the problem he pointed to the fact that the vials had each been
34:33
labeled and that the labels had red on them well red he said was a color that
34:39
was full of all kinds of electrical vibrations that set up bad reactions in
34:44
the dynamize errs Diagnostics so of course it couldn't possibly be accurate so they started over
34:50
they took off all the old labels they put on new plain white labels they gave the specimens back to dr. X and again he
34:58
managed to get every one completely wrong letters poured in vehemently
35:05
protesting the investigation on the one hand you had some people who felt
35:11
vindicated by these results who said they'd always thought it was probably a fraud you had on the other hand the
35:17
people who were strong believers in the Abrams technique and many of them started off by saying why are you
35:24
subjecting this wonderful wonderful procedure to any kind of scientific scrutiny after all aren't there
35:30
thousands of people walking around who've been cured by this already undaunted the Scientific American
35:36
committee continued its investigation Abrams offered to demonstrate his machines for them at his San Francisco
35:43
laboratory but the committee insisted on carrying out the investigation on their own terms but he wouldn't really submit
35:51
he never refused to participate in the studies but he would always beg off
35:58
submitting to some kind of real blind trial of the work as a result the
36:04
technique was never demonstrated by its inventor to any scientifically
36:12
satisfactory degree Abrams struck back at his critics in the pages of ER a
36:19
publications he accused them of scientific ignorance and of merely wanting to protect their own turf if he
36:28
was attacked by the medical profession or the scientific profession I suppose he could easily fall back on the
36:34
argument that he now is the victim and that this big amorphous Association American Medical Association and the
36:40
establishment are really after him and poor little me I'm just the victim and many of his followers would probably
36:47
accept that the struggle between Abrams and the AMA was about to reach a climax
36:52
in 1922 an AMA dr. anonymously sent a
36:57
blood sample to Abrams Clinic for diagnosis and the analysis came back
37:03
this patient had seemed had malaria diabetes and cancer and another disease
37:09
that most of Abrams patients seemed to have syphilis then came the jarring revelation to
37:16
Abrams at least you see it turned out that his patient actually was living a very moral life and was quite healthy
37:23
his patient was a rock rooster other
37:32
Abrams practitioners began getting into legal hot water in another sting operation an ER a doctor confidently
37:39
diagnosed a patient with some very human diseases once again the patient turned
37:44
out to be a member of the poultry family the star witness at the trial from mail
37:50
fraud in Jonesboro Arkansas was to be dr. Abrams himself and then an
37:57
unbelievable turn of events on the eve of the trial Abrams died apparently none
38:03
of his wonderful devices was able to cure him of pneumonia dr. Albert Abrams
38:08
dead at age 62 a healer unable to heal himself I think that between the
38:15
satisfaction that gave him in a humanitarian sense and the very real reward he was getting in terms of the
38:21
money that was rolling in it was an irresistible force for him the man left
38:27
an estate valued between I think two and five million dollars an extraordinary
38:33
sum of money for somebody who was basically just hitching up sick people to radios Abrams had always insisted
38:43
that his machines never be opened now that he was gone the AMA publicly opened
38:48
one a lot of the charlatans had the idea
38:53
that if you sealed the Machine put a clamp on it wires that no one would look
38:59
into it and discover his mysterious secret the secret was that it was a hodgepodge of meaningless dials wires
39:06
and lights that would expose him as a charlatan the Scientific American team
39:12
finally concluded that the Abrams technique was a complete fraud that in
39:19
fact dr. Abrams didn't know enough about electricity to be able to wire up a
39:24
doorbell that the dynamize er was probably nothing much more than just a
39:30
black box full of wires that you couldn't possibly get a real cure out of
39:35
the asila class and their basic position was that the entire field of the abrams technique
39:41
wasn't even fit for scientific study we would have hoped that Abraham's ideas would have died when he died but
39:48
unfortunately it was so successful financially that over 44 other manufacturers made similar devices and
39:55
even today we have people who are making machines patterned after his goofy ideas
40:01
selling him on the market in the 1990s dr. Abrams and his disciples treated
40:09
thousands of patients there are no records of how many people they cured or killed the dynamiters and the asila
40:17
clasts machines that once gave hope to so many and made the doctor himself a millionaire are now displayed as medical
40:24
oddities dr. Abrams obituary in the Journal of
40:30
the American Medical Association granted him the title Dean of all 20th
40:35
century charlatans while he and his machines may not have diagnosed physical illness he seemed exceptionally adept at
40:42
detecting one human infirmity gullibility when the promise being offered his life itself
40:49
people pay dearly the paintings of
40:54
Johannes Vermeer each one of priceless masterpiece and yet Vermeer died in total obscurity in 1675 of his life's
41:02
work fewer than 40 paintings are known to exist until this century he remained
41:08
virtually unknown today he's considered a genius praised by the art establishment as the great master of
41:14
Delft blockbuster exhibitions of his paintings tour the world images from his
41:21
rare originals are reproduced in a wide variety of forms from postcards to wine bottles to t-shirts the people buying
41:28
these souvenirs know they're buying mirror copies but what if they didn't
41:34
during the Second World War a series of never-before-seen Vermeer's was
41:39
discovered and sold for an unprecedented fifty million dollars and if it weren't
41:46
for a bizarre twist of fate no one would ever have known that they were forged it was the biggest scam in art history 1945
41:56
a special unit of Allied soldiers comprised of expert art historians made an extraordinary discovery
42:07
an assault mine in Austria they found a treasure trove of art stolen by the Nazis
42:12
these were Europe's greatest masterpieces pillaged during the war by the invading German army amongst the
42:19
booty was the collection of Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Goering the Dutch of
42:24
heart expert was shocked to notice that one of the paintings was a sign for a mirror he knew the Masters work and he had
42:31
never seen this painting before an investigation was immediately begun to determine the origin of such a rare and
42:38
priceless treasure it was then discovered that unlike the other paintings which had been looted this one
42:43
had been purchased recently from Holland that a Dutch citizen would sell a national treasure to a Nazi was caused
42:51
for outrage and suspicions of collaboration the paper trail led
42:57
through several intermediaries to this apartment in noise Spiegel strata in Amsterdam owned by the painter Han Van
43:04
Meegeren while most people of Europe had suffered a great deal in the devastation of the war von Negron lived very well
43:10
while other starved there was always lots of food and wine on his table he owned this property and fifty others
43:17
including two nightclubs one morning late in May 1945 two uniformed Dutch
43:24
police officers showed up at his door and they treated with some respect because he was a very wealthy man and
43:30
they said you know look we're not interested in how much was paid or
43:36
anything else we just want to know where this canvas came from and to immigrant
43:41
couldn't own so they came back and arrested him with being a collaborator
43:48
which could have meant the death penalty the culprit was in fact guilty but of a
43:54
far more imaginative crime who was Hanban Migra and how did he come to possess an undiscovered bear mirror the
44:03
painter Van Meegeren was born in Holland in 1889 his artistic talent was clear
44:08
from the start and he a badly pursued his dream of painting Dutch masters his own father despised
44:15
his sons artistic inclinations and in violent outbursts frequently destroyed
44:20
his artworks but fund me grant ultimately found a mentor a painter who taught the traditional methods of 17th
44:26
century painting while the art world hailed the new brilliance of Picasso and Matisse Van Meegeren steeped himself in
44:34
the style of another era though his
44:40
technical virtuosity won some praise by age 29 Van Negron's career had peaked
44:45
his work was panned or ignored by Holland's art critics who branded it derivative and out-of-date these merely
44:56
works done in the old style are examples of Van Lear ins failure to meet the expectations of the critics it also
45:03
didn't help his career that he refused to bribe the critics a common practice that bought many of his contemporaries
45:09
glowing reviews he recognized that in
45:15
the art world the nod of a few experts could make the difference between a worthless piece of canvas and a
45:21
million-dollar masterpiece I had been so belittled by the critics that I could no
45:28
longer exhibit my work I was systematically and maliciously damaged by those who don't know the first thing
45:34
about painting that migrants hatred of
45:39
the Dutch art critics gave rise to a scheme for revenge he decided to create a masterpiece that
45:45
they simply could not ignore him now his pension for using outdated painting
45:51
techniques which had diminished him in the eyes of those same critics could be used as ammunition against them that me
45:58
brron may have fancied himself as a master painter but he had all the instincts of a master con man but he did
46:08
have this belief that the press and the critics and the experts and the art eaters we're all venal could be bribed
46:16
and who ignorant didn't know their facts and it was really originally to show up
46:24
this incompetence and venality of the press and the media and the experts that he decided to paint
46:31
a Vermeer which would then be authenticated and he would then say I painted it this proves that you're fools
46:39
and I'm a great artist there was one very established critic who Van Meegeren
46:45
particularly despised and who he thought would make an easy mark dr. Abraham
46:51
bridges had a theory about the early work and training of Vermeer how happy
46:56
and thrilled he would be to stumble upon an earlier mirror which would bolster his theory abram brainiest the highly
47:03
regarded and respected art historian had a theory that well familiar maybe he was
47:10
in in Italy travelled there maybe maybe he has seen works by Caravaggio or other
47:15
baroque painters and maybe he has made also religious paintings and maybe these
47:23
religious paintings look like this a little sober a little Protestant a
47:28
little like this and that and in a way you can say that that affirmation used this theory by brady's as a kind of how
47:37
to make an early for mere painting the paint of fake Vermeer was a formidable
47:43
challenge not only would it have to be stylistically brilliant it would have to look three centuries old but Van
47:50
Meegeren was fuelled by the passion of revenge he found a 17th century campus and with pumice salt and water
47:57
stripped off the original paint he experimented with two chemicals
48:03
phenol and formaldehyde to create a synthetic aging process which would accomplish three centuries of paint
48:10
hardening in three hours he was the first forger who had this
48:16
idea to create a painting with a with a synthetic medium and why would he do
48:24
this because he had experience he had read a lot of book books how they
48:29
discovered forgeries and it it appeared to him that it was absolutely necessary
48:35
to come up with something different obsessed with detail he used the same
48:40
pigments per media even hand grinding ultramarine from lapis lazuli and blue
48:46
from indigo he used a badger hair brush with four barrel saviors and he would
48:54
take his pigment with the medium in it but then mix mix that through with the phenol and formaldehyde and then apply
49:02
it to the cameras he then baked the painting just as you would bake a cake to get the desired crackling in the
49:09
finish he went through one more step he would roll the painting over a drum I
49:16
mean just I'm simplifying it a little bit that would open up also cracks you
49:21
know they were coming from below would open up the new paint layer and then in
49:29
order to make them more visible he would then later wash over the whole surface with a black ink
49:36
[Music] he then had a picture the below
49:42
seventeenth-century canvas paid with 17th century pigments and the media had
49:49
all evaporated and the paint was perfectly hard five
49:56
years after his original research had begun Van Meegeren finished the painting he called it Christ at Emmaus he felt it
50:04
was a great painting something he'd always dreamed of producing but by signing it with Vermeer's monogram he
50:10
handed credit for his masterpiece over to another would it now withstand the
50:15
scrutiny of the hated critics Van Meegeren presented the painting to dr.
50:22
bridges who enthusiastically endorsed the work it was taken to Paris it was
50:28
seen by a number of potential buyers including the representative of Lord
50:34
Devine in Paris who wasn't fooled by it and sent a cable which I've seen saying
50:41
picture rotten fake didn't want him to have anything to do with it about
50:47
davines men were exceptions despite the skepticism of the Parisian critics the
50:53
painting was endorsed by Holland's art establishment it was given the place of honor in the boyens Museum and crowds
50:59
came in unprecedented numbers to see it and to acclaim what Britt iasts had said was the greatest fair mirror of
51:07
immigrant himself used to say that he went along as an ordinary member of the public to see this great Vermeer and the
51:15
hairy raped off says it couldn't get too close to it and he walked up and had
51:22
this moment of enormous pride of seeing his picture in pride faced the Bauman's and leant forward to examine it closely
51:31
and see the crackle crackling was still alright and so on and was moved back by
51:37
an attendant there too close to his cameras engage engaged in his canvas but
51:43
he he was just a member of the public looking at a great new painting
51:48
this film made in 1952 captures radius's excitement
51:55
at this moment the disciples have recognized Christ risen from the dead and seated before one the disciple on
52:03
the Left shows his silent adoration mingled with astonishment in no other
52:09
picture by the great master of Dilip do we find such sentiment such a profound understanding of the Bible story van
52:17
Negron had done it he'd painted as well as a great master he'd fooled the art critics including dr. Brady's Holland's
52:24
leading expert on very mirror instead of coming forward at this moment in exposing them to savor his great revenge
52:30
he found that he'd been caught up in the momentum of his own scam the moment came
52:36
to expose the fake but Van Meegeren stalled for a simple reason money when he sold the emmaus he served
52:44
it for in today's money 2.2 million dollars and suddenly he was
52:51
wealthy Van Meegeren went to Paris and frolicked in the city's famous clubs he
52:58
still intended to reveal his forgery but in the meantime he indulged himself with cabaret dancers wine even morphine he
53:06
was literally intoxicated with his newfound wealth exposing the forgery seemed less and less appealing Van
53:13
Meegeren had spent the money he'd made from the sale and realized that he could only continue to live well by turning
53:19
out more forgeries he could have sold anything after the amount honest it was
53:24
the de Christ at Emmaus it was radius was positive the museum
53:32
the Rembrandt's society the museum directors in Berlin in London everybody
53:38
accepted it immediately as a famille so why not go on it was one big illusion
53:45
Trading and illusions living the highlife in Amsterdam was too seductive
53:50
for Van Meegeren to resist he was transformed into a professional forger
53:55
between 1938 and 1945 he painted and sold six for bogus fare mirrors
54:03
[Music] the chaos of the Second World War
54:09
provided the perfect camouflage provide Migron to put his paintings on the market his people attempted to flee the
54:16
devastation of the war important private art collections were being sold on the black market with no questions asked masterpieces
54:24
were changing hands without the usual documentation and Van Meegeren claimed to have found one of his Vermeer's in a
54:30
farmhouse in Italy there was no way for checking of course it was strange to
54:36
have suddenly five or six for me in a few years time but in those war days it
54:42
was possible all these canvases had to be kept secret they couldn't be
54:48
exhibited the Nazis would get to know about them and they would be looted they
54:55
weren't examined the paintings carefully they were never x-rayed they'll never chemically analyzed the
55:02
canvas was never carefully examined the very vague stories he told by their
55:08
provenance we're completely accepted no one ever asked for additional detail were made
55:15
any attempt to trace where this painting had been for for 300 years the Last
55:20
Supper painting that was sold in 1942 1.6 million guilders and was by then the
55:27
most expensive painting in the world even from burning and who had a huge collection he had to sell 20 paintings
55:35
including Tintoretto and der and 18 other paintings to get this for me a
55:41
painting so you can imagine that when he heard at the end that this painting was
55:47
a forgery it was a drama the last of an migrants forgeries was Christ with the
55:53
adulteress after he sold it it changed hands several times finally catching the eye
55:59
of Nazi chieftain Hermann Goering who paid the equivalent of millions of dollars for it though the fact was not
56:06
known to Van Meegeren this was the painting discovered by the Allied soldiers in the Salt Mine in Austria
56:12
when officials traced the painting back to Van Meegeren he was vague about his involvement with it he was thrown in
56:18
jail and charged with treason well they took him to jail and they grilled him
56:24
they interviewed him very aggressively
56:29
for several days and after three or four days he broke down and said you're fools
56:38
I I didn't sell a great national treasure to the Nazis I painted it
56:44
myself and I also painted the Vermeer in Dobermans Museum the Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum and the piece then assumed
56:53
that he'd invented this fantastic story in order to escape the more serious
56:59
charge of collaboration and said well mr. Van Meegeren if you painted that if
57:06
you painted that this bit is yourself you could certainly make her an exact copy of it and then Megan said I can do
57:15
far better than that I wouldn't make a copy of a painting but I'll paint a new forgery the police were astonished but
57:23
they gave their prisoner a chance to prove his innocence Van Meegeren was locked into his studio
57:29
under armed guard and under those very difficult conditions he began to literally paint for his life for he knew
57:35
that if he failed he faced execution over the next three weeks in the
57:43
presence of police witnesses he created a new forgery which was the young Christ
57:49
teaching in the temple the creation of this painting captured
57:54
worldwide press attention on Van Meegeren emerged as a national folk hero the underdog who had made buffoons out
58:01
of all the experts the new painting
58:07
indeed stood up to scrutiny the charge of collaboration was now changed to one of forgery
58:15
and a poll before the trial Van Meegeren was voted the second most popular man in Holland after the Prime Minister on
58:24
October 29th 1947 that League reigns trial began right here ironically this
58:30
defendant wanted nothing so much as to be found guilty because you see that would prove that he was a genius here we
58:39
have that formation and it was here I am and during his day seen in the courts
58:45
film crews from all over the world his wife was there and it was his Triomphe
58:50
though in poor health at age 58 he was determined to appear debonair he was not
58:57
about to squander this moment in the limelight [Music]
59:06
the people who were giving evidence against him we're the experts and critics who'd been duped by his work few
59:14
wanted to give evidence because doing so was to admit their own incompetence and
59:19
stupidity a commission was set up to examine the paintings in a laboratory
59:26
knew that his paintings and that's very important he knew that his pictures were going to be subjected eventually to
59:33
x-rays it's very interesting he anticipated that and so he used all
59:40
paintings as was done before but in a different way 17th century painters often painted over
59:47
old canvases and this in fact had made Van migrants forgeries seen authentic
59:52
but now he could use this very point to prove that he was the forger he told the
59:58
Commission exactly what images laid beneath the paintings something that only he as the forger could have known
1:00:06
the painting Christ with the adulteress was x-rayed the radiograph of the framed
1:00:12
part showed a battle scene likewise the x-ray of the washing of the
1:00:17
feet revealed a horse and it's rider exactly as Van Meegeren had predicted
1:00:23
for me here and after the trial after they also proved that his paintings were
1:00:29
that there were faults then he said in the future it will not be possible at
1:00:35
all to make any forgeries that passed these tests the Commission unanimously
1:00:42
declared all of Van migrants Vermeer's to be fake after only two days Van
1:00:50
Meegeren was found guilty on the charge of forging signatures he was sentenced to two years imprisonment but migrants
1:00:59
downfall dead in a very real sense - a triumph for his revelations put the entire art establishment on trials the
1:01:07
con artist was convicted of forgery the marks were convicted of arrogance and incompetence because of his failing
1:01:15
health Van Meegeren didn't go to prison shortly after the trial he was admitted
1:01:20
to the valerian clinic he died of a heart attack on December 29th 1947
1:01:28
[Music] run Negron once wrote I want to see my
1:01:35
paintings and great museums if not as a reputable Peter than as a forger his
1:01:41
wish came true today his forgery is not only hang in galleries they're considered the most successful fakes of
1:01:48
the 20th century I personally regard his painting just very very ugly but and it
1:01:56
for me is it's so strange that the the big art historians the big names from
1:02:02
from those days that they regarded these paintings really as for me as or Peter dogs or whatever it's it's incredible
1:02:13
again I say it's easy to be wise after the event but I think there's also
1:02:19
something second or third rate about his forgeries but of course would I have said that in 1936 would I have said it
1:02:26
in 1942 when they were generally thought to be Vermeer's in hindsight you see you
1:02:35
can almost recognize any forgery because the people who did not see right away
1:02:40
that for me her and had done these works they were of the same period 10 20 30 40
1:02:49
50 years later this becomes more and more obvious but whether they would
1:02:58
still be on share the pride of the museum's collection can only be
1:03:03
speculative I didn't think bear Migron was a great painter he was a great
1:03:10
chemist and a great psychologist and a great technician all these qualities
1:03:19
were necessary for him to succeed as a forger if truth is beauty is beauty
1:03:25
necessarily true in one migraineurs case the illusion was more powerful than the
1:03:30
truth his lie earned this odd vengeful scoundrel a place in history not only
1:03:37
because of who he scammed but because his scam was on masterpiece
1:03:42

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

[Music]
1:03:49
step right up friends and neighbors and tell me you sir what is the first thing in your mind when you look in the mirror
1:03:55
in the morning and what's the last thing when you lay down to sleep at night I know the question on your mind is how am
1:04:01
I fixed for soap well for a mere five dollars you can not only try a soap of unusual strength and purity you can also
1:04:07
have a dance with Lady Luck and find yourself not only a cleaner but a welcoming that was the pitch you could
1:04:14
hear most days down at 17th and Larimer streets in Denver Colorado 1886 the trim
1:04:20
looking man with the basket of soap was Jefferson Randolph also known as soapy
1:04:26
Smith soapy Smith who was the ultimate con artist of that era that was called
1:04:33
soapy Smith for that reason he used to rap bars of soap with with $50 bills with $10 bills $20 bills $5 bills leave
1:04:40
a corner sticking out and they're selling for $5 each by the time the purchased bar got to the anxious
1:04:46
customer however the bills had inexplicably disappeared Jefferson
1:04:54
Randolph Smith was the oldest son of a genteel southern family who left their home in Georgia to take up residence in
1:05:00
Texas there as a teenager he worked on the cattle drives along the old Chisholm
1:05:05
Trail between Abilene and San Antone driving Texas Longhorns along hot dust
1:05:12
choke trails or plunging along with the herd into the raging waters the Cimarron
1:05:17
River but just part of the job $30 a month was all a cowboy could
1:05:22
expect and returned for long and often dangerous hours in the saddle one morning Jefferson Randolph headed
1:05:28
into San Antonio to cede the circuit you had no idea he was about to lose his
1:05:34
shirt and start a new way of life was a very rational man he had many attributes
1:05:41
he was the individual who could walk into a room and kind of light up the room in several different ways by the
1:05:46
way and he quickly learned when he was caught on a shell game which is they're
1:05:52
moving the pn of the three walnut shells that he lost all of his earnings over for several months in a few minutes
1:05:59
club football was one of the great shell game masters of all time that hadn't
1:06:04
taken him long to police jeff smith of every penny but smith wasn't angry with
1:06:09
the fast-talking hall he was envious he decided right then to earn his living
1:06:14
in a more rewarding way he quit his job the next day and determined to learn the
1:06:20
shell game joined the circus heading north after honing his skills in the small
1:06:26
frontier towns of Kansas and Colorado Smith arrived in Denver in 1884
1:06:32
it was the Bunko capital of the West at the height of his Denver days soapy ran
1:06:37
a saloon and the gambling hall he organized a gang of fellow cons and his accomplices were spread among dozens of
1:06:44
legitimate and not so legitimate businesses bartenders hotel owners even Madam's
1:06:51
provided him with the information he needed to work his cause [Music]
1:06:56
and they had barbers on the list as well and barbers tended to elicit information from individuals they would quite often
1:07:02
clip a little V in the back of their haircut which meant that this one was a mark indeed and soapy Smith was quick to
1:07:08
take advantage of that by 1893 soapy was looking for new opportunities and headed
1:07:13
to nearby Creede Colorado Reid was a boomtown that grew up around the holy
1:07:18
Moses silver mine with no existing government had no police force to contend with soapy Smith soon became de
1:07:26
facto ruler of the town in the saloons card sharps mined for silver in the
1:07:31
pockets of unwitting patrons while on the streets impromptu games of three-card Monte and the shell game
1:07:38
lightened their wallets soapy made money from it all his smooth talk and ability
1:07:43
to organize the other con men took him from being a mere street hustler to controlling an outlaw Empire his
1:07:51
confidence men were extremely well paid I think he enjoyed the role he was a study in contrasts very genteel in many
1:08:00
respects aristocratic looking spoke softly was very very eloquent in front
1:08:06
of a crowd and managed to manage to convince people of course this is the
1:08:12
one of the one of the signs of a very fine confidence man in 1897 the SS
1:08:18
Excelsior sailed into San Francisco with over 1 million dollars in gold bullion
1:08:23
on board Gold had been discovered in the Klondike the fever struck and the rush was on
1:08:30
with visions of immeasurable wealth filling their heads masses of people abandoned their firms and families to
1:08:36
seek their fortunes towns sprang up overnight along with prospectors who
1:08:42
expected to get rich from gold came con men who expected to get rich from prospectors back in Denver soapy quickly
1:08:50
understood the role that geography was going to play he realized that the town of Skagway in Alaska was the only
1:08:56
gateway to the Yukon Gold Fields and that all the fortune hunters would have to pass through it seeing a
1:09:02
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity soapy and his gang packed up their Merc Kurds and crooked dice and headed for Alaska and
1:09:11
of course a boomtown is established because of the wealth of either led zinc or silver or gold or whatever the metal
1:09:16
is and they rose overnight there weren't many laws in a lot of these towns certainly Colorado is an example
1:09:22
Skagway was a classic example so they gravitated there and who was to follow them on the Bunco men and then the con
1:09:28
artists and they were there in in all sorts of numbers as well as the gamblers volunteers are perfect setups the reason
1:09:36
they're ideal for these individuals that the rules haven't been established yet everything goes the laws is if it's
1:09:42
there it's sort of weak and amorphous and pretty ineffectual so these individuals can get into areas where
1:09:50
there is a breakdown and structure or where social structure has not yet developed and they can function with
1:09:55
impunity so Pete took Skagway by storm his operations were well organized and
1:10:01
his scams had a certain Flair Sofie opened a telegraph office a binary riving in town could send a telegram to
1:10:08
his loved ones back home assuring them of his safe arrival often a reply would come back the very same day each
1:10:15
telegram costs $10 thousands of messages were sent before anyone seemed to notice
1:10:21
there were no telegraph wires in his kagwe he set up an information booth for
1:10:28
miners on their way to the gold fields unlike most this information booth specialized in extracting information
1:10:34
rather than giving it the hopeful miner was questioned as to whether he had enough money to
1:10:40
make the trip to Dawson anyone with a large Grove steak became the target for Soapy's schemes the average prospector
1:10:48
is an optimist he's waiting for a strike just around the next bend in the creek or in a creek that no one else has found
1:10:54
or perhaps a digging they've missed it appeals to that type of individual this is a type of an individual who takes the
1:11:00
chance so they'll take a chance on the diggings they'll probably take a chance on other things as well and indeed they
1:11:05
did so there they're set mentally to become a mark for the con men so P was
1:11:11
the virtual dictator of Skagway while his hired thugs beat robbed and sometimes murdered the miners his
1:11:18
accomplices in every gambling establishment every bordello and every bar in town fleeced them without mercy
1:11:25
fixed card games and fake gold claims stock swindles and gold brick scams no
1:11:35
one really touched soapy Smith and he had of course all sorts of reasons why he succeeded he befriended the the
1:11:41
reporters politicians of all stripes write to the federal level the police of course he had a network of Confederates
1:11:49
and confidence men who felt that he was the ultimate confidence man and they would do very well under him what
1:11:56
couldn't be taken by force was extracted by deception miners out for a good time were more than ready to pay for female
1:12:03
company which the dance halls were more than willing to supply dancehall girls like Klondike Kate and snake hips Lulu
1:12:10
made small fortunes with a clever mixture of bawdy charms and sleight of hand
1:12:16
they danced with a man for a daughter usually the house would get twenty-five cents if they would get 75 cents and
1:12:21
that's where the term chip or chippy game of action because sometimes there was more involved in that but generally
1:12:28
they work for a percentage and they also worked for a percentage of the drinks so some of them did extremely well some of
1:12:35
them had at the end of their careers certainly in Dawson City and in places like Skagway more rangel they would have
1:12:41
solid gold belts with 22-hour gold pieces and each one of the each one of the loops of the belt
1:12:47
[Music]
1:12:54
Sophie did have a big heart beside which he flaunted in grand gestures I could benevolent dictator he wanted to
1:13:01
be admired he supported the local churches and started an adoption program for the abandoned dogs of Skagway he
1:13:08
himself took in six lucky stray mutts on the 4th of July in 1898 Grand Marshal
1:13:15
soapy Smith met a spectacular parade through the streets of Skagway it was
1:13:20
its greatest moment but even as soapy enjoyed the acclaim of the holiday crowd
1:13:26
other events would soon dispelled his illusions of grandeur the soapy had been able to limit his protection to
1:13:32
competence men and hungry dogs he might have continued without opposition but a much rougher breed was
1:13:38
being drawn to Skagway men who didn't hesitate at outright murder and they too
1:13:43
operated with Sophie's approval the law-abiding citizens of the town started to feel that soapy despite his personal
1:13:50
charm was too much of a liability JD Stuart a miner on his way back to Vancouver Island was robbed in broad
1:13:57
daylight by a group of Soapy's thugs it was the last straw for the respectable
1:14:02
element of the town a group of armed miners headed down to City Hall to deal with this latest outrage Sophie headed
1:14:09
there too but this time neither his gift of oratory or his gang could save
1:14:15
nor could the loaded shotgun he was carrying he was confronted by city engineer Frank Reid they fired at the
1:14:22
same time soapy died instantly with a bullet through his heart it had only
1:14:31
been four days since his triumphant ride as grand marshal of the Independence Day
1:14:37
Parade he had no compunction no sympathy
1:14:42
for stripping a man of everything he had and sometimes he'd give him a square meal that's about all
1:14:47
not passage out of town because passage out of town was on the sternwheeler and or another ship and that would cost too
1:14:54
much and so he wasn't about to do that so he did have a weakness he liked to be
1:14:59
admired and that's probably why I ended up virtually a destitute manner of his death soapy had gambled are given away
1:15:07
the hundreds of thousands of dollars that passed through his outlaw empire he wanted the admiration of society yet he
1:15:14
could not live within its rules he chose the path of marked cards crooked games
1:15:21
and easy money a gambler to the very end those who young had a favorite memory of
1:15:26
Smith sitting in the front pew on a Sunday singing his favorite hymn free
1:15:32
from the law Oh blessed condition today
1:15:37
we live in a world filled with many kinds of media where the truth may be manipulated in very sophisticated ways
1:15:44
we expect sitcoms and adventure stories to be the product of someone's imagination but the news
1:15:53
feeling tired maybe just a little bit stressed well a visiting New York therapist says he has a roaring good way
1:16:01
to chase away those blues and he's trying it out in East London vince rogers explains exactly just rule this
1:16:12
reporter thinks he's getting a scoop on a new-age social therapy developed in california he's really getting scammed
1:16:19
the man behind this caper is New York media hoaxster Joey Skaggs over the past
1:16:27
25 years Joey Skaggs has created dozens of fabricated news stories all disseminated through the mainstream
1:16:33
media [Music] he's created hoaxes such as impoverished
1:16:39
artists living in water towers in Manhattan and curing baldness by
1:16:45
transplanting scalps from cadavers he even managed to hoax the gameshow to tell the truth and
1:16:52
invented a story that received international attention the fat squad and the fat squad consists of a contract
1:17:00
that you would take out on yourself to rub out your own fat a three-day minimum $300 a day plus expenses and every eight
1:17:07
hours a new commander was with you to make sure that you don't break your diet and we will physically restrain you with
1:17:13
force if necessary our commandos take no bribes
1:17:21
whoa no no not here yeah look at his strawberries come on let's do this thing
1:17:28
Martha Wilcox is taking a tough new stand on dieting no longer alone in a
1:17:33
world of temptations she'll have help staying on her latest she's hired the
1:17:40
fat squad I sent this out to the news
1:17:46
media it was picked up by the Philadelphia Inquirer in The Washington Post they totally believed it made the
1:17:53
wire services I then went on national television and everyone around the world
1:17:59
Japanese television and the German television Italian television the French television CNN they all fell apart I use
1:18:08
the media as a painter would use a canvas I'm a social political media satirist and what I mean by that is I
1:18:14
create plausible but non-existent realities that are staged for the media but media even when that only meant
1:18:21
newspapers has always had the means to manipulate the truth journalists and editors in the Old West well understood
1:18:28
the public's appetite for sensational stories phony articles were dreamed up and published not just for fun but for
1:18:35
profit the further away from its place of origin the more likely it was for a tall tale to be printed as fact every
1:18:44
paper in in Alaska or in California or along the frontier every one of them was
1:18:50
was the kind of tabloid that would that would look silly perhaps at your
1:18:57
checkout counter day but this was these were these were the regular newspapers of the time and the hoax story wasn't
1:19:02
just another literary genre early radio soon demonstrated even greater powers of
1:19:09
persuasion it was the night of Halloween 1938 Orson Welles and a group of actors
1:19:16
performed an adaptation of HG Welles War of the Worlds ladies and gentlemen I
1:19:23
have a grave announcement to make incredible as it may seem so strange beings who landed in the jersey
1:19:28
farmlands tonight the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars
1:19:33
all over America listeners to the Lindo a panic believing the drama was real people flocked into churches to pray
1:19:40
emergency rooms were filled with people in shock when the public realized the
1:19:46
broadcasts had been staged the players were taken into protective custody for fear they'd be attacked by mobs of angry
1:19:53
listeners it was a most famous unintentional media hoax in history I'm
1:20:00
surprised that the HG Wells classic which is the original for many fantasies
1:20:08
about invasions by mythical monsters from the planet Mars should have had
1:20:17
such an immediate and profound effect upon radio listeners with the arrival of
1:20:23
television came the opportunity for more elaborate hoaxes the last two weeks of
1:20:29
March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer there's always the chance of a late frost which while not
1:20:36
entirely ruining the crop generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices
1:20:42
in world markets but now these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest goes
1:20:47
forward spaghetti cultivation here in Switzerland is not of course carried out
1:20:53
on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry beginning in the 1950s the BBC elevated the art of the
1:21:01
intentional media hoax to a new level there April Fool's Day broadcast of
1:21:06
preposterous fake news stories has become an institution the secret is to
1:21:14
get something which is just about believable you know stretches the imagination a little bit but not too far
1:21:20
but in my experience I've found that in fact the public had taken in by the most ridiculous lies and often don't believe
1:21:28
those things which are actually true we didn't immediately recognize the significance of what we saw first when
1:21:34
we entered hopped in park but these pictures taken in very difficult conditions at 200 yards distance
1:21:41
disclosed a reality won't than anything our wildest suspicions had suggested not just the recombination of
1:21:48
genes to make new species but the recreation of species that died out millions of years ago there was
1:21:55
something basically very wrong with their library there were reports of books tumbling from the shelves
1:22:02
difficulties in opening and closing the windows even trouble getting through some of the doors the problems of living
1:22:09
with a new library built up so much in the first few months the grim and District Council decided to hold an
1:22:15
investigation imagine the shock and embarrassment then for the townsfolk of Grimm and when they discovered that
1:22:21
their library which looks like this should in fact have looked like this
1:22:28
their library had quite simply been built upside down the television and the
1:22:35
media environment in general is reality making but the media and media images
1:22:41
because they are so riveting and persuasive and fast-paced and frequent
1:22:47
serve to establish a basis upon which we define our reality our very selves our
1:22:55
relationship to others and because of that media have great authority in our
1:23:02
lives Joey Skaggs is convinced that the
1:23:07
media's authority and power are not always deserved and he's made a career out of proving how easy it is to fool
1:23:13
them I give them what they want what they're looking for the hook and my work
1:23:19
is done in the number of stages the first stage is the hook that's where I come up with a concept and then I figure
1:23:24
out how to execute that concept how it's going to work what I me and I staged the event
1:23:34
this is poplars very own pride of lions indulging in their rather peculiar form
1:23:39
of group therapy and of course they have their own Lion King by the name of Baba
1:23:45
while Simba he's flown over from New York to lead to the roaring sessions and then I document where it goes and who
1:23:53
does what with it I record the process of how the media interprets what I'm
1:23:58
doing for their own purposes what they do with it and thirdly I then reveal the
1:24:04
truth and that gets very interesting and then I document what the media does with the truth do they address it
1:24:10
do they ignore it do they trivialize me do they treat me like I'm the bad guy or
1:24:16
am I the person with the message you're
1:24:21
a reporter engaged in your professional practice you got all these stories going
1:24:28
on simultaneously you're looking for leads you got this call you got these apparently valid and real press releases
1:24:39
about a news story you follow them up you spend a lot of time doing that whomp you're off back to the studio I got to
1:24:45
get the Edit it's got to be on the six o'clock and the 11 o'clock and it goes on and on and there's no time for
1:24:52
engagement and reflection while Joey was developing his talent as a painter he
1:24:58
was also finding his role as social commentator and provocateur during the
1:25:03
heady days of the 60s counterculture I constructed a life-size Vietnamese
1:25:09
village portraying a Vietnamese nativity I erected in Central Park on Christmas and I had a group of actors dressed as
1:25:15
American soldiers attack it with fake guns to protest the war in Vietnam and
1:25:21
there were numerous arrests in that day as well and the New York Times covered the story and said something along the
1:25:28
line that we were arrested for littering Scaggs was struck by the media's ability to reinterpret events for the public and
1:25:35
decided to try to manipulate this power and roman catholics attending the 1992
1:25:42
democratic convention in new york who didn't have time to confess at this unusual option porta fess a portable
1:25:50
confessional pulled by a bicycle it was the brainchild of the Reverend Anthony Joseph aka Joey scams the hardest thing
1:26:02
about that was designing the confessional booth I had to have a tricycle custom-made and I'll get the priests outfit then to pedal up there
1:26:08
and be exposed to about 15,000 journalists covering you know the Democratic convention there was awesome
1:26:15
they were all over me journalists were all over me I had actors posing as people coming in to confess and then real people wanted to
1:26:22
confess and I had a hard time keeping them out I said I was waiting for Ted Kennedy you're a drunk come back again and I found myself front-page news the
1:26:29
Philadelphia Enquirer CBS Fox CNN everybody jumped on the bandwagon and
1:26:35
finally when they called up California where I said I was from as this priest Father Anthony Joseph the archdiocese
1:26:42
said what are you kidding we don't know this guy I think there's a professional pride they don't like to feel that somebody
1:26:48
can pull the wool over their eyes I think they're angry because they can
1:26:53
see the more serious side of it that if somebody can hoax them on something that's fairly trivial Jim perhaps somebody can hook someone something much
1:26:59
more sinister more important how do you fool those whose very business it is to
1:27:06
tell the truth CNN UPI ABC CBS with a
1:27:11
fax machine in some cooperative friends Joey has scammed them all his skill like
1:27:16
that of so many great confidence tricksters is understanding the preoccupations of his own society he
1:27:22
knows exactly what his marks want to hear it's so predictable you can you can
1:27:28
make a calendar of events you know what the media is going to be recording
1:27:33
during the course of a year you know they're gonna have the homeless on Thanksgiving you know they're gonna you
1:27:39
know be there the anniversary of trinova Liz you know there's always a disaster
1:27:44
or an event you can predict what stories are going to cover so you know what
1:27:49
they're looking for and it's really easy to tune in that way you can do an ironic reversal or a
1:27:55
juxtaposition or even a statement along those lines and you're pretty much guaranteed that that's going to push the
1:28:02
button that they want to hear and that's one way of getting access to them we the
1:28:09
jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder and
1:28:15
violence the OJ Simpson murder trial it was the biggest media circus of 1995 and
1:28:22
it became the basis for an elaborate and thought-provoking media hoax Skaggs called it the Solomon project posing as
1:28:32
a New York University professor named dr. Joseph von Musel Skaggs sent a letter to over 3,000 judges legislators
1:28:40
law enforcement officers legal publishers and law schools now the
1:28:47
Solomon project I said was seven years and in developing we had over 150
1:28:53
scientists artificial intelligence scientists and computer experts lawyers and judges who were working on this
1:28:59
project and students we were inputting all the laws of the land both criminal
1:29:05
and civil into a series of supercomputers and that these computers would be able to replace juries I sent
1:29:13
out a second press release saying that we were preparing a 15 city tour we were soliciting cases that were controversial
1:29:20
we're gonna retry them with a computer and we were even going to retry OJ man
1:29:27
beautifully smartly he throws in oh gee that CNN became oj TV it became the
1:29:35
fetish of of America for a while sadly so and so he's got he's got all
1:29:42
the preconditions to carry out a hoax which is not merely a hoax which is a
1:29:47
critique and ultimately an indictment I said on a third press release saying that we did retry OJ and we found him
1:29:55
guilty now that's what everyone was waiting to hear Oh J guilty of course he's guilty but now we know you know
1:30:01
look the computer said he is guilty so I really hit a lot of nerves with that
1:30:06
one Skaggs had 24 hours to prepare for a CNN news crew intent on interviewing dr.
1:30:12
Joseph bono so of course they also wanted to shoot a demonstration of the Solomon supercomputer at work
1:30:24
we got about 25 people there and we designed bogus screens OJ guilty all
1:30:32
this stuff that was only literally a screen deep there was nothing beyond it and we did voice-stress analysis we
1:30:39
could analyze your voice you were telling the truth you're not telling the truth you are somewhat telling the truth
1:30:45
you was somewhat telling a lie and all this was rigged just totally totally bogus
1:30:51
when CNN came in they saw these cameras they saw these journalists they see all these screens all those computers
1:30:56
there's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment there well it has to be real and it's NYU Law School of
1:31:02
course it's real the danger was that the crew might ask to see something that wasn't technically possible on the
1:31:09
computer or that the reporter would make inquiries at NYU Law School about their innovative professors neither one
1:31:16
happened the piece complete with newsdesk intro reporter standups oj file footage
1:31:23
and joeys interview was broadcast across the country on December 29 1995 it
1:31:30
didn't catch it that evening though you're unlikely ever to see it
1:31:35
related to do the last stage of what I
1:31:41
did which is to tell the truth ultimately is the hardest thing because nobody wants to hear it and when you try
1:31:47
to gain access to the news media and say listen we're preparing a piece and showing how this was a hoax and what
1:31:54
it's all about we'd like to get permission to run this footage they say no they don't want the
1:32:01
public to question their credibility as investigative news source anymore than they've already been questioned I've
1:32:08
been on some shows like a half a dozen times I fooled CNN I think five or six times porta fast walk right fat squad
1:32:15
bad guys it's always amazing to me when sometimes the same crew shows up you
1:32:22
know as a cameraman or a sound person from from a previous hoax will show up say you know this place looks familiar was a guy heroes making fish condos oh
1:32:28
really and that's this has happened I've been on live at five about a half a dozen times so it's it's kind of
1:32:36
frightening when you think about you know how they don't remember anything they don't can't remember the story is
1:32:43
more important than the truth sometimes I don't measure my success by how many
1:32:50
people I've fooled how many newspapers or radio stations or magazines I fool but how many people I'm
1:32:56
able to reach with the messages that we are all being fooled when will schedule
1:33:03
reporters that he's perpetrated his last post I swore that this would this would
1:33:09
be the last one he's this the last would you hope to sure I'm not gonna do this anymore I
1:33:16
decided that I've had it with hoaxes too many people have seen my face it's gonna get really difficult to do this so I'm
1:33:23
gonna quit Joey Skaggs doesn't break the law and he
1:33:29
doesn't profit from his schemes but to those he's duped he's a scoundrel as
1:33:35
someone who makes expert use of the con artist bag of tricks Skaggs may make us laugh but he also
1:33:41
wants us to look more carefully at the truth that we're being sold for the
1:33:50
foibles of human nature and the well-tested rules of deception meat is where the con artist plies his trade but
1:33:57
without fooling believers in the promise of instant riches a miracle cure or an undiscovered masterpiece the scam is
1:34:04
just another game of solitaire
1:34:12
[Music]

[admin]

Wolfgang Beltracchi, the greatest art forger
Dec 13, 2021
Best Documentary

Journalists from around the world are gathered in Köln's courthouse for the end of the trial of Wolfgang Beltracchi for art forgery. Originally from a family of painters and art restorers, he decided to use the skills he had learn from his father to make a bit of extra cash, copying the work of great masters. Rather than working on his own art, he realised he could make money quickly by imitating those who were already famous.



Transcript

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0:00
[Music] Cologne in Germany 27th of October 2011 journalists from around the world had
0:06
gathered at the city's courthouse today judge villain Kramer is to deliver his verdict on an extraordinary case of art
0:13
forgery separatists had fun begin from
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the start this trial has had a lot of media coverage and there's been a lot of
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speculation this is the trial of Wolfgang belt rocky who forged dozens of
0:34
paintings and sold them around the world he passed these paintings off as works by major artists such as Fennell leche
0:40
or Max Ernst every time both King Pataki
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needed some money then he painted a new fake to get the money and then he would
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live for a few months very good very nice
1:03
major fraud which made him massive sums of money at least 35 million euros and
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all four paintings which were declared fake by the courts for 30 years the
1:15
forger along with a few accomplices managed to fool the experts the auction houses the art dealers and major
1:21
collectors [Music] he worked with his wife heléne they were
1:27
the Bonnie and Clyde of the art world intoxicated by the excitement in order to hoodwink the art world which took
1:33
itself so seriously the couple came up with an incredibly far-fetched scenario
1:38
if somebody would do this in a film everybody would say oh come on this is not plausible but in reality it is from
1:48
Paris to Cologne via Berlin London and Geneva we went to meet all those who came into contact with Wolfgang felt
1:55
rocky and his forged paintings they all talked about an egocentric man who was
2:01
very sure of himself and a real expert on the art market he was so sure of
2:08
himself that he probably thought he was as good as the painters he was imitating the aim behind it all was financial gain
2:15
today Wolfgang belt rocky gives the impression of being a real expert on painting he is
2:21
guarded and very selective about any media appearances I think bedrock he
2:28
wants to control his his legions and his biography he doesn't want other people
2:37
to to write about him too openly - he
2:45
was he wants to hide some of his stories this is the true story of Wolfgang belt
2:52
rocky the Prince of forges
3:03
[Music]
3:23
Wolfgang Bell track II was born wolfgang fischer in a germany that was being completely rebuilt after the war
3:29
on 4th of February 1951 here in Guilin Curtain a small town in the north of the
3:35
country both gangs mother was a private tutor
3:46
his father filum Fisher had an unusual job which made a lasting impression on the young wolf gang he restored
3:54
paintings in the region's churches
3:59
welcomed by trucky said that already from childhood only started to draw entertained because he was surrounded by
4:07
people who were working with paint he said with the exception of his oldest
4:12
brother everybody was painting in the family so he said it was like brushing your teeth so and every day he was drawing and
4:18
painting after the war life in Germany was hard to make a bit of extra cash
4:25
bill and Fisher had a second job in the evenings in his studio he copied works
4:32
by the great masters which he then sold at the market paintings by Rembrandt
4:37
says AM and Picasso the young Wolfgang spent long hours in this studio silently
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watching his father one day in 1965 villain Fisher issued his son with a
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challenge he gave him a postcard of a work by Pablo Picasso first hang was fourteen he
5:02
started painting his first copy
5:07
[Music]
5:17
welcome back Rakhi said he copied it in such a good way that he surprised his father because he even didn't just copy
5:23
it but he made it even better he perfected it in certain details and he said his father was really completely
5:29
overwhelmed when he saw it and almost angry so he said but that's probably just a legend that his father stopped
5:35
copying and painting for almost two years because he was so upset that his son had surpassed him I don't know
5:42
whether the father ever imagined that his son would become one of the most successful art forgers in the history of art
5:49
in the 1960s both gang Fisher was a teenager growing up in a radically
5:54
changing Germany to a soundtrack of pop and psychedelic rock the culture and morals were becoming less strict in 1968
6:02
at the age of 17 those gang just like all young people in Germany was fascinated by this evolving
6:08
counterculture late 60s early 70s there
6:13
were the the rebellion the hippie movement and so on and no Afghan fuscia
6:21
was quickly a part of this movement he was he was a hippie
6:30
after a few years at art school for skank Fisher got bored [Music]
6:35
in terms of travel and freedom and despite an obvious talent for
6:42
painting he dropped out of college without any qualifications [Music]
6:57
he grew his hair long and his girlfriend at the time gave him a harley-davidson
7:03
the same as the one Peter Fonda rode in Easy Rider an iconic film for the hippie
7:08
generation for Wolfgang Fischer that marked the start of a decade of drug-fueled wandering across Europe
7:15
marginal to the last he took one drug after another he was smoking pot and he
7:29
was he he also smoked some opium at one
7:35
time and he he did a lot of LSD during the 1970s wolfgang fischer lived
7:43
for a while in Berlin and Paris and then London Amsterdam and Majorca she never
7:50
really worked but he had to make a bit of money for his trips that was when he
7:56
started painting copies of great masters just like his father had done he sold
8:02
these copies for a few hundred marks at flea markets he was doing pavement paintings in order
8:08
to gain money and he boasts even that he earned more than his father he said he gained 100 Demark day while his father
8:15
earned in a month's 900 day mark so you can tell that he was very proud in surpassing his father wolfgang fischer
8:22
was now 27 and he sometimes went to work on his own creations rather than copying other artists in 1978 three of his
8:30
paintings were exhibited in a museum in Munich in Germany
8:37
these were surrealist paintings worked in a photorealistic style
8:42
acrylic on a canvas and yeah there must
8:48
have been in a certain way modestly even successful because he was exhibited in the house a kunst in 1978 the young
8:56
painter managed to sell one of his canvases for 15,000 marks which equates to about 8,000 euros one gallery even
9:03
offered him a contract at that stage the Frank fish's life could have taken a different turn but he refused to sign he
9:11
wasn't interested in being an artist he was lazy and preferred the simple life
9:17
and traveling to the hard and precarious work of a professional painter
9:24
if you're an artist who has to do his art you know you usually don't earn a
9:32
lot of money in the first decades of your career so you really have to you
9:40
you work on your on your artwork and you live for it and you don't have any money you you somehow have to survive it was
9:47
not interested in working hard he wanted to gain quick money he wanted to have a nice lifestyle so he realized it would
9:54
be much easier to fake paintings than to create own paintings Wolfgang Fischer
10:00
was now 30 he settled in Dusseldorf at the start of the 1980s this was where he
10:07
truly became a forger tired of living on very little he wanted to earn more money
10:12
he started copying paintings that were better known in the art world with a view to selling them in specialist
10:18
auction houses these works were carefully selected for their style
10:24
[Music] welcome but rocky was quite clever when it came to the choice of artists he
10:32
faked because he knew it would have been very difficult to take the really famous artists like I don't know a van Gogh
10:38
[ __ ] and whare something like that so he was quite clever because he choose if you like the b-grade artists which were
10:47
important but which are not as famous as the big ones Thomas say/do worked at Christie's one
10:53
of the world's biggest auction houses he was in charge of modern and impressionist art collections and
10:59
without realizing it years later he hand out some paintings Wolfgang Bell Jackie had forged
11:04
[Music] give the Seleucia what he did was follow which movement
11:11
sold well from a commercial point of view and it's true that surrealism German and Austrian art and Fauvism were
11:18
three movements which were big sellers when he was working and forging paintings but it was another idea a
11:27
stroke of genius which allowed Phil Frank Fisher to really begin his career as a forger because he knew straight
11:35
copies of paintings were very risky so he developed a hitherto unknown technique he started painting originals
11:43
painted in the style of four that he used what were known as catalogue
11:49
raisonné which were sort of comprehensive inventory of an artist's works and in these catalogs of works by
11:56
artists there would be certain paintings which had disappeared and never been photographed all you had was their title
12:03
size and a simple description
12:09
introducing technique a sabbatical year he used a technique which was quite unusual and very clever he recreated
12:15
paintings which had been lost but which were known to have existed at some stage they were usually illustrated in a
12:21
catalogue raisonné with blank squares he was going through the catalogues of these exhibitions reading seeing where
12:29
elack's where people where our missing links in the documentation and that's exactly where positioned his face fakes
12:36
then and he reinterpreted them using the same size of canvas and the same title
12:41
for his paintings which showed a vast knowledge of the work of each artist he copied because he did it remarkably well
12:47
in order to paint in the style of both gang pushed his technique to the limit to the point of getting under the skin
12:54
of the artists he was imitating [Music]
12:59
he said he wasn't just looking at the paintings of the artists he would Forge but he would really try to get
13:05
everything on their lives at a certain period up to listening to the music they were listening up to finding out with
13:13
whom where they're talking what was their habit in everyday life and then really getting into the mind of the
13:21
painter Pranay allonge is a police commissioner in the Crime Squad in
13:26
Berlin he was in charge of Wolfgang Fischer's arrest
13:34
the stinky Shawn mitten Crimson DFL inverter he really immersed himself in
13:40
the work of the artist he was copying he read a lot about them he went to various
13:45
places to soak up the atmosphere and to see the landscapes for himself no other
13:54
forger had ever shown such inventiveness and imagination in their long-term plan to dupe the market but once these
14:05
forgeries had been painted by both gang Fisher he needed to find a way of selling them on the art market in the
14:12
spring of 1985 a chance encounter was to allow the forger to dupe the auction houses here in this cafe in the town of
14:23
Krefeld he met the man who was to become one of the key characters in his ruse
14:29
auto shelter Kellen Gauss essential to
14:35
quasi anyone who met auto shelter described him as being or at least appearing to be more serious and more
14:43
rigorous than Wolfgang go trucky author short akela house was somebody who
14:49
always were ahead and and long black coat and he was a chic gentleman
15:01
verse Kang was seduced by the charisma of his new friend and ended up telling him about his activity as a forger a
15:08
pact was made vers gang would paint the pictures and otto would take care of
15:15
selling them on the art market the heart is the hellish sue from China
15:21
foreign lagann fans I'm all fleeting here the fact that he had a presence and was cultured meant that he was taken
15:28
seriously by the dealers as worn he
15:33
didn't have to convince them of his expertise he certainly had a lot of
15:39
contacts with Ian - he's buggy isn't he
15:44
was in no way a stranger to the art world with this alliance both gang went
15:52
from being a petty criminal to a major criminal the collaboration between the
16:00
two men soon bore fruit auto shelters gift of the gab worked a treat in the
16:06
art world and with this setup the to manage to dupe numerous professionals
16:17
some of the duo's best sellers were forgeries of paintings by German expressionist here Hannes Molson an
16:23
artist who had fled Nazi Germany in 1938 leaving behind him numerous paintings
16:28
which of today disappeared and are not known about imitating Mulsanne style
16:35
first gang Fisher would paint forgeries in his studio and then otto would come
16:40
up with a story to explain their reappearance the duo shifted a dozen
16:45
paintings and the sale prices far exceeded those Fisher had charged at the flea markets one of the fake Mulsanne's
16:53
made them almost 41 thousand euros the auction houses didn't suspect a thing
16:58
the style had been perfectly imitated
17:09
from the breadth of the brushstrokes down to the quantity of paint used the forger showed real precision he had been
17:17
careful to find out what sort of checks were carried out during the sales of valuable paintings in laboratories such
17:24
as this one in London canvases are analyzed in great detail Nicholas Easter
17:30
is the scientist two years later uncovered Wolfgang Fischer's forgeries
17:39
we're looking for materials that might be appropriate for that particular time
17:45
or not so things that are anachronistic say so
17:50
we're taking samples analyzing in detail to identify say certain pigments that
17:57
were only introduced after the supposed date of the painting x-rays carbon
18:04
dating tests on the wood the canvas and the pigments everything is scrutinized down to the last detail
18:14
to make sure he slipped through the net first gank Fisher chose his pigments carefully and got hold of very old
18:21
canvases [Music] he would buy old paintings at flea
18:30
markets he would take off the paint from the canvas and then he would paint it
18:36
with a new painting don't you love a that way his materials would guaranteed
18:42
to be from the right era that meant he could more accurately produce a painting that looked original and he was
18:51
incredibly bold when it came to testing how convincing his fakes were he even
18:58
sent some of his forgeries to labs such as this one to make sure he passed the scientific tests he's also said that he
19:09
produced a test paintings that he would pass by a couple of laboratories anything that was that came up as being
19:17
wrong he would eliminate from his palette by the end of the 1980s this was
19:23
all volcanic fissure did he painted canvases in waves according to his financial needs sometimes several a year
19:31
sometimes ten a month these paintings weren't yet fetching record sums but another encounter was to
19:39
change everything
19:44
in 1992 the skank Fisher was living on the outskirts of Cologne he met a young
19:51
woman aged 34 Helen Bell track II she
19:58
was blonde with blue eyes charming and passionate about art
20:06
Helen was struck by volsangs charisma and soon fell under his charm [Music]
20:13
Beatrice Bray was later a neighbor and close friend of the belt Rockies she is
20:19
very familiar with the couple's story [Music] suppose I saw uncle I think it might
20:25
have been love at first sight I can't be sure of that but the way he told the story it sounded as if it was love at
20:32
first sight yes in 1993 they got married
20:38
both gang Fisher took his wife's surname and became vote gang belt Rakhi it was
20:44
the start of an explosive partnership [Music]
20:50
they met and fallen laughs and they became a laughs couple that was also
20:59
like Bonnie and Clyde they yeah a criminal capital from the start and then
21:09
uncovered her husband's secret on the walls of his house she noticed several
21:16
paintings dating from the start of the 20th century from early on he told her
21:24
he and that attracted her to she was
21:30
attracted by this criminal guy who has the secret the young bride made a
21:38
decision to assist her husband in this major alert fraud between them they came
21:44
up with an unthinkable scenario an inspired idea which was to enable them to sell paintings for millions of euros
21:51
a ploy in which they showed no hesitation in exploiting the darkest part of their country's history
21:59
in the 1930s in Germany under the Nazi regime numerous works of art disappeared
22:08
in 1937 Hitler was always against modern
22:14
German art and so he gave the order to confiscate all modern art in all the
22:22
German museums the beltran keys were interested in one collection in
22:28
particular that of Alfred flecked I'm an art dealer who had suddenly fled the country in 1933 leaving behind him a
22:35
whole part of his collection revenge is the only expert in the world to have
22:41
studied the life of this collector effortless time was not one of the most
22:47
important art dealers and and gallerists in germany was Jewish and the travels
22:54
didn't like Jews next time had very great difficulties with a right-wing
23:00
movement numerous paintings by great masters were confiscated from Fleck
23:06
Times collection by the Nazis after he fled paintings which no one had seen for over 60 years
23:11
both gang and Helene wanted to make these paintings reappear on the market because they knew that for this type of
23:17
work the sale prices were colossal but in order to do that they first had to invent a plausible scenario
23:24
[Music] so they came up with the simple idea of
23:30
using Helens grandfather Verna Yeager's as a teenager he had lived next door to
23:36
the art dealer alfred Fleck time the two men never met but the BAL trackies
23:43
imagined a fictional scenario where the collector had sold herlands grandfather numerous paintings for a song okay and
23:52
Yeager supposedly hid them because obviously these were considered during the war and under the Nazi regime to be
23:58
degenerate works then by force of circumstance they were discovered later much later by his descendants his
24:04
grandchildren who finally decided to sell them one by one that was the gist of the story it was the perfect scenario
24:12
but in order to make it credible there was one detail missing proof of authenticity from a photo of alfred
24:20
flecked i'm wolfgang bell track II made this label which he stuck on the back of the forged paintings he put some tea on
24:28
it he put some some some some and and and he artificially aged that the label
24:35
it's hard to believe it but this simple label was enough to convince the experts
24:40
and whenever any expert appeared suspicious the couple showing incredible daring had
24:46
no hesitation in fabricating increasingly far-fetched pieces of evidence in 1995 when the couple were
24:55
looking to sell this forged painting girl with a swan by heinrich camp and on an auction house asked them for proof of
25:02
the veracity of their story Helen but rocky came up with this old yellowed photograph with jagged edges it showed a
25:10
woman whom she claimed was her grandmother Josephine Yeager's sitting in front of the paintings in the
25:15
supposedly rediscovered collection in reality the snapshot was completely
25:21
fake damn the Batak is Serena zahavy
25:27
Newton met order the belt Rockies have constructed the image to look like an old photograph with the grandmother
25:33
sitting down and in the background the supposedly original paintings and Giggy
25:41
Nala but in reality the woman sitting on that chair was helene dressed in period
25:46
costume kameez astonishing as it sounds everybody believed these photos to be
25:53
authentic and as the fake period photograph was so well done that even
25:59
members of her Lane's family didn't recognize her if somebody would do this in a film everybody would say oh come on
26:04
this is not plausible but in reality it is it's in a way very funny in a way
26:11
very sick in October 1995 Christie's put
26:16
girl with Swan up for auction [Music] it was bought for $100,000 without
26:24
anyone questioning its authenticity
26:30
we could if we were completely taken in yes we were getting used to the name Verner Yeager's and it even became a
26:36
sought-after provenance because we knew it was quite a rare provenance and these paintings had an incredible history and
26:42
must have remained hidden for a very long time it's crazy but it shows how much you can believe in things if you
26:49
want to and I think that's exactly the point nobody would have thought that somebody would be so crazy to do such
26:54
things such a stunt where everybody would say immediately this will be detected nobody will believe in women a
27:01
woman posing as her own grandmother but avoid the bell trackies grew more and more confident they were no longer
27:08
afraid to tackle the big names in painting with the time what can be
27:15
tackled it better his ego grew so much that he also fake now like the big names
27:23
of artistry Max Ernst fell normally
27:29
j-mac space-time and the big now he was
27:34
trying to get the millions not a few thousand euros by 1995 all the
27:43
prestigious auction houses like Sotheby's Christie's drew and LEM pets in Germany were without realizing it
27:50
selling numerous forgeries supposedly from the flextime collection the
27:56
reappearance of certain paintings even provoked a certain euphoria on the market this was a real treasure trove
28:03
everyone wanted to play a part in its discovery that question if you call it's always
28:10
exciting when things that haven't been seen between 1914 and 2006 suddenly
28:17
reappear you think this must be a masterpiece resurfacing and you get
28:23
caught up in the emotion of it all you're a bit naive
28:31
it was human error based on a fundamental desire to believe in the story because the story was wonderful
28:39
and thinking you've hit the jackpot or found the Holy Grail or uncovered an old
28:45
collection is every dealers dream that's where Wolfgang belt rocky was so clever
28:51
he knew which buttons depressed to win over everyone in the art market and to
28:57
lend his works a certain credibility [Music]
29:02
some of the art historians who were hired to evaluate these forgeries are today being blamed for their lack of
29:09
vigilance an expert is an important figure because
29:15
they were in the very end often decisive if painting was accepted or not one of
29:22
those experts was varnish piece a major specialist on Max Ernst and the former director of the museo nacional d'art
29:28
moderne at paris the honor spits a varnish Spees was considered to be the
29:34
world expert on max ernst he wrote the catalogue raisonné
29:42
he was a leading light in the art world in total varnish peace authenticated
29:49
seven works by Max Ernst which were in reality forgeries by both gang belt rocky he added them to the catalogue
29:58
raisonné and issued certificates of authenticity the art historian earned a total of four hundred thousand euros for
30:05
his expertise he assumed he was paid a
30:11
fee for his services Chucky paid him a commission on the first sale of each painting and that caused problems there
30:19
should not be one expert who can tell wrong or right by only looking at a
30:27
painting there should be Committees of of experts
30:32
who are debating the authenticity of a painting despite the precautions they
30:41
took in 1998 both gang and Helen Val tracky came very close to being found out a collector had doubts about the
30:48
authenticity of a painting and the German police set up an inquiry I've got Pataki left Germany when he
30:55
heard the police was looking for him and so on the bail trackies quickly sold
31:04
their house and set off in their camper van according to Renea launched the german
31:11
police officer in charge of the investigation there was no doubt about it Wolfgang wanted to flee the country
31:16
that's it's done it's the in befogging voice when we wanted to question him he must have fled
31:24
to France his version is quite different but I am convinced that he felt we were
31:31
on his trail and we couldn't find him in
31:38
France the witnesses who saw him last said he was going on a round-the-world trip he travelled around and he finally
31:47
found this beautiful spot and southern France and where a lot of artists have
31:56
worked a lot of artists he admired or faked it was hearing mez a small town in
32:05
aro that Wolfgang Helen and their two children finally settled the German
32:10
police eventually forgot about them and closed the investigation
32:15
in 1999 the Bell trackies bought this old mansion and did it up
32:23
locals started wondering about their fortune how did the Bell trackies earn
32:28
so much money [Music]
32:35
he talked about a big house he had done up and sold for a very good price people
32:41
just thought they had money but they were people of independent means and a
32:49
lock and key in his studio in domain derivate first gang bell track he continued painting in secret in 2000 the
32:58
art market was experiencing a boom in Cologne Berlin Geneva Paris and London
33:06
well trackies four trees were selling like hotcakes every time a Frank Pataki
33:17
needed some money then he painted a new fake to get the money and then he would
33:25
live for a few months redo it this is a fake on trade around
33:34
depicting the port of Cooley or a gallery bought it for three hundred and seventy thousand euros in 2000
33:41
[Music] this one is more abstract and attributed
33:48
to the German painter Max Ernst [Music]
33:54
it's old along with another fake for over a million euros in 2002 this very
34:00
beautiful painting portrait of a woman in a hat is a perfect imitation of the style of Dutch painter ki-sun Dongmin it
34:07
sold in 2007 for 1.5 million euros in
34:13
the auction houses business was booming
34:23
Wolfgang Puck rocky spent the first decade of the century quietly painting his forgeries in the South of France
34:31
thanks to the collaboration of Auto Show to Kelling house who still handled their distribution the paintings were changing
34:37
hands all over the world by has included rich businessman and investment funds
34:45
but a few celebrities were also duped by the forger very famous persons who
34:52
bought paintings that were forged by Wolfgang Pataki des for instance the
34:58
actor Steve Martin who bought a fake um donk and who resold it very fast then
35:09
there was for instance Daniel Philippe a key French publisher gt4 near Daniel
35:16
philippic yearly book the market on the mistress I found Daniel Philip a key at the time of my investigation in 2013 to ask him
35:24
how he felt about it all and his immediate reaction was surprising and very sporting he said that guy is a
35:31
genius his painting is very beautiful very accomplished I hung it in my New
35:36
York apartment but in the end I decided to take it down the painting sold and then resold after
35:45
a while no one knew where they'd come from that was one of the keys to the Belle trackies success
35:51
the couple understood how opaque the art market is transactions are kept under wraps for fear of the taxman art market
35:59
is for some people like a washing machine for dirty money a laundry machine and so the people
36:08
don't ask many questions they don't make
36:13
contracts you just do the business by handshake it was a muddle which benefited everyone especially when it
36:20
came to tax evasion the forges business
36:25
had become very lucrative with the sale of one or two paintings a year both gang
36:31
Belle track II was now living in luxury in 2005 he bought a second home 450
36:38
square meters in Freiburg they bought a
36:45
house in Freiburg a nice beautiful house
36:52
on on a hill overlooking fire book and
36:57
one of the most most expensive neighborhoods of hi book and they let it
37:04
rebuild this house for hundreds of thousands of euros they built a
37:10
wonderful swimming pool both gang felt rocky now had a lifestyle
37:17
that was very far removed from his original hippie ideals I don't think hippies drink fine wine
37:25
and champagne it wasn't part of that culture they had a very nice life they may have looked like hippies but these
37:31
were upmarket hippies [Music]
37:37
the couple even resorted to cosmetic surgery and treated themselves to facelifts why Frank Pataki not only
37:46
faked paintings but he also faked his own face he had a face lifting done and
37:53
he even spoke about it to a German magazine back then and saying it is so
38:01
nice to have a new young face during these years of opulence the belt Rockies
38:07
lived the high life taking holidays in the world's most beautiful palaces they spent lavishly he would travel a lot he
38:17
would travel to the nicest hotels in the world I saw the credit card account of him and
38:27
he would stay at the nicest hotels and buy at the nicest boutiques and have a
38:36
really posh life
38:41
perhaps all this luxury went to his head but despite his perfectly honed techniques as a forger Wolfgang belt
38:47
rocky was to commit a fatal error he
38:54
couldn't stop the greed was too big and he thought he's unavailable
39:03
on the 29th of November 2006 in LEM feds auction house in Cologne a forged
39:09
painting signed Heinrich Kampf and dog was sold its title red painting with
39:18
horses the painting went for 2.8 million euros a record sum for a compen dog in
39:24
reality it was a forgery painted by Wolfgang belt rocky sofia comer OVA is
39:32
the director of a gallery in Geneva it was she who triggered the downfall of the greatest forger in history it
39:45
started with a phone call from one of the gallery's clients who informed me that he had just bought a masterpiece by
39:52
campin donk that he had done it of his own accord and I would be proud of his
39:57
choice Sofia komarovo was asked by her client to oversee the transaction since
40:04
the price of the painting was so high she was very vigilant about its provenance I immediately fetched the catalogue eyes
40:13
only from the gallery's library and I saw that usually very detailed information is given
40:18
whereas this painting was just listed as being some landscape with red horses
40:24
painted in 1914 with no dimensions photos or anything her suspicions
40:32
aroused she noticed the label on the back of the painting she wanted to know more about this mysterious collection
40:39
so she found Ralph yenge the only expert in the world on alfrid flex time she too
40:46
was suspicious of this portrait affixed to the frame of the painting it was
40:55
awful I mean I mean fleshed have never would have allowed two to be reproduced so
41:02
stupidly I mean he looks like an idiot he looks like and it's terrible it's it's a it's a terrible portrait the
41:11
inspired idea which had allowed the belt Rockies to pull off this incredible stunt was now turning against them this
41:17
label was arousing everyone's suspicions sofia comer ever had the painting
41:22
delivered to london to Nicholas ystos laboratory when he first examined this painting he had no idea of the scale of
41:29
the network he was helping to dismantle it was almost another routine job if you
41:36
like so it came in with certain questions that I was trying to answer it
41:43
didn't signal something particularly unusual as far as we're concerned first
41:51
he analyzed the label the results came in thick and fast the glue used was too recent it didn't correspond to the date
41:58
of the painting and the presence of traces of coffee on the paper were very suspect they seemed to indicate that an
42:04
attempt had been made to artificially age the label then Nicholas Easter took
42:10
his first samples of paint and soon there was no doubt about it this painting was a fake
42:17
in this instance one of the pigments that we identified with something called
42:23
titanium dioxide white and this is a pigment that was essentially an
42:31
introduction of the 20th century we don't typically find on paintings before the mid 20th century news of a series of
42:39
fake paintings spread like wildfire after the discovery of this fake campin donk all paintings from the now
42:45
nefarious Fleck time collection came under scrutiny [Music]
42:51
once you had detected 1/4 dream suddenly like a sort of a golden or if you like
42:57
red thread suddenly all these forgeries were lined up on like a pearl on the strings and suddenly all these paintings
43:03
became doubtful within a fortnight the expert Ralph hench had identified and
43:09
located about 15 fake paintings bearing the flex time label in a couple of weeks
43:17
I had all the informations of the max irons of other camp and dongs and I saw
43:23
the same framing I saw the same labels and for me it was very clear at the time there are all fakes the police started
43:30
an investigation and there were a lot of people now trying to find out who is the
43:37
forger of these paintings as with us there starts a much of present here that not in the ashram when we presented our
43:43
case to the prosecution department it already included five forgeries and on several million euros worth of fraud
43:50
this was not the sort of case to come up every day so we soon realized that it would take on massive proportions
44:01
the art market was stunned to discover the scale of the scandal
44:06
panic spreads through all the major auction houses
44:12
yeah I go solamachi Lao there was chaos on the art market everyone quickly tried
44:18
to identify whether there were any other candidates and which other paintings that are similar provenance to see
44:23
whether they had passed through our hands or not the bowel movement bar everybody was already thinking oh my god
44:29
if this is true what would that mean because love was like a domino play one stone would tackle the other and you
44:36
would have a display of a scandal of a huge huge dimension the fraud became
44:42
obvious people realize that bell trackies paintings had a certain style in common whether by Phyllida ruby the
44:51
more I remember seeing the paintings at the laboratory we were comparing a camp
44:57
and donk and a dirac it was interesting to see them side by side and to compare them for similarities these weren't
45:03
great quality paintings but the packaging the way the nails were rusted and the labels aged the canvas it was
45:10
remarkably well done
45:15
the police gathered together several witnesses gradually they identified the
45:21
gang of forgers on the 25th of August 2010 they searched first auto shelter
45:27
keling houses house and then the BAL Trekkies house in Freiburg the couple
45:32
were eventually arrested that same evening in their car
45:38
the authorities didn't know who they were dealing with they obviously weren't expecting to be dealing with a chic
45:44
couple in their 60s so it was a strong-arm arrest with sirens wailing american-style banishment envious tazza
45:54
wished it's a tuna we didn't know who we were dealing with Linda varnish for
46:00
these man suspects left their property in a large four-wheel-drive car mr. Hawk and Dick Willingham then let's in there
46:08
were four people inside and it was raining heavily that day my colleagues had arrest warrants the suspect should
46:15
have handed themselves in but that clearly wasn't going to happen so we had to go and bring them in for questioning
46:22
whilst they were awaiting their verdict the well trackies were detained in cologne to prepare for the trial Barnea
46:29
launched and his teams assembled all the evidence the paintings old tubes of paint stretchers and rolled up canvases
46:35
books on the artists and catalogue raisonné
46:43
on the 1st of September 2011 the belt Rocky's trial began at the Court of Justice in Cologne is a process that
46:53
from begin unfilled and from the start the trial got a lot of media coverage
46:59
there was a lot of speculation the
47:05
general public generally feels some sort of sympathy for this type of character there is skill involved even if it's a
47:12
skill of a forger he had figured out how to profit from the naivety and it greed
47:17
or whatever people who have a lot of money like Bonnie and Clyde
47:27
the two defendants played up to the cameras journalists were almost won over by this
47:33
couple of long-haired hipsters these Robin hood-like characters who stole from the rich the first day of they
47:42
seemed very very happy with the wealth they were enjoying the bath in in public
47:47
they suddenly became very famous the trial which began in 2011 promised to be
47:54
long complex on wide-reaching the case file was massive 8,000 odd
48:02
pages long about 200 witnesses were expected to be called but it was soon a huge anticlimax
48:08
the trial lasted only 10 days
48:13
they just had a handful of testimonies being invited and the case was closed
48:19
quite quickly because there was a so-called deal between the belt rocky lawyers and the court the first day of
48:26
the trial that he admitted yes I painted those 14 paintings the judge was
48:36
satisfied with that confession and the verdict was given both gang and Helen must reimburse the colossal sum of 35
48:43
million euros to their victims they were sentenced to six and four years respectively in prison as for Otto he
48:51
got five years behind bars as is often the case in Germany the culprits were
48:56
only partially incarcerated they had to
49:03
stay at the prison at night but they and
49:09
daytime they could stay at their home and work some professionals in the art
49:19
world seemed quite satisfied with the outcome of the trial the sooner the case was closed
49:24
the sooner it would be forgotten [Music] no one really wants to reveal what goes
49:30
on behind the scenes in the art market [Music] there were thousands of people in the
49:38
art world very happy that this trial wasn't going on but a motion to Jimmy's
49:44
photography the art market has never felt very comfortable dealing with fakes and forges there has never been an open
49:50
discussion on the subject I think people are afraid of being ridiculed or being
49:56
identified as someone who was taken in by the belt Rocky's birth gang and
50:04
Elaine belt rocky were released from prison in January 2015 they now live in this house in a residential neighborhood
50:10
of cologne the court seized 1 million euros from their Swiss bank account the
50:16
house in Freiburg has been sold and a remainder Evette has been mortgaged
50:23
and yet according to de biased him who followed the case very closely the resolution of the bowel Trekkie scandal
50:29
is not very clear Afghan Pataki earned millions of euros with his forgeries
50:39
where all the money has gone is unclear
50:44
until today to date over 60 paintings have been uncovered and identified as
50:51
being forgeries by Wolfgang belt rocky forgeries for which the forger has still never been tried and he claims to have
50:58
painted between 200 and 300 fakes over the course of his career
51:06
since his release from prison he has stopped forging paintings and has decided to capitalize on his incredible
51:12
story now famous he has made numerous TV appearances and is fast becoming a
51:19
legend the Burt Rockies are now selling
51:24
their story if you like so their touring through the talk shows in in Germany there are parts of movies and films
51:31
documentaries about them finally be exposed in a way because he now could
51:37
tell the whole world what what a genius
51:42
for to he is but when it comes to going a bit further and telling the true story
51:48
Wolfgang dothraki had refused to respond to any communication we rang the
51:54
doorbell of his home in studio in Cologne but no one answered we approached him on several occasions for
52:00
an interview but the couple their lawyers and even his publisher refused to grant us one you are not allowed to
52:06
use or to show any unauthorized material of our clients here in his studio the
52:13
artist is now concentrating on his own paintings which he sells for up to $12,000 apiece paintings which have
52:20
received a somewhat lukewarm response to say the least
52:26
I was really disappointed by what I saw so far because it even looks weak on a
52:32
technical scale he's not at all talented as far as I'm concerned nothing has
52:38
changed he remains mediocre in his own artistic output perhaps that's why evolve gang
52:48
felt rocky refused to let us show his paintings in our documentary today he's selective about the
52:54
appearances he makes and is building his own legend that of an aging hippie a
53:00
talented artist who was simply pleasing himself never mind the millions of euros he
53:06
stole along the way [Music]
53:12
[Applause] [Music]
53:32
you
53:43
you

[admin]

Is Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' A Fake?: The Fake Van Gogh's
Timeline - World History Documentaries
Mar 27, 2018

Was the most expensive painting ever sold at auction a fake? This award-winning documentary explores the authenticity of the Sunflowers painting by Vincent van Gogh, bought in the late 1980s for a then record sum by a Japanese insurance company.

In 2002, the painting went on public exhibition alongside an undisputedly genuine version of Sunflowers, raising once again the questions so vividly posed in this film.



Transcript

0:05
[Music]
0:13
among the tragedies of the American bombing of Japan in 1945 was the loss of
0:19
a painting of five sunflowers by Van Gogh Japan's favorite artist [Music]
0:31
thirty two and a half million at twenty two and a half million pounds last time
0:40
at twenty two and a half million pounds at twenty two million five hundred
0:45
thousand pounds for the last time what forty-three this painting of fourteen
0:52
sunflowers by Van Gogh made almost three times the previous record price for a picture the buyer was from Japan the
1:05
Yasuda far and marine insurance company of Tokyo but had they bought a new
1:10
national treasure or an expensive fake
1:20
your--the anticipation may have seemed a joke at the time but doubts were already
1:26
being expressed it's a very funny muddy picture and it did Ben Vincent van Gogh
1:32
was not muddy okay you said well it needs to be cleaned and all that that's not the case there's something it's not
1:39
put together and it doesn't have that snap the latest fake scandal hit the
1:52
auction rooms when Van Gogh's gardener Dover was put up for sale in Paris press
1:57
coverage of the sale sparked a media witch-hunt of suspicious van Gogh's it had been suggested that the garden
2:03
was a fake before the sale but the auctioneers carried on regardless the
2:13
bidding didn't go high enough and it wasn't actually sold [Applause]
2:30
Richard Rodriguez a French lawyer and connoisseur thought it should never have been put up for auction in the first
2:36
place he objected saying a recently published book doubted the picture's authenticity
2:43
[Music]
2:50
since I was told the sunflowers was a fake back in 1987 I've been longing to have a go at it as a journalist fix have
3:00
always been my speciality the van Gogh fakes were made at the turn of the century shortly after his death they got
3:09
muddled up with his real work and everyone's assumed ever since that they were genuine today this has produced a
3:15
fantastic model estimates of the number of fakes have gone as high as a hundred
3:21
leading scholars agree that the fakes exist but they fight among themselves over which they are and complain
3:28
bitterly about each other's ignorance in private the van Gogh Museum has an embargo on certain family documents no
3:36
one has been allowed access to some of the key evidence museums and sale rooms
3:41
hide behind confidentiality clauses there's just too much money and too many
3:46
reputations at stake the case of the Yasuda sunflowers highlights all these
3:52
problems
3:58
the painting was unwrapped in Tokyo with all the respect due to the greatest painter in the world and an enormous sum
4:05
of money the evidence against this picture seems to me overwhelming there
4:12
are three versions of this bars of 14 sunflowers Vincent often copied his own pictures so
4:19
on the face of it there is nothing surprising about him repeating the subject but the Yasuda painting is the
4:24
only one not mentioned in his letters the only one that is unsigned and is
4:30
thought by connoisseurs to be visually inferior to the other two the renewed
4:41
doubts about the version in the London National Gallery which was painted in August 1888 it was bought directly from
4:48
the van Gogh family the Asuna picture is a copy of it whether by Vincent or not
4:53
for a period in the 1980s the Yasuda painting hung on loan alongside the
4:58
original everyone could see it was not as good
5:12
the third painting of 14 sunflowers has never left the family collection and is
5:17
now in the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the almost daily letters that Vincent
5:22
wrote to his art dealer brother Theo never mentioned the Yasuda picture only the London and Amsterdam versions there
5:30
are essentially three ways to investigate whether a painting is a fake by visual comparison by studying
5:36
documentary evidence and by scientific tests all of them will be needed if an
5:42
answer is to be found to the Yasuda mystery
5:59
the person who has spent more time than anyone else chasing documentary evidence on the fakes is Benoit lon day he was not
6:06
trained as an art historian but has been working on Van Gogh for the past seven years he is convinced that the Yasuda
6:13
sunflowers is not by Van Gogh on two versions there are three petals on the
6:21
flower the version of London and the version now in Tokyo in the other one of
6:30
him standing are two so this these two
6:35
are now connected so if you look the
6:41
announcement of the cover of the catalog when it was sold the yellow here is put
6:49
over to brown which is on the background
6:54
and that is true everywhere okay it's not the way Vincent was working because
7:00
he was working by colors I wouldn't say it isn't a fake without
7:06
having seen it and really have made very definite stories about it but I couldn't
7:12
be sure I cannot tell really tell decide everything for sure but for me if you
7:22
want to decide anything you should have to do a lot of technical research for
7:29
the outcome to know exactly what's what so you don't actually exclude the
7:35
possibility that this is by a different hand you just say that you haven't seen
7:41
it yes and it's a whole puzzle that still needs to be studied and when I got
7:48
this catalog I remember having said to miss no man look it's a funny thing I got a special
7:56
catalogue my christy of a star panting oh they are going to sell and for me it's a copy done by a clumsy artist
8:04
[Music]
8:11
the man who first challenged the sunflowers in public is a Milanese quantity severe Antonio de Roberta's the
8:19
study of van gock is for him a passionate hobby at his knowledge won him a hundred million lira about fifty
8:25
thousand pounds from a TV quiz in 1990 he has put all his doubts about the
8:32
sunflowers on the internet and is the bit noir of professional scholars unlike
8:37
them he wants to make a big public issue of it yes oh no absolutamente con viento
8:43
questo Poirot nausea demon God so no drop a probe a kml owe me a no convene
8:54
toe NC to toe questo Quadro money my cheetah tonalá correspond Enza de
9:00
vincent Asaf Rotello namaste aunty van gock GT per beam Ventus at the vaulting
9:08
partly the Zira soul in LA later a fatty or fratello in a Sunnah request a venti
9:15
set day later a request a venti Satechi tascioni SI parla my request Okada no
9:20
I'm very interested in the new theories I think they're they're very they're
9:25
filled with Sherlock Holmes and we all like a great mystery we all like a great sensationalist whodunit but sadly the
9:35
stylistic grounds in this case I think could be accounted for several reasons
9:42
one it could be that it was a painting that was possibly more mishandled the
9:52
other probable issue is that the sunflowers is a work which we all expect
9:58
to be brilliant but it has suffered [Music]
10:05
to unravel the mystery we need to look at Vincent's life [Music]
10:13
the sunflowers were painted in our a little town in the South of France where he moved in february 1888 by that time
10:21
he was 35 and had been painting for eight years the son of a dutch pastor he
10:27
had worked in an art gallery then became a preacher he was always emotionally unstable and neither career suited him
10:34
he was a slow developer as a painter and it was only when he reached all that the great period of his work began
10:42
[Music]
10:57
he painted the surrounding landscape and the town itself particularly the cafe
11:02
run by his friends the rulers [Music]
11:10
you never had enough money but he managed to drink quite heavily and became a habitué of the local brothels
11:15
the townspeople considered him a curiosity [Music]
11:26
he sent his paintings in batches to his art dealer brother Theo in Paris to whom he wrote almost daily about his work
11:33
the letters are crucial evidence when chasing fakes Vincent dreamed of bringing other
11:39
painters to our and establishing a studio of the South he took over half a derelict house known as the yellow house
11:46
only Goga actually came to join Vincent it was to decorate Gaga's room in the
11:53
yellow house that Vincent painted his famous series of sunflower pictures I
12:00
turned to Allan tareka the man who had first told me that Yasuda sunflowers was a fake for a visual explanation of
12:07
what's wrong with the picture the one we are going to speak it out about he is a
12:14
Paris art dealer who has a formidable reputation as a fake spotter colleagues in the trade and museum curators bring
12:21
him their problems he told me that it would be easier to explain if he could show the three pictures together so he
12:28
had replicas made first out of the wrapping came the Yasuda picture the one
12:33
tareka calls a fake it was followed by the sunflowers from the London National
12:38
Gallery the third is the picture from the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam these
12:45
three pictures have never been seen side by side before tarika showed us how the
12:50
faker had misunderstood what van Gogh was painting here we see for instance
12:56
this sleeve you see this lid here is made of two kind of greens and it's
13:02
attached normally to the stem here also we see the green leave here which is
13:10
attached normally to the stem here it's made only with one kind of green but
13:15
it's still alive but here it's like if the stem was going foo was going was
13:23
crossing the leaf we have the feeling that the stem is going through the liver
13:29
and this is abnormal in the natural in the real mature the leaf doesn't go on
13:35
the stem this way that's an mystic VAT the painter did while he
13:40
tried to repeat the image which is well for instance here we see the stem here
13:49
which is broken you see and here the stem has continuity it's normal and here
13:58
also the same this stem between those two flowers and respecting the life of
14:07
each of the elements here the painter had problem of disposing the stem you
14:15
know which means that this flower now is
14:20
holding on a stem which is broken and the degree of life I would say the
14:26
degree of life the evolution of life of the flower doesn't correspond to the evolution of the statement and there are
14:33
other elements for instance in the center flower here when van got painted
14:40
it of course the petals are tied to the center part of the flower if we look at
14:47
the copy that I did which is in Amsterdam we find of course the same phenomenon which is the petals of the
14:54
center flower are connected to the center part of the flower if we look now
15:01
at the Yasuda panting we see the petals here are not connected with the center
15:07
part because because we are painted with thickened pesto's the Pentel could not
15:13
handle the thick brush stroke here to connect it correctly with the center
15:19
part of the flower he couldn't have felt like that and make all of these mistakes which we'll have
15:24
seen which are clumsy which correspond to the clumsiness of the handling of
15:30
thickened pesto's and for him panting we're thinking pesto's was not away was
15:37
not difficult because it's not that he had learned it some way that's how he was writing with bent for all of his
15:44
reasons i think that this painting is a fake painting done by crucio artist
15:50
[Music]
16:18
you know the sunflower is a life-giving flower and it also produces oil but it
16:27
also produces turpentine for painting it's an artist's of medium as well which
16:33
I didn't really know about
17:20
but in RL when van Gogh painted these works he painted them mainly because
17:26
they were yellow and I think by this time he had a very careful symbolic association with certain colors and
17:33
yellow for him definitely was represented as a life-giving color associated with the Sun in nature but
17:42
also with love and gratitude the symbol of life but also anticipation of
17:49
Gauguin's arrival because as you know he painted these sunflowers for the decoration of the yellow house
18:04
it remained as he said in his one of his last letters to Albert or ei The Critic
18:09
he says you know every artist has had his certain flower father coast had the
18:16
hollyhock I have the sunflower
18:22
so somehow he associated himself from I'm sure a lot of iconographic and spiritual reasons to naturalistic
18:30
reasons and artistic reasons with the sunflower but they are definitely integrated with his preparation of the
18:37
welcome to began to come to our Oh [Music]
18:57
yeah really your seal told me you wouldn't tell me take these things come
19:04
on you have trouble finding the place Oh your painting things are hearing some canvases they arrived a day before yesterday
19:10
but I fixed this room up for you [Music]
19:27
it's very nice [Music]
19:39
I painted that with you
19:45
that's very friendly Vincent
19:56
it's very friendly but the stormy
20:02
artistic temperaments clashed and famously Vincent cut off part of the lobe of one year in an attempt at
20:09
emotional blackmail this nervous storm landed him in an asylum in nearby sorry
20:15
me he often painted in the asylum garden and some of his best pictures date from
20:21
this period
20:27
a year later apparently recovered he moved north to Ostia was where he lived
20:33
and painted for two months he loved the big open skies and the cornfields but it
20:41
was a difficult time since Theo had just got married and Vincent felt that he was losing his brother's affection and
20:47
support in a fit of depression he went
20:53
out into the countryside and shot himself [Music]
21:10
Vincent died after two days of agony he was carried to his grave with sunflowers
21:16
on his coffin his brother Theo inherited all his paintings but shattered by what
21:23
had happened also lost his reason and only survived Vincent by six months they
21:28
are buried side by side in the hilltop cemetery at AU there with Theo's death
21:35
or first-hand knowledge of why how and when the pictures were painted was lost by unanimous family consent ownership of
21:43
all Vincent's pictures was passed to Theo's one-year-old son Vincent Willem van Gogh this meant that Theo's Widow
21:51
Johanna who was 28 at the time found herself in charge of almost all her
21:56
brother-in-law's paintings and it was this young Dutch woman who put Vincent on the map she built the van Gogh myth
22:04
by laborious ly transcribing his letters Vincent and Theo had written to each other several times a week and Theo kept
22:12
all the letters he received the letters give a vivid account in words and pictures of what Vincent was doing and
22:18
feeling and of course whether he mentions a picture and how he describes it is crucial evidence for fake spotters
22:25
all the sunflower pictures are mentioned in the letters except for the Yasuda version in contemporary documents all of
22:34
them get referred to just as tournesol the French for sunflowers making it difficult to work out which picture is
22:40
being talked about this happens with Joanna's inventory of paintings inherited from Vincent if you accept
22:47
that the Yasuda painting is genuine then there are not enough sunflower entries on her list
23:01
it was the Paris Exhibition of 1901 at the bound homes yearn gallery that finally established his reputation it
23:09
also gives us a vital clue to the identity of the man who may have made a large number of the suspected fakes
23:16
there were 65 pictures in the exhibition catalog all borrowed from Paris dealers
23:21
and collectors and 11 of them are now suspected of being fakes it included
23:26
three sunflower pictures Yasuda was number five and the catalog tells us that it was led by Claude Emil
23:33
chiffon iike a minor artist who was a friend of Goga for the last few days of
23:40
the show the London version was also exhibited it is the first photograph in the gallery's album it arrived late
23:46
because chef Annika had been restoring it for Johanna chef Annika is our prime
23:53
suspect he had the opportunity to make a copy while he was restoring the London painting the sunflowers for me I can
24:04
only tell you that from having examined it closely I can talk about it from the point of view of shufen ëthis life and
24:10
skills the opportunity to do it was there the skill to do it was certainly
24:16
there I have no question about that the intention to do it as a copy might have
24:22
been there the intention to do it as a forgery was quite another thing [Music]
24:32
Jill gross vocal was the curator of an exhibition of schaffernakís own work at the priori
24:37
in Sajha male in the autumn of 1996 he had a very good eye he really was the
24:46
initiator of the collections of gogans work and and Vincent's work at the
24:52
beginning he painted in a way that represented his training his earliest
24:58
training was quite academic but he was very open he remained very open and so
25:03
he moved from one pattern of painting into another with relative ease because
25:08
he was trying to locate his own persona he was a highly intelligent and highly
25:16
cultured and highly complicated individual I think he is someone who certainly investigated the
25:23
contradictions that is to say how is it that it was possible to recognize the
25:29
genius in a work by Cezanne or go gallivant go orchid door and yet not be
25:36
able to assume his rightful place alongside these giants I think this was
25:41
a major awareness he had all his life Joe Venegas daughter was to inherit
25:48
several van Gogh fakes her father had the classic psychological profile of the
25:53
faker an artist so bitter at his own lack of recognition that he makes fakes
25:58
to prove connoisseurs can't tell the difference in his own mind that makes him just as good as the artists he
26:04
imitates [Music]
26:13
this picture was painted by googa who was a close friend and often lived with the family in Paris he is said to have
26:20
had an affair with chauffeur Necas wife who later demanded a divorce possibly the financial motive for the
26:25
fakes another suspected fake that has
26:35
close links with the chauffeur NECA family is Vincent's self-portrait with a bandaged year now in the court held
26:41
Gallery London I think it's absolute forgery it's made as a
26:48
third of it and it's not only the quality of the paintings which i think
26:54
is very inferior to the other one if you
27:00
see how clear this image is the the head here the clear eyes it is righteous
27:09
ruler you see from the self-portrait that my health is absolutely restored
27:16
now because I'm absolutely clear and it's to be seen in this painting
27:21
if you look here he looks Haggard and he never paints himself has many is working
27:29
he's intent on what he is doing and he is very clear-headed also depends Mouse
27:36
hasn't MIT doesn't make any sense but there's no pipe to a picture of a
27:42
mountain she was idiotic so if you look at this painting this is
27:48
marvelous painting you have to realize that fin sent was a true realists if he
27:53
painted himself he painted himself as it was at the time here you see he has cut
27:59
is here and he is there is a bandage here and the bandage is put in place my
28:05
piece of linen or going all around if you look here at this painting there is
28:11
no bandage there's only the Lynn going all out the father doesn't realize her
28:20
situation was have you any idea who might have painted that if it's not by
28:25
Van Gogh no no I because photos aren't used to
28:33
announce them surface search Amy Osho Faneca earned the genuine picture at one
28:39
time and made this copy of it now in the van Gogh Museum so he could easily have
28:44
made a forgery as well Christi's commissioned a promotional
28:50
film showing the successful marketing of the asou de painting and how they had checked its provenance they might not
28:57
have been so pleased to find a chiffon echo inscription had they known more about his reputation one of the first
29:04
steps with every work of art that comes for auction at Christie's is physical appraisal this rigorous examination of
29:18
the painting will establish or in the case of a van gogh confirms its authenticity scholarly research is vital
29:39
to sort out what happened nearly a hundred years ago this makes the van Gogh Museum in
29:44
Amsterdam and its extensive archives crucially important to all potential detectives Vincent's enormous popularity
29:53
particularly with the Japanese means that this tiny museum gets 700,000
29:58
visitors a year [Music] it is a family Museum Vincent's nephew
30:05
inherited all the pictures when he was one year old as an old man in 1962 he
30:11
arranged that the Dutch government would build a museum where the family paintings could hang they now belong to
30:17
a foundation controlled by the van Gogh family but funded by the state the
30:28
family is very sensitive about evidence which reflects badly on their forebears and have consistently denied scholars
30:34
access to certain key documents the museum is still a stumbling block to sorting out the fake problem 1901 nope
30:51
to the 1900 world fair
30:58
the museum recruited a new director in 1997 John Leighton from the London
31:03
National Gallery who is struggling to be more open but he has to work within the
31:08
traditional limitations John do you feel that you can discuss with us the debate about the
31:14
authenticity of the pseudo sunflowers we have a very clear policy and discussing
31:21
works of art and the attribution works about to belong to other people and without the express permission of the
31:28
owner I wouldn't feel confident are happy about doing that so I'm afraid not
31:37
the museum is currently building a new wing it is financed by the Yasuda Fire &
31:43
Marine insurance company of Tokyo out of gratitude for the popularity and profits that the purchase of the sunflowers has
31:50
brought them Yasuda has contributed thirty seven and a half million dollars
31:55
under these circumstances it is difficult to believe that the van Gogh museum could give an unbiased opinion on
32:02
the authenticity of the painting the
32:12
first big fake scandal erupted in Berlin in 1928 there was a loan exhibition at
32:19
the prestigious Paul casera gallery specialists in modern art which included
32:24
several pictures from the dealer Otto vaca Mariana Franken felt remembers what
32:29
happened when these pictures arrived it suddenly realized that they were painted
32:35
by one person but not by phone book not by the same person is the other
32:41
paintings and then of course the whole thing exploded very quickly Berlin was a
32:46
very gossipy town everybody wanted to keep secret but it was quite impossible and came to the press very soon and
32:53
people who had bought these pictures brought them to be taken back and as
32:59
everybody knows they were a trial much later I remember that my husband his
33:05
firm parkus IRA never had bought one of these paintings but not at all because
33:10
he didn't believe in it but he didn't like them he always said they were done and
33:16
without the real fungal coloring but people bought them after only one didn't
33:21
doubt paintings at that time it was not used that they were fakes and did you meet taka himself no only at the trial I
33:29
saw him first time at the trial when he told everybody that he was a dancer by
33:35
the name of William de lluvias I don't know why I kept this name in my mind I
33:42
must say it was very exciting because all the famous art historians were giving their opinion and every time
33:50
in the opinion Vacca who never admitted his guilt was jailed for 19 months and
33:56
fined some of his pictures had been bought by major collectors the cursory
34:02
exhibition was to celebrate the publication of the first complete catalogue of Van Gogh work
34:07
compiled by a Dutchman called buck de la vie his book is still the van Gogh Bible
34:13
he started work on it because people were already getting muddled about fakes and he hoped to clear things up but the
34:20
first edition actually contained 33 of the Vaca fakes
34:26
seven years later laughs I had to publish another book titled live for Van GOG the fake Van Gogh's it contained the
34:34
VUCA paintings and many others one of
34:56
the major collectors of the pre-war years was mrs. Cruella moola and her museum in the Dutch countryside contains
35:02
an even greater collection of Van Gogh's than the van Gogh Museum itself it also contains a lot of mistakes
35:08
the curator has had the courage to remove them from the main gallery and tuck them away install this one dates
35:35
back to the great scandal of the 1920s doesn't it yes what is it in the body in
35:41
Charlene - yes yes many of the problematic paintings are flower
35:48
paintings you have little documentary proof about any painting so this gives a
35:55
lot of opportunity for people to be creative and then these two we're moving
36:03
right on not well that's certainly supposedly sorry me isn't it yes can you
36:09
explain why that says to you that it's not may not be by going off when you see
36:15
it amongst the other works it would be easier to explain this difference so you
36:24
see it when it's hanging upstairs more vividly than when it's done yeah yes that's the tragedy with many fakes that
36:31
in order to show that they are fakes you better show them in the real gallery but
36:37
after you have decided not to do then you've taken them out of that yes it
36:44
would be nice if we would have something like the yayyyyy for painting but something like
36:52
that doesn't exist the Musee d'Orsay in
36:59
Paris has a group of paintings given to the nation in the 1950s by Paul Gautier son of the doctor who looked after
37:05
Vincent in over there are eight paintings supposedly by Van Gogh some of
37:12
which are now thought to be fakes they may even have been painted by the doctor himself this is as it were and Estelle
37:25
who is also a chief curator is deeply concerned by the problems a painting of
37:30
Gachet who is now it's question whether he may have painted some of them and got
37:36
himself so there is no record of there being a second version the first version
37:48
was auctioned at Christie's New York in May 1990 and made the highest price for any picture ever
38:04
the gushy portrait was bought by Japanese billionaire who died in 1996
38:10
one of the world's greatest pictures it has been out of sight in a bank fort for more than seven years there are two
38:18
paintings of dr. Gachet two portraits that are very similar one that was sold
38:24
recently and is now in Japan and one in the Musee d'Orsay what do you think
38:29
about them one is genuine and the other is not this one is the good one but we
38:36
can find in the in the painting itself the proof of the hand of the master the
38:46
landscape is mixed to the portrait by the fact the line is quite the same line
38:53
and the same colors are changing a bit that they are the same colors coming on
38:59
it and the same same shape and to make a wedding between the coat of cachet and
39:07
the chalice you can see it's quite the same kind of shape three times the coat
39:17
and the flower they are two in fact and also this corner is the same at that and
39:24
this column is also the same okay that
39:29
all is lost in the copy if you see this
39:38
painting in a flea market you never think it can be Bangkok if you don't
39:44
know the other why the colors are in
39:52
conflict so its aggressive no melancholy the head of cachet is not anymore in the
40:00
corner but it's not anymore the arm skinny at all they tried you can see
40:06
they try to do it there is absolutely no
40:11
reason to imagine that Vincent could have done this thing and more than that we know that on 15 of
40:18
June there was only one portrait of
40:23
Gachet because in later he says I have now one portrait of King and because
40:30
it's so far from the work of instance I am sure it's a copy

40:38

[Geraldine Norman] In Auvers, Vincent stayed in a little auberge [inn] run by the Ravoux family. He lived there for just over two months and is credited with having painted eighty-three pictures -- which means more than a picture a day. Some of them must be fakes, and were probably painted by the Gachet circle. Dr. Gachet was a painter, and so was his son Paul known as Coco. After he had shot himself, Vincent struggled back to the auberge mortally wounded.  

[Dominique Janssens, Institut Van Gogh, Auvers-Sur-Oise] Adeline, the daughter of the innkeeper, had seen that he was [inaudible]. That's why she came up to his room to check what happened. And then they called the local doctor. And the local doctor didn't want to take care of Vincent, because everybody in the village knew it was Dr. Gachet who takes care for the painters. So Dr. Gachet came over, and then when he had seen there was nothing to do, he asked the neighbor, [Perchick?], to go to Paris to pick up Theo. So Theo arrived at about 12 o'clock, and at one o'clock in the morning he died here in his room. Now Dr. Gachet came over with his son, and he said to his son, "roll, Coco." Because the more he was rolling the paintings, the more he could bring them back home. And that's how he got a collection of paintings on Van Gogh, which are today in the museum at Orsay.

[Geraldine Norman] Dr. Gachet and his son seemed to have taken as many paintings as they could. Gachet specialized in mental illness and homeopathy, but had been a keen amateur painter since his student day. His home attracted many artists, including Renoir, Pissarro and Cezanne, who came to him for medical advice, and loved experimenting with his etching press. Dr. Gachet died in 1909, but his son lived on in the house, becoming more and more eccentric and reclusive. He never had a job, and seems to have lived off selling the pictures and antiques that his father had crammed into the house. One villager, who has devoted her life to the study of local history, is Madame Claude [Migon?].

[Madame Claude (Migon?)] [Speaking French] He wouldn't tolerate people coming to the house. Not even local tradesmen, or people interested in the works.

[Geraldine Norman] [Speaking French] How could he live like that? He had to eat!

[Madame Claude (Migon?)] [Speaking French] It's a mystery. Like many things in this man's life. He was truly his father's son.

[Geraldine Norman] He kept very quiet very quiet about the Van Goghs, until he made a series of donations to French national collections in the 1950s. His gifts, now in the Musee d'Orsay, include works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Pissarro, and Cezanne. He also gave the nation paintings by his father and himself. He signed his pictures, including copies of works by other artists, with the pseudonym Louis Van Ryssel. His father called himself Paul van Ryssel. The museum has reacted to the controversy by having the Gachet Van Goghs scientifically investigated, and announcing that they will mount an exhibition of all Gachet's donations to public institutions in the autumn of 44:30 1998. This is sure to spark another explosive argument.

[Dominique Janssens, Institut Van Gogh, Auvers-Sur-Oise] You have seen when you walk up to the cemetery, the countryside is exactly how it was a hundred years ago. Japanese, they don't come only to visit, but also to bring offers for Vincent. And certain days we just clean the cemetery. And you have lots of little pots of sake, brushes, and also a lot of Japanese who died in in Japan, their dream is to be buried with Vincent. So a lot of Japanese bring over the ashes here, and then they put it on the graves of Vincent and Theo.

[Geraldine Norman] The number of Japanese tourists who come to worship at the van Gogh shrine in Auvers, got a big boost when Yasuda bought the sunflowers in 1987. It will be a terrible disappointment to the nation if they discover their famous sunflower picture is not really by Van Gogh.

[To Tom Hoving, Ex-Director Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC] What do you think Yasuda is going to say if they actually have to face the fact that they are landed with a fake?

[Tom Hoving, Ex-Director Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC] Oh, I don't think they'll face it. I think they hope it'll go away. I do not think that the people in charge of the insurance company are going to let regiments of experts in to take it off the exhibition, and look at it, and maybe even do some analysis, and so on. I just don't think they're gonna do that. I think it would be a very great loss of face. I think the picture was purchased because the only other Vincent van Gogh in Japan prior to the United States firebombing of Tokyo, was a sunflowers, which was destroyed.

[Geraldine Norman] It is said that the painting was relined after its arrival in Japan, which may mean that important evidence has been lost.

The relining of an oil painting on canvas comes about when the original canvas is frayed, worn or damaged. It is sometimes necessary when the stretcher on which the painting is fixed has decayed or become damaged. The process of relining is essential to bond the old canvas onto a new canvas making sure that as the two canvases are bonded together no air is trapped between the two surfaces. Whilst relining has been established in picture restoration for a long time it is not a task which can be undertaken by unskilled hands. Relining is sometimes necessary when a picture has been punctured or damaged from the front and before any repainting to the damaged surface can be completed, a stable background needs to be provided to accommodate any filling and new paint. -- Relining, by PaintingRestorations.org

We asked Yasuda if we could talk to them about this, and our views on the sunflowers problem. Yasuo Goto, the chairman of the company, replied, "We have no intention of participating in any discussion of sunflowers' authenticity, as we hold no doubts whatsoever that it is genuine. We also have no intention of answering the questions mentioned in your letter." I personally find it impossible to believe that the Yasuda sunflowers is by Van Gogh. There's too much evidence against it. It's not mentioned in the letters, or other early documents. It first appears in the hands of Emile Schuffenecker, whose name has long been linked with faking. And it is generally agreed that it is visually inferior to the other two. It does disturb me, however, that so many experts still think it genuine. They aren't talking to each other, and don't know each other's arguments. Which is why the muddle persists. If the experts, the Van Gogh Foundation, and Mr. Goto from Yasuda, could be persuaded to divulge what they know, the truth about the Yasuda picture could be found. Using secrecy to protect their reputations and huge investments just won't do. Christie's has both money and reputation at stake, and has opted for silence. They refused to be interviewed, and issued a statement saying, "We see no reason, on the evidence so far produced, to alter our original opinion that the sunflowers is an authentic work by Van Gogh."

[Tom Hoving, Ex-Director Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC] You don't ever get a concert of opinion in art. Very seldomly you get it. And so this, I think, will just kind of go on forever. And since it's not going to ever be for resale, does it matter?

[Dr. Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Prof. History of Art, University of Toronto] Most of us who know Van Gogh -- and I think a lot of us do, or profess to know a lot about Van Gogh -- know that this very simple man, filled with great humility and compassion for mankind, saw these works as different legacies than financial ones. I think he would be horrified, and distraught beyond anything you can imagine, to see himself somersaulted to such tremendous value, and such crass commercialism. I think it would have been something that he couldn't have ever tolerated.

[admin]

The Mystery Conman: The Murky Business of Counterfeit Antiques
directed by Sonje Storm
DW Documentary
Jan 13, 2017

Fake art sits unnoticed in galleries around the world. A talented fraudster has been playing the art market and ripping off collectors for years. Who is the mystery conman? Discover more in THE MYSTERY CONMAN - THE MURKY BUSINESS OF COUNTERFEIT ANTIQUES.

Museum curators and art collectors want to sweep the topic of counterfeiting under the carpet. But archaeologist Stefan Lehmann is on the hunt for the elusive figure whose counterfeit antiques are in some of the world's biggest collections.

Around 40 fakes have been discovered and Lehmann believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Alongside antique dealer Christoph Leon, Lehmann follows the forgery trail through Europe and to the US.

____

DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary.



Transcript

[Music]

0:07
69

0:17
well John's husband is this auction

0:20
houses usually care only about what goes

0:22
over the counter what makes money

0:24
animals genuine and fake goods go over

0:27
the counter there is no difference

0:32
the man is rather ethical principles

0:34
overboard as long as it sells anyone

0:38
happy

0:38
[Music]

1:04
ninety-five million dollar

1:13
[Music]

1:20
these bronze heads are from auction

1:23
houses galleries and art dealers they

1:26
all have one thing in common

1:29
archaeologist Stefan Lehmann reckons

1:31
they're fakes the work of a mystery

1:34
super forger known in German art circles

1:37
as the Spanish master no one knows who

1:40
he is but Lehman is on his trail sponsor

1:44
masters nota nom the Spanish master is a

1:48
makeshift name nobody knows exactly what

1:52
it's supposed to mean or where it comes

1:53
from I've heard the expression used in

1:56
the art trade in general my recently met

2:00
an archaeologist who claimed to have

2:01
coined the expression because he knows a

2:04
forger from Spain when I asked him for

2:07
his name he said oh I can't think of it

2:09
right now

2:11
Lehman describes these portraits of

2:14
ancient rulers to the forger Augustus

2:18
Caesar

2:20
Alexander the Great all the sculptures

2:24
have a common attribute an emotional

2:27
facial expression which is actually not

2:29
typical of classical antiquity they're

2:33
always bronze heads which are an

2:35
especially high demand among art

2:37
collectors this one was put up for

2:44
auction at Barnum's this is one of the

2:46
heads that was offered in New York by

2:48
Robin Symes in the December auction

2:50
it's about jewel this was acquired

2:54
conventionally over the counter in her

2:55
New York antique shop if you take

2:59
Aladdin of all born this one was put up

3:03
for auction in Munich this one's been

3:06
sold several times it's already got

3:09
quite a history today it's in the

3:10
possession of a foundation in Geneva in

3:12
a museum as far as I know this one is in

3:15
Geneva - lemon is a professor at Martin

3:19
Luther University and Haller from his

3:22
office the Berlin born expert researches

3:24
the art market and find so many heads he

3:27
considers dubious that he has to shake

3:29
his own load this one still on offer

3:32
approximately 250 AD price upon request

3:36
of course higher self na'far his claw

3:41
[Music]

3:45
what up close the price well it starts

3:48
at about a million my name you won

4:00
as an art dealer for 40 years Christophe

4:04
Leon sold many major pieces of ancient

4:07
art to international museums he made a

4:10
decision that's unusual for an art

4:12
dealer he wants to talk about his

4:14
observations in the ancient art trade he

4:18
shows us the catalogue of an

4:19
international auction house that sold

4:21
off a collection this in the past only a

4:25
few pieces of genuine let's go through

4:27
and quickly this one is so fake it

4:30
stinks look it's so blurred a sculptor

4:32
in antiquity would never have done that

4:34
you can forget it depends if it Kissin

4:40
kind o ancient sculpture ever looked

4:42
like that with these eyes these big

4:44
bulgy eyes

4:45
this one's ridiculous you can tell by

4:48
the hair the hair always gives the game

4:49
away the vases are okay we won't waste

4:52
our time on them this is so fake it

4:54
stinks this one's impossible it's all

4:57
rubbish this one here - none of them are

5:01
antiquities here's another one with a

5:06
male member bulging through the cloth

5:08
that was never done in ancient times

5:12
this is this antique Azizah it's always

5:15
always to sneak a mouse button it's just

5:17
a list oh it all got sold the few

5:20
genuine works and all the forgeries

5:23
$47,000 eighty-three thousand fifty nine

5:25
thousand that's big money and de casa

5:29
hey does a Kadima get ahead in

5:32
everybody keeps tight-lipped and says

5:34
nothing no one goes and says careful my

5:36
friend what you have here is a disaster

5:38
you wasted your money Leon says up to

5:42
50% of all antiques sold at auction are

5:45
fakes

5:45
it's an incredible figure

5:47
[Music]

5:50
high above Manhattan the experienced

5:54
American archaeologist Oscar white

5:56
muscarella watches the art trade he

6:00
worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

6:02
as a curator for many years and is a

6:05
renowned expert he's considered the good

6:08
conscience of archaeology because he

6:10
doesn't mince his words you could say

6:13
he's a kind of whistleblower why one of

6:19
my mentors here Sherlock Holmes I have

6:22
learned that both deals are flexible son

6:26
thinks the watching house is because

6:27
they're forgeries I talked to a deal

6:31
about this once and he smiled and what

6:33
they're doing you see instead of selling

6:35
it to a customer from their own shop

6:37
they don't want to salvage it we don't

6:39
want her soul for interest and a lot of

6:40
dealers don't one don't want to sell

6:42
avoid it they put it up for auction

6:43
under a false name or they'll say from

6:47
an old collection ministers the the

6:49
provenance from an old family collection

6:52
or from an old collection or from mr. X

6:55
and these are dealers were selling the

6:59
forgery and auction and not being

7:02
personally involved in who buys it you

7:04
see in America because it has so many

7:06
museums is a prime target but the sale

7:10
of forgeries yes

7:13
[Music]

7:16
New York may seem far away but the

7:20
international trade has made its way to

7:22
provincial eastern Germany to a Stefan

7:25
layman experienced personally this

7:28
bronze bust of Alexander the Great was

7:31
presented at the vinkor man museum in

7:33
Stendhal in saxony-anhalt in the year

7:35
2000

7:36
later it emerged that the bust had

7:39
belonged to the London art dealer Robin

7:41
Symes Stefan Lehmann attributes the bus

7:45
to the Spanish master whose style he

7:47
recognizes in it the special appearance

7:49
of the edges where it was supposedly

7:51
broken in ancient times and evenly

7:54
spread patina the face completely

7:57
preserved as if by magic Lehman went

8:00
public with the news that the museum was

8:02
displaying the bust without clear

8:04
details of its provenance it's what all

8:07
happening younger cooked I was there and

8:09
I took a look at it and to me it was

8:12
crying out that it was a forgery

8:14
I was quite astonished so I bought the

8:17
catalogue and I found that even less

8:18
convincing I mean there are many

8:23
forgeries and even the best of us can

8:25
fall for a fake that's completely best

8:27
in Keisel fool there's nothing more to

8:29
say

8:31
so I published a lecture which I gave

8:33
here in Hara in the form of a museum

8:36
booklet and expressed my own view that

8:39
in my opinion it's out of the question

8:41
that the piece under consideration is

8:44
from the ancient world an organ or an

8:48
antique is over nightfall and Tom unti

8:51
cables ancient bronze bust of Alexander

8:53
the Great or a well-made forgery by

8:55
international art dealer mafia ten years

8:58
ago this sculpture was considered a

9:00
sensation displayed at the vinkle minh

9:02
museum allegedly on loan from a private

9:04
collector but the accusations that it's

9:06
a fake go back a long way but not before

9:10
time I still have the same opinion as

9:11
stated in an academic publication that

9:13
we are dealing with the forgery or the

9:16
Winkelman society however accused him of

9:18
libel and sued was this simply a

9:20
scholarly dispute or an archaeological

9:23
scandal to avoid a lengthy trial a

9:25
mediator was hired

9:27
but meanwhile the purported bronze

9:29
sensation has been missing since the

9:32
exhibition 10 years ago

9:34
Osmund indeed I should speak for

9:36
scientists to go down the legal route in

9:39
Sumy that was a new departure I must say

9:44
and in a certain way it's a form of

9:47
violence your focus of this Avista

9:52
thoughtful goodbye it a foul Spectre

9:54
certain vital there was also the

9:56
intention the lawyer for the plaintiff

9:57
told me the aim was to get me removed

9:59
from my post eventually the trial ended

10:03
at the Berlin Regional Court with a

10:06
settlement the details of which both

10:08
parties have agreed to keep secret but

10:11
instead of shutting Lehman up the trial

10:13
spurred him on to carry out more

10:15
research forgeries are an unpopular

10:18
topic in archeological circles Lehman is

10:21
one of the few archaeologists to address

10:23
it publicly and word has got around

10:26
today he's looking at a new case a Swiss

10:30
collector who wishes to remain anonymous

10:32
bought a bronze head in New York but

10:35
then started having doubts about whether

10:37
it was genuine usually Lehman looks for

10:41
bronze heads at art fairs and in museums

10:44
galleries and auction catalogues now for

10:48
the first time a possible work by the

10:50
Spanish master is on his very own desk

10:54
it's a portrait of Augustus Caesar it's

10:57
a stroke of luck for Lehman and his

10:59
colleague Henry clue who's also an

11:01
archaeologist the Swiss collector says

11:05
Lehman could have sold the head on and

11:07
is now risking the loss of a good

11:09
million euros

11:17
impressive piece if the head turns out

11:20
to be a forgery it will be immediately

11:22
worthless this phones thereby endure

11:31
it's certainly very impressive you look

11:34
at it and the first thing you say is

11:37
it's a wonderful head it's also

11:40
spectacular because there are very few

11:42
bronze heads of Augustus that also

11:44
increases its value

11:54
prices for works of ancient art have

11:57
risen rapidly in recent years many

12:00
people looking for a safe investment by

12:02
works of art Stephan Lehmann believes

12:05
the stock markets and the trade in

12:06
antiquities are linked it's actually all

12:12
iron navaja de mons is the likely

12:15
outcome of course it's something you can

12:17
easily explain with the new era after

12:19
1989 when there was a whole new market

12:23
of billionaires oil billionaires stores

12:28
in this big idea of between meter they

12:30
got the other key bells and harmful the

12:33
stock markets went crazy people learned

12:36
quick money and now there are very many

12:38
people with almost inconceivable amounts

12:41
of money and one of the investments

12:45
recommended by banks is antiques

12:48
paintings and works of ancient art what

12:51
do you belong Tiki don't classify us

12:54
from Iceland the Spanish master and his

12:56
circle tried to help by meeting market

12:58
demand with forgery Simba Dolph Sabbath

13:01
reading that explains why four trees are

13:04
made you see and for jeewa sold all over

13:08
the place uh and because they have their

13:11
dead there's a market for it because

13:13
museums and collectors buy it

13:15
we're talking money money money is the

13:19
underlining factor and the reason this

13:22
is done because only rich people have

13:24
the money to pay for it and these rich

13:27
people take get further advantage by

13:29
donating it taking a tax deduction she

13:32
ain't getting prestige

13:33
and this goes on and on and on as we're

13:36
sitting here it exists at this very

13:37
moment

13:43
so the trade in antiquities is obviously

13:46
a wash with forgeries according to Oskar

13:48
muscarella surprisingly many experts in

13:52
German museums and universities know

13:54
about it - but it's frowned upon - right

13:57
expert opinions for the art trade

13:59
because of concerns that in addition to

14:01
forgeries there's a lot of looted art on

14:04
the market Marco's Harrogate who heads

14:12
one of the sections of Berlin's Pergamon

14:14
museum has bought his staff from writing

14:16
expert opinions on antiquities for the

14:19
art trade let's get doctor ions RTD

14:24
indigent is on the one hand you have

14:26
those who say we have to document

14:27
illegally exported works or academia so

14:30
that the knowledge does not get lost

14:34
designed on the other hand you have

14:36
those who say that my writing expert

14:38
opinions you raise the value of a work

14:42
of art and make it even more profitable

14:45
and that is also my personal opinion who

14:48
does this let's stop by the position of

14:51
us all I decided that we could not and

14:53
should not write any more evaluations

14:56
because the experts are the ones who

14:58
assess an item and give it its value

15:00
with their assessment often via team

15:03
Christophe Leon was an art dealer for

15:06
many years and has a doctorate in

15:08
archaeology we joined him on his way to

15:10
France a museum there is allegedly

15:15
exhibiting several heads of dubious

15:17
provenance including some works

15:19
ascribable to the spanish master

15:25
[Music]

15:30
Leon has known the archaeologists

15:33
Stephan Lehmann from Haller for many

15:35
years whenever works from antiquity show

15:38
up that appear suspicious they exchange

15:41
views and information Leon says the

15:44
market for forgeries has been booming

15:46
for several years now as an art dealer

15:49
he personally experienced the

15:51
developments on the art market for 40

15:53
years

15:58
ah dese nuts in home that I spent four

16:03
years at Baron University until 1970 and

16:06
an Borowski one of the biggest dealers

16:09
in antiquities at the time asked me to

16:12
join him in Basel we worked together for

16:15
a year and a half and then I set up my

16:17
own business I've been an art dealer

16:18
ever since but I never really left

16:20
academia me fellows

16:33
happened by mine over the years I've

16:35
always tried to stay within certain

16:37
rules of the game I did not do all the

16:41
things people around me were doing back

16:42
then because I knew it would backfire

16:46
sooner or later because I'm no saint but

16:51
I put limits on myself from the word go

16:53
because I came from a different side I

16:55
came from academia

16:57
[Music]

17:02
[Music]

17:07
meanwhile in Halle Stephen Lehmann

17:10
continues to examine the bronze head

17:12
from the New York art market

17:18
his research has also exposed the market

17:21
strategies adopted by the alleged forger

17:27
first responders from Isis the Spanish

17:30
masters forgery workshop naturally

17:32
thinks about images it can produce for

17:34
the market the via told in the ranking

17:37
of archaeological objects bronze

17:40
sculptures are number one there's

17:44
something very special and we can expect

17:46
them to attract great attention here's a

17:50
grumpy expression rather than the ideal

17:53
one we imagine for Augustus you can tell

17:58
that the artist is playing with emotions

17:59
a little bit but it's a fantastic piece

18:03
the fish

18:10
Stephane Lehmann also heads the

18:13
Archaeological Museum belonging to the

18:15
University in Halle its storerooms

18:17
contain a collection of plaster casts of

18:20
original artworks from classical

18:22
antiquity these correspond exactly to

18:25
the genuine antique portraits

18:27
whenever Lemmon examines a suspected

18:29
forgery he always compares this with an

18:32
original as in the case of this portrait

18:34
of Augustus Caesar archaeologists call

18:38
this method stylistic analysis

18:40
it's a centuries-old approach used to

18:43
identify genuine works of art simply by

18:46
looking at them it takes years of

18:48
experience a wealth of knowledge and

18:51
intuition

18:57
is in the of each other's you can see

19:01
here how an official portrait of

19:03
Augustus looks these eyes aren't very

19:06
arched they just have a slight curve and

19:10
there's the long nose in the mouth which

19:13
is oriented toward the vertical axis

19:15
then this calm facial expression this

19:18
very calm expression with only slightly

19:20
raised contours only very light modeling

19:23
which transports a very calm

19:25
timeless face sight losses is East

19:29
Formica

19:39
and then we have a serrated edge at the

19:41
bottom hardly man at all but allegedly

19:45
torn off with great force

19:57
you tired when you look at the details

19:59
you have doubts about whether it really

20:01
is a fake Cobalts 5 her bouzouki file

20:05
shows like this is a perfect come on

20:07
it's perfectly done masterly so to speak

20:15
my stylish Stefan Lehmann really does

20:24
think the head is a fake but to make

20:27
sure his verdict is right he has to get

20:30
the head examined again by scientific

20:33
means

20:36
[Music]

20:42
the Fraunhofer Institute in foot

20:45
specializes in testing materials

20:48
normally the scientists here test

20:50
industrial products and research

20:52
prototypes an alleged forgery by the

20:55
Spanish master is a first for them art

20:59
evaluator hard Marat wants to have the

21:02
bronze head scanned it's the first time

21:05
anyone has tried to analyze a suspect

21:08
sculpture head in this way we've already

21:16
conducted a range of tests and to round

21:20
it off we'd like a CT scan of the inside

21:24
of the head what exactly are you hoping

21:28
to be able to see with the CT scan you

21:33
can spot casting defects repair marks

21:35
and what I'm really looking for is the

21:37
holes left behind by the spacers use

21:41
English

21:47
Mona is hoping to see inside the head

21:50
into the material it's made of to find

21:53
out the method used to produce it

21:55
I reckon he's alright they're looking

21:58
good and stable well Gladys is set up

22:05
for his CT scan

22:09
now Miller and the Fraunhofer Institute

22:11
physicists are ready to examine the head

22:14
Mira is a materials scientist and

22:17
evaluates works of art made of metal

22:19
porcelain or fabrics this time it's

22:22
bronze purported to be from ancient

22:24
times the first of the pictures pops up

22:27
on the screen from Kevin who's even

22:34
brighter there you have your spacer

22:38
looks quite funny that's good too

22:52
but there appears to be a serious

22:55
problem this is very strong radiation we

23:01
can hardly recognize any sharp material

23:03
structure you get the feeling that there

23:08
are definitely some cavities in the

23:09
material but you can't define precisely

23:11
how deep they are we simply didn't have

23:14
strong enough radiation energy to

23:16
penetrate this head properly so all

23:21
Gustus will have to have his head

23:23
examined again back in Halle Stefan

23:27
Lehmann has fresh news a fellow academic

23:30
has brought to his attention a number of

23:32
suspect bronze sculptures in France

23:36
God's Word in capsule engine was he owns

23:42
it funk like in moves on as regards the

23:45
heads in the Museum in the South of

23:47
France in Mahjong

23:48
a private museum belonging to an

23:50
Englishman who made a lot of money loved

23:53
art he collected and then built a Museum

23:56
of antiquity in the South of France and

24:00
suddenly and this really surprised me

24:03
several ancient Roman bronze heads

24:06
showed up here one of them has long hair

24:09
that's highly suspect then there's this

24:14
head with short hair that was unknown to

24:16
me yes it's very strange and then called

24:21
stiff and then we have a head that is

24:23
certainly supposed to have been part of

24:24
a bust or a statue as you can tell from

24:27
the broken edge the person is wearing a

24:30
full beard and striking mustache I am

24:36
slark so all at once we have one known

24:40
in addition to two three four five of

24:43
these life-sized or slightly larger than

24:45
life-size heads made of bronze what

24:49
you're obviously supposed to come from

24:51
statues here in normal that's who come

24:59
meanwhile Christophe Leon has arrived in

25:01
the South of France he wants to take a

25:04
look himself at the Museum Stephane

25:06
Lehmann told him about

[Narrator] In his view, what some of his counterparts in the art trade do, is up to them. But when purported works from antiquity, that are considered highly suspicious by academics, make their way into museums -- that's going too far!

[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] You can already identify the Museum's problem areas on the Internet, because the exhibits are very well depicted, well photographed, well presented. But there's a golden rule in archaeology. The key is forensics. In other words, you have to examine things yourself. And then, when you've looked at a piece, and determined that it's genuine, you have to be honest enough to admit that you got it right.

Mougins, France

We have to start fighting to keep museums free of forgeries. Museums are standard works. Imagine if Art History were suddenly studied on the basis of forgeries!

[Narrator] He's taking a look at the heads in the Museum. He wants to make up his own mind first before he makes his assessment known.

[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] This is completely wrong way. Way off the mark. These locks of hair, like snakes. No! It's quite possible that this is a forgery by the Spanish master. I would definitely examine it with that in mind. Then I might be convinced. But, as I've said, one of the features of the Spanish master is that he tries to create ancient heads, but never quite succeeds. Ultimately, these heads portray a different zeitgeist, a different spirit. you can see it. No head of hair was ever portrayed like that in antiquity. Didn't happen. This head is strange, too. I don't trust it. It's not an ancient style, portraying someone like that. There's no such thing -- an ancient face with eyes rolled upward. And ultimately, things were sold to him that had already graced the depots of various antiquities dealers for years. And then things like that came along. That's definitely a fake. A head like that is not from antiquity. I have my doubts about this, too. And things come along, and you get carried away, and you want to have them. But, that's obviously what happens when you put together a big collection under pressure. And there are many objects here. The Museum's full. Like I said, all Museums have erroneous purchases in their basements. Lots of them. This museum, too. But they should sort through them, and only exhibit the real ones.

[Narrator] Stefan Lehmann is writing a book about the works of art he ascribes to the Spanish master. He has pictures of 32 bronze sculptures on his desk. He says the oldest items date from the 1970s.

[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] The Spanish master's workshop divides the labor, I assume, but I could be wrong. There could be more. But I suspect that there are one, or two, or three people who think. "What are we going to do next?" This here is an exceptional piece -- a bronze portrait of a black African woman. Do we even have the idea. "Let's do something like that, now"? They have to make the molds, cast the metal, and then ruin it all, make damage marks, create a fontina, make it look ancient. Well, that requires a lot of skill. Here we have two bronze sculptures. One is the head of a lady dated to the late Hellenistic period, or the second century, depending on academic opinion. And this one is a purported goddess -- a bust -- that was placed in a round shield at Tondo, as it's called. They're all part of the ancient art collection in Basel, and are on show there.

Basel, Switzerland

[Music]

[Narrator] The Museum of ancient art in Basel is the only Museum in Switzerland to exhibit exclusively classical antiques. The two sculptures Stephan Lehmann believes to be highly suspicious, stood here, considered stars of the exhibition. Museum Director Andrea Bignasca has sent one of them to the workshop to have it examined once again by conservators.

[Music] The museum received the sculptures as part of a private legacy gift from the Ludwig Collection in Aachen. Stephan Lehmann thinks the sculpture is the work of the Spanish master.

[Andrea Bignasca, Basel Museum of Ancient Art] I have to say, this all surprised me. We didn't know that Lehmann was conducting such investigations, and that he had included our two bronze sculptures from the Ludwig Collection.

[Narrator] Their former owners Peter and Irene Ludwig, collected art and acquired this bronze sculpture on the art market. But the Museum has no information about exactly where it comes from. The idea of classical works with no known origin, or provenance, making their way into public museums via the art market, is something Stefan Lehmann deplores.

[Andrea Bignasca, Basel Museum of Ancient Art] Herr Lehmann is a classical archeologist. He's a professor at a university. He's a curator at the Archaeological Museum. But he's no specialist in bronze statues, although he seems to think so. What I don't like in this case is this broadside on me personally, on the Museum, on my colleagues. So far, there's absolutely no proof. So, I'm sticking to the version that these objects are original, classical, works of art.

[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] Yes, of course, the museums are never amused -- obviously -- when important artifacts that are shown in their main chamber are cast into doubt. It always leads immediately to personal differences. That's normal. You can't avoid that entirely. But I think the question of whether they are original sculptures, or modern forgeries, is so important, that we have to be above these trifles.  

[Narrator] Back at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute, preparations are underway for a second scan of the Swiss collector's Augustus. After the failure of the first attempt to get a CT scan, Material Scientist Harold Miller is now getting the bronze head x-rayed again in Europe's most powerful linear accelerator. Until now, no Museum collector was prepared to hand over a suspected forgery for such an examination. So no work ascribed to the Master has yet been proved fake by these scientific methods.

[Music]

The scientists have to leave the hall, because of the extremely high radiation from the linear accelerator. The examination is focused on the metal alloy in the bronze sculpture. Is it really from antiquity? Does it have the same characteristics as a bronze statue made 2,000 years ago? one suspicion is that the forgers melt down ancient coins to cast new heads -- a clever approach.

[Man] What is this device?

[Harold Muller, Materials Scientist] It's a Perkin Elmer Detector, with 200 micrometer pixel pitch. We believe, because of a range of material characteristics that correspond with antiquity, that this sculpture is made of genuine ancient material. There is ancient material available for things like this, and it would not be an entirely new idea to use, or to have used, old material for forgeries.

[Narrator] This time, the process works. Muller looks at the cross-sectional images of the head, and he notices that the patina on the head is only on the outside surface. That's strange.

[Harold Muller, Materials Scientist] You can see that that this material has a different density from the material around it, which has a different alloy composition. We've carried out metallographic tests, meaning on a cross-section of the material, and the outer crust, and determined, for one thing, that the corrosion, which looks very bad to the naked eye, is only on the surface. That leads us to the conclusion that this artefact was created in modern times, and designed to look very old.

[Narrator] Scientific methods have proved the bronze sculpture of Augustus to be a fake.

[Markus Hilgert, Museum of the Ancient Near East] I didn't think that the authorities are reluctant to regulate the art market, because a strong art market is viewed as in the interests of the German economy, maybe without exactly knowing what is going on today. I think we've learned a lot in the last few months. To start with, this trade, because it is so profitable, attracts those who try to make a profit from forged artifacts. So we have to be on our guard. Especially when we take note of how imprecisely many objects are described when they are offered up for sale. e If you want to import Ukrainian sausage to the EU, you need an import license, certification, a list of ingredients, and chemical analyses. Cultural artifacts, archaeological artifacts, can be imported just like that, without all the documentation and certification. So we have to assume that a corresponding proportion of forgeries is on the market, as much as 40 to 50 percent. Halle, Germany

[Music]

[Narrator] As an archaeologist at the University, Stephan Lehmann can avail himself of his academic freedom to evaluate items from the art trade. Today he has reason to be satisfied. His new book, about suspect and forged bronze heads, has been published, with the results of the new tests at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute, which give him certainty.

[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] Ladies and gentlemen, dear students, I'm happy to welcome you here at our book presentation at their Martin Luther University in Hara. In my opinion, scholarship must respond clearly and effectively to these challenges. Only then can we defend the basis of our subject against this money-grabbing attack.

[Narrator] And this is how he presents the results of his latest investigations into the museum in France.

[Stefan Lehmann, Archaeologist] In Mougins, a small town where Picasso spent his retirement near Nice, a British multi-millionaire has established a private museum which is home to a number of heads which he acquired and exhibited. But which can hardly be described as classical works of art, in my opinion.

New York, USA

[Narrator] But while Stefan Lehmann presents the results of his research, another bronze head, which he describes in his book as highly suspicious, shows up in the US. It's presented as a loan from an anonymous private collector. And it's this bronze head of Alexander the Great which Lehmann attributes to the workshop of the Spanish master.

[Music]

It's no isolated case. Archaeologist Oscar Muscarella has observed that museums in the U.S. have often exhibited dubious works of art.

[Oscar White Muscarella, Former Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art] When the prominent collector decides to make a donation to a Museum, in 99% of the times and perhaps a 100%, but I'll be generous. In 99% of the time, the Curator and Director will accept it ipso facto. Why? Because they want this collector to give more things, and also make financial contributions. In very few cases, and if a Curator does recognize that one or two objects are a forgery, they'll keep them in the basement. In very few rare cases kept in the basement. In most cases it's on exhibit from the collection of "So and So donated." You see, and the donor's family get the prestige of the situation. And you have this all over America.

[Narrator] The bronze sculpture is being exhibited without any details of provenance. Christoph Leon , an old hand in the art trade, also comes to the conclusion that the head is the work of the Spanish master.

[Christoph Leon, Art Dealer] And now it's showed up in the Metropolitan, where it's being exhibited as a loan. Being shown there certainly won't be bad for its market value. I expect the head to show up at an auction again in the not-too-distant future. For sure it'll show up again.

[Narrator] And what about the Spanish master's identity and whereabouts? We're still in the dark about them. Stefan Lehmann suspects that what he's uncovered so far is only the tip of the iceberg, and that there are many forgeries on show in museums around the world.

[admin]

Fake Beauty: The Artistry Of Forgery
Perspective
Oct 30, 2021

A look at fraud and falsehood in the world of art, and what can be said about prominent figures who provide pictures of their beauty.



Transcript

0:06
paper was light gold in medieval times
0:12
[Music] i want tobacco sugar
0:20
[Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world
0:26
might turn out to be completely wrong [Music]
0:35
what is beauty we see it in people in landscapes in
0:42
experiences but what exactly is it
0:49
in this series we explore beauty our instinct for beauty is older than we
0:56
are it seems it existed tens of thousands of years before we even had language
1:06
we go back in time to discover the first works of art ever created
1:11
then trace beauty's evolution through to the present day
1:17
we travel the length and breadth of the world to discover different cultural attitudes to beauty
1:31
[Music] and we find out about the future when robots and artificial intelligence will
1:38
determine our aesthetic tastes we investigate the value of beauty
1:45
the power of beauty and the other side of beauty how to make it
1:52
and how to fake it my name's dominic frisbie and i'm a writer from england
1:57
and i've been asked to make a television series in which we rediscover our sense
2:03
of beauty
2:11
my journey begins here
2:21
[Music]
2:29
[Music]
2:47
[Music]
2:54
this is london and i'm standing just next to the institute of contemporary
2:59
arts just over here we have the national portrait gallery beyond the british
3:04
museum in this direction the tate gallery over here the victoria and albert museum
3:10
this is the art capital of the world but have you ever wondered of all the
3:17
art that's bought and sold and on display not just here but all over the world how much is genuine
3:24
according to one study as much as 50 percent is forged
3:30
you've heard about fake news today's programme is about fake beauty
3:45
history is full of fraud and forgery and for some reason human beings have always
3:50
delighted in tales of tricksters and con men there's something about them that
3:55
captures the imagination we like it when somebody beats the system and gets one over on the pompous
4:02
and powerful the more powerful and the more evil the tricked the more we like the trickster
4:09
and so we travel to holland to tell the story of perhaps the greatest trickster
4:15
of the lot [Music]
4:24
this is the municipal cemetery of devonta a quiet dutch town about an hour's drive
4:30
from amsterdam and here at this almost anonymous looking tombstone lie
4:38
the ashes of perhaps the most notorious forger who ever lived this is the man
4:45
who duped the nazis
4:56
[Music]
5:06
was born into a middle class family in 1889 his love of art came at an early age but
5:12
his father didn't approve and so van meehan took to painting on the quiet
5:18
when his father caught him he would make him repeat i know nothing i am nothing i
5:24
am capable of nothing his teacher at school imbued him with a
5:29
love of dutch artist vermeer his teacher loathed brash contemporary
5:34
impressionist styles and taught vanmeharen to paint in the style of the dutch golden age
5:42
after school his father insisted he study architecture which van meeheren did
5:47
but he also took art classes on the side
5:58
[Music]
6:07
this boathouse here in delft where he studied is one of the buildings he designed and he used to love racing
6:13
boats here on the canals but he never finished his course instead shortly after marrying his first
6:20
wife who he met at this very boathouse he went to art school full time
6:27
he left with all sorts of awards in 1917 he had his first public showing
6:33
and by the 1920s had become a popular and respected painter [Music]
6:46
then came the bad reviews dutch art critics were more interested in cubism surrealism and other movements
6:53
of the time one critic said van meeren's talent was limited to copying others
6:59
another said he has every virtue except originality
7:04
van mehren wrote a series of angry articles in retaliation and a kind of rage grew inside of him at the failure
7:12
of the art world to recognize his genius he set out to prove that he could not
7:17
only equal but surpass the dutch masters and with this in mind in 1932 now with
7:23
his second wife he moved to the south of france
7:30
is more or less the prototype of forgio he started out of revenge
7:37
as a young guy he he made great portraits of of people and people liked
7:43
his work but the critics said well mr fermachen your work is good but it's
7:49
it's not that good so he thought so i'm not that good i will show you that i'm better than you
7:55
think for five years he studied the dutch greats not only their works but their
8:00
techniques and their lives vermeer from here in delft in holland
8:06
was the ideal candidate not only was his work scarce and valuable there was a period from his
8:13
life from which no work remained it was believed he was in italy at the
8:18
time so van meeran set out to create vermeer's religious italian period his
8:26
first offering was the supper at a mouse [Music]
8:37
when van mejeren's vermeer was first displayed in holland it took the dutch art community
8:43
by storm dr abraham bradius perhaps the most pompous critic of the day a man for
8:48
whom van mehren may have had considerable distaste gushed he said it is a wonderful moment
8:55
in life to discover this hitherto unknown painting he declared it a masterpiece he said in no other painting
9:03
by the great master do we find such sentiment
9:09
a storm of excitement in this hitherto undiscovered masterpiece followed and in
9:14
1937 dirk hanema director of museum boyman's purchased the separate mouse
9:20
for the equivalent of about five million dollars [Music]
9:27
van mehren used the money to buy a lavish estate in nice where he painted some of his greatest forgeries
9:35
at the onset of war he moved back to holland and by the early 1940s he was worth a fortune he used his money to buy
9:42
property after property by the canals in some of the most exclusive districts of
9:48
amsterdam but he was also drinking heavily he'd acquired a taste for sleeping pills
9:54
and the quality of his work was declining
10:00
von migran forged vermeer and he did so by finding a blind spot
10:05
in a theory by an art critic named abraham british
10:12
who had for his entire life theorized that there had been a
10:17
religious period in vermeer's work and no work had ever been found that
10:22
substantiated this claim so von migran made work that fit the theory that
10:28
british had espoused and british authenticated it because he
10:34
was so delighted to find proof of what he had always believed
10:39
the work was abominable looked absolutely nothing like anything you would imagine a vermeer to look like
10:48
but despite its dubious quality as it had been authenticated by a so-called expert the supper at a mouse became an
10:55
accepted part of the vermeer collection and thus was the door opened for further
11:00
forgeries from vermeer's italian religious period one of these christ with the adulteress
11:08
would enter the history books
11:14
hermann goring notoriously ruthless after hitler the most powerful man in nazi germany he was
11:22
also a passionate collector of art and his collection most of it plundered was
11:29
enormous a german art dealer approached goring and said he had a contact in holland who
11:35
might be able to get him a vermeer not only a vermeer one from his religious
11:41
italian period goring jumped at the idea and eventually traded 137 of his own works of art for
11:49
this vermeer which became his most prized possession he displayed it he
11:55
showcased it he even declared it the crown jewel in his collection
12:04
hello hey arthur hello hi tell me about the techniques that um van metron used to to imitate
12:13
vermeer tell me about the methods he used he experimented for a long time he took months and months and he kept
12:20
experimenting with a mixture of bakelites which was an early plastic 1920s plastic
12:25
and uh an oil paint yeah penguins and oil and he
12:30
mixed this and he tried again and again to see what happened and this would get if you would bake it in an oven you get
12:36
a special oven made and he would bake it off and see what happened and and in the
12:42
end he got this result he wanted this old looking painting and it was you know he hit it right so would he paint it
12:47
with this old paint or would he paint it first and then put it through this process to make it to aging he painted it with this big light mix
12:54
and then you know it was heated to you know extensively and then uh it it it cracked
13:02
in the way he wanted it to crack and he rolled it up to get even more cracks and then he rubbed in ink so
13:09
it would look like it was dust of ages and ages okay and he used all these techniques to just
13:15
get it to look really old and people believed him and this was years practicing this technique i would think
13:21
i thought it was more like months and months almost a year and he used the right
13:27
colors he knew he had to use a type of yellow and a type of blue that was very
13:33
convincing for mirror color okay [Music]
14:00
after goring was tried at nuremberg he was sentenced to death an american soldier smuggled him some
14:07
cyanide with which he committed suicide the day before he was supposed to be executed
14:13
on that same day another soldier said to him by the way your vermeer
14:19
it was fake
14:24
at the end of the war goring's jewel was discovered hidden behind some panels in his home
14:31
the painting was traced back to the german dealer who gave them van meeheren's name
14:40
[Music]
14:52
suddenly vlan mehran found himself on trial for being a nazi collaborator and
14:58
a plunderer of dutch cultural property he was faced with the sentence of death
15:05
i painted the picture he said it isn't of amir it's a van mehren
15:11
nobody believed him to prove his innocence van mehren offered the court a proposition
15:18
he would forge a vermeer in front of a panel of experts and witnesses the court agreed and over the next six
15:25
weeks van mehren painted his final vermeer jesus among the doctors
15:31
and he did it while he was drunk and high that was the only way he could work he
15:37
said [Music]
15:58
[Music]
16:05
when you make a forgery you have to copy the lines of
16:12
of the the authentic masters but if you copy it
16:18
line by line people see it it has to be more fluent and a lot of foragers drink
16:23
to make more fluent lines so some of the forges when they start to
16:28
work their first drink a few beers take a few pills and then they go do what they want to do
16:37
experts said it was of such a high quality that van mehren couldn't possibly be lying and the charge was
16:43
dropped [Music]
17:20
he was sentenced to a year in prison if i die in jail he said they will
17:26
forget my paintings will become vermeers once more i didn't do it for the money i did it
17:33
for the art but the day before his incarceration was to begin he died of a heart attack he
17:40
was 58 and here on his tombstone is written his name
17:46
and the years he lived nothing more was he a hero
17:52
was he a villain was he a victim it's left blank
18:07
the forger adds real value in to the world by getting caught not because he or she
18:12
necessarily wants to but when that happens does so very often in terms of
18:19
calling into question all of the mechanisms of authority that tend to be
18:25
taken for granted the forger is in a sense a great artist by virtue of the act of forgery but only
18:33
when the forger gets caught only when the forger ultimately fails to do what
18:39
he or she set out to do does the forger ascend to a higher plane
18:48
during the course of his trial van maheren said something rather profound yesterday this painting was worth
18:55
millions of gilders and experts and art lovers would come from all over the world and pay money to see it
19:03
today it is worth nothing and nobody would cross the street to see it for
19:09
free yet the picture hasn't changed what has
19:30
[Music]
19:36
after the war formation became quite famous he died but formation before
19:41
becoming a forger had made his own style his own work so some people wanted to collect
19:49
the original formations but the only one who could authenticate
19:55
these pieces was the son of confirmation and he thought when i'm the only one who can authenticate the
20:02
pieces of my dead why don't i forge some of those pieces [Laughter]
20:08
so formation was forced by his own son
20:13
like father like so the greatest forges are almost always
20:18
skilled artists who feel somehow rejected by the art world perhaps
20:24
they're masters of a style that isn't in fashion but for whatever reason their work goes unnoticed unappreciated a
20:32
critic deems it inconsequential they don't get the recognition they feel
20:38
they deserve and they have a point to prove excluded by the very world they want to
20:43
be a part of they're going to get their own back
20:48
when an artist gets caught having made a forgery very often the excuse is that the art
20:55
world has been too harsh and somehow has not allowed that artist to do what he or
21:02
she believes is great work and that may be true
21:09
though if you look in many cases at the sheer amount of work that these
21:17
artists make under other names and the sheer amount of money that they make at it you have to question whether that is
21:23
the case so art forgery like any sort of crime or
21:29
in fact like any sort of activity inherently has many different motivations that vary from person to
21:35
person and even within an individual
21:45
[Music]
22:07
art crime is almost as orbit art itself before the the paint was dry on within
22:14
the the pyramids in egypt um looters already were entering to steal
22:19
and forgery we know that for example in 200 bc when the romans started to collect
22:26
greek art like faces and statues the mark was fluted with fakes
22:34
and at the time people had no not much knowledge or technical
22:39
skills to to distinguish fakes and authentic pieces
22:44
but they didn't care that much at the time we know from cicero that he was more interested in how these pieces
22:50
looked in his house than whether they were fake or real so
22:56
it started forgery started around 200 300 bc
23:01
so that's quite a long time ago the motivation is almost always
23:06
financial in ancient rome ancient greek statues became extremely popular and to satisfy
23:14
demand some romans took to forging them in ancient rome you find
23:19
many copies of ancient greek statuary and our instinct today is to look at the
23:25
roman copies as being lesser as somehow being as if they were forgeries but that
23:31
to me doesn't seem right because the romans were not looking at the greek originals as being
23:37
original in some sort of a privileged sense what really mattered was the design
23:42
and therefore the roman copy was for the romans often superior because it could
23:48
take the greek design and could perfect it for the roman environment for
23:53
whatever garden the statuary would be placed in and moreover could make it more perfect it could improve upon the
24:01
condition of the original and so when we look at a roman copy it really is important i
24:08
think that we not look at it entirely from our own context of seeing
24:15
these works as somehow being copies fakes or forgeries but rather that we
24:21
appreciate that the design is what mattered and therefore that we try to appreciate the design as instantiated in
24:27
these copies in the dark ages in medieval times there
24:33
was an extremely brisk trade in religious relics many of which were of
24:38
dubious provenance during the dark ages the middle ages
24:44
there was not much interest for art people had other things on their minds the plague was there was not much money
24:50
around so art collecting was not a real issue at the time but people collected relics
24:57
like bones from saints and um some
25:03
saints there were so many bones attached to some of these saints that these people must have had two or
25:09
three bodies during their lifetime so there were a lot of fakes around of course during the renaissance many
25:15
painters took on apprentices and actually taught them to paint in their own style the master would then sell
25:22
these works as payment for his teaching this was considered tribute and not
25:27
forgery and indeed the distinction between what is tribute what is homage
25:32
what is pastiche and what is outright forgery is often rather blurred
25:39
traditionally we tend to think of a forgery as a form
25:44
of fraud that is to say that it is distinct from homage where an homage is generally
25:52
speaking done in public where it is explicitly a copy or a
25:59
version of an original therefore a forgery always has a
26:05
subversive quality to it it has a quality of questioning the original
26:12
which runs much more deep i believe than an homage can do
26:17
because an homage simply can bring out qualities in the original and relationships between the original and
26:23
the copyist or the artist who has undertaken the homage the forgery can
26:28
bring out all sorts of latent qualities that have to do with how we received the
26:34
original and how we relate to it today in italy the renaissance had created a
26:41
new prosperous middle class and they wanted art ancient roman statues became
26:47
extremely popular but there were only so many genuine ancient roman statues that
26:53
could be unearthed supply had to meet demand by alternative means
26:59
we go to the renaissance and that's a very special period first of all
27:05
art collecting became a real business popes kings merchants started to collect art
27:11
there was money there was great art so there was money and what was more
27:19
important some artists for the first time in history
27:24
became famous before the renaissance it was not about the artist it was about the piece of art
27:32
most of those art was religious and those pieces were inspired by god and
27:38
dedicated to god so it was not about the artist they didn't even
27:44
sign those works of art but in a renaissance we see that some of these artists become
27:50
pop stars michelangelo and other people they start to become famous people wanted their
27:56
work so this mix of a lot of money around and artists who
28:03
become famous people that's the perfect mix for forgeries
28:10
however it seems that even some of the renaissance rock stars themselves might
28:16
have started out as forgers [Music]
28:23
once upon a time right behind me here in the heart of london stood the largest
28:28
palace in the whole of europe the palace of whitehall but unfortunately in 1698 it burned down
28:35
and among the many items destroyed in the fire was a little-known statue by a young michelangelo called the sleeping
28:43
cupid when michelangelo was just 21 his patron lorenzo de medici died his hometown of
28:50
florence was in political turmoil and the young struggling artist found himself strapped for cash
28:58
and at the time ancient roman statues were selling rather well so the young michelangelo thought he would sculpt one
29:06
in the ancient style and when he came to sell it he was told bury it in the ground
29:12
treat it so it looks old send it to rome there they'll think it's an antique and you'll get more money for it so that's
29:20
just what michelangelo did one of the most interesting stories
29:25
about forges during the renaissance is michelangelo the greatest of all
29:33
we know that in the time of of michelangelo people wanted
29:39
authentic roman statues they didn't like his work that much of michelangelo so
29:44
they they said we want authentic roman pieces so what did michelangelo do
29:50
he forged roman statues he made them he put them well in acidic ground to give
29:56
them appearance of great age and then he sold them as authentic roman
30:01
statues so can you imagine that somebody somewhere in the world
30:06
is looking at a roman statue of what he thinks is a roman statue worth 10 000 euros which in reality is a michelangelo
30:15
being worth tens of millions so sometimes a forgery can be worth more
30:22
than an authentic piece michelangelo had a kind of agent in rome
30:27
called baldassare del milanese and del milanese found a buyer for the sculpture
30:33
a cardinal no less one cardinal riario who paid the princely sum of 200 duckets
30:40
but michelangelo didn't know any of that he just took his cut and forgot about it
30:46
two years later michelangelo went to rome looking for a patron he'd been recommended to visit cardinal riario and
30:53
he took with him his letter of recommendation the cardinal showed michelangelo his collection rather proudly and there
31:01
right in the middle of it was the sleeping cupid i sculpted that said michelangelo and
31:07
the scam was rumbled that's when it was discovered that
31:12
michelangelo had only been paid 30 ducats the dealer had pocketed the other
31:17
170 the cardinal demanded his money back but not from michelangelo
31:24
the fact that michelangelo had been able to mimic so brilliantly the ancients had
31:29
impressed the cardinal and he would become michelangelo's patron
31:35
skill was considered more important than originality in those days when ideas
31:40
were just part of the collective and michelangelo's career took off first
31:46
he sculpted bacchus then pieta within three years david was commissioned and within 10 he was standing on a
31:53
scaffolding brush in hand with his arm outstretched towards the ceiling of the
31:58
sistine chapel where he painted his iconic work del milanese meanwhile had to give the
32:05
cardinal a refund but when michelangelo's career took off he sold the sculpture for even more money as a
32:12
genuine michelangelo how many more michelangelo's are there
32:17
out there masquerading as ancient roman statues quite a few i suspect
32:24
michelangelo was an art forger when people would loan him
32:30
works by past masters he often liked the drawings so much that he would not only
32:37
copy them for his own education but he would keep them for himself and he would give back the copies that
32:43
he had made passing them off as if they were the originals and so today
32:48
we don't know which of these works are his as opposed to the masters who he
32:55
claimed they had been made by and as a result anything that we look at
33:01
from that period could be in fact michelangelo and
33:07
therefore we need to look at all work from that period a little bit more closely
33:14
thinking not only about our appreciation for who made it based on
33:20
what name is on it but also what hand was responsible for it
33:26
and that makes us i think more attentive to all artwork
33:32
most forgers fall into their habit they don't set out to be forge as it just happens by some accident of fortune
33:40
often the need to earn a living perhaps they find themselves painting reproductions imitating copying and they
33:46
discover they're rather good at it when the money starts coming in it's
33:52
very hard to turn down that money's nice and that's when they're trapped
34:00
i believe that fakes are the great art of our age that forgeries are the masterpieces of our
34:07
time not because of their inherent qualities in terms of the
34:12
paintings or the sculptures in their own right but because of the act of forgery
34:19
and the effect that it has when a forger is exposed on
34:24
how we look at that work and how we look at ourselves to me
34:29
art is ultimately most interesting in our time
34:34
where it provokes anxiety about ourselves about our society makes us
34:40
look at our world and scrutinize ourselves a little bit more closely
34:46
and when a forgery is exposed that's exactly what happens
34:52
while artwork in a museum say an expressionist masterpiece or
34:58
say a work of pop art may in some way suggest various ways in which
35:06
our society is unsettled or unsettling may illustrate that fact the forgery
35:13
actually is working with the unsettling qualities
35:19
as the very material of the fakery that is to say that the
35:25
forger is using us as the real material of the masterpiece
35:32
and is using us also as the audience of it so that when we
35:38
see that we've been bamboozled what we find are all the ways in which
35:45
by way of our deception we were not attentive enough we were not paying attention
35:52
to phenomena or to attributes of our society that we should have been
35:58
and these attributes may range from the degree to which we tend to invest
36:05
too much of a sense of value in authority
36:11
to the degree to which we may think of authenticity as being a very simple sort
36:18
of operation all of this is up for re-examination when the forger is at work and that to
36:25
me is why forgers deserve our begrudging respect
36:31
and so to switzerland to meet one of the foremost companies in art analysis and
36:36
verification to discuss art forgery today
36:47
art forgery is much more widespread than most collectors would expect since 209
36:55
since i'm in this industry we've seen a massive international forgery scandal
37:02
every year and every time auction houses the big
37:07
galleries the art dealers would tell you that's the last time that was a one-off
37:12
that's bad luck it won't happen again but in fact every year you have a new forgery scandal so
37:20
i think it's pretty widespread sgs is in the business of inspection and
37:27
verification it acts as a kind of quality control for traded goods
37:33
anything from chemicals to agricultural produce making sure they meet certain
37:38
standards more recently it has got into the business of art
37:43
and that's because there is more fake art trading hands than perhaps ever before
37:54
there are three main reasons why we find so many forgeries on the market
38:00
today the first reason is the value of art if an artwork is worth tens or hundreds
38:07
of millions of dollars of course for the forger it's very tempting because by working just a few days or a few weeks
38:14
you can make a big sum of money a very good salary as a painter by doing fakes
38:20
the second reason is that many people buy art nowadays as a form
38:27
of investment and these people probably don't have the same level of
38:33
knowledge and education than collectors had in the past and
38:38
these people are probably much easier to cheat on than
38:43
a very educated collector the third reason is that
38:48
modern contemporary art forms like abstract art
38:54
may be perceived as easier to forge or to copy when you compare an abstract
39:00
composition to a complicated old master painting by
39:05
guardi or caneletto or tiapolo of course
39:11
it's more tempting for a forger to copy an abstract composition because it's simpler it looks simpler
39:18
[Music] sgs analyzes up to 400 artworks every
39:25
year and as many as 80 percent of them turn out to be fakes forgeries or
39:30
misattributions this female nude signed by french
39:35
painter of the early 20th century falvest movement albert marquet was sold
39:41
with a certificate dating the painting to 1912
39:52
[Music]
39:59
when the owner wanted to renew the certificate the albert marquez authentication committee refused
40:07
[Music]
40:13
[Music] sgs began their examination using
40:20
techniques which included spectroscopy infrared reflectography
40:25
x-ray radiography and pigment analysis
40:35
[Music]
40:52
[Music]
41:03
another composition was found underneath upside down
41:09
[Music]
41:20
a tractor with farmers during the harvest season [Music]
41:37
attractive enough but notice the tyres on the tractor tires such as these weren't used until
41:44
the 1930s or 1940s
41:52
thus the terminus post quem the earliest possible date for the canvas is then
41:59
there is no way the market on top could have been painted in nineteen twelve
42:06
thanks to infrared reflectography and extra radiography we found out
42:11
an underneath composition this this painting
42:17
representing a totally different subject representing attractor
42:22
attractor with the harvest scene and
42:27
the details that we can see in the infrared reflectography allows to demonstrate
42:35
that the characteristic of this starter are not compatible with a model from 1912.
42:43
[Music] this painting of a doge was believed to be of the 16th century venetian school
42:50
but was it a genuine 16th century work or a later copy
43:08
[Music] the painting had been heavily restored and ultraviolet light was used to
43:14
determine which parts were original and which parts restored
43:20
[Music]
43:27
[Music]
43:43
[Music]
43:55
[Music]
44:06
once this was established the original parts were examined and pigments were discovered which weren't used until the
44:12
19th century making that the terminus post-queen this was no 16th century work
44:21
[Music] one of the most interesting and recent
44:27
cases we have had here at sgs art services was brought to us by madame
44:33
manuela de kirkov she bought a painting made by her grandfather renegade
44:40
and it has a piezage and it's dated from 1953. when the painting arrived
44:48
very evidently we could see paint losses that revealed very bright colors
44:55
that were contrasting with the current composition that we see in pistache the analysis that we performed on paisage
45:03
were able to uncover underlying composition
45:09
[Music]
45:28
when i received the x-ray from sjs i discovered a cubist
45:35
landscape with two figures and it was a surprise and suddenly studying
45:41
more this x-ray i suddenly remember that there was
45:47
somewhere into my archives of pictures of renegade who was painting a cubist
45:53
painting [Music]
46:06
it was possible to compare with photographs from the archive and have an exact match of the painting
46:13
that was underneath it was also authored by renegade from his cubist period
46:19
that he then later reused this canvas in the 50s to make the composition that
46:26
we see today there is no technology presently available that would enable us
46:31
to separate these two paintings however it's unlikely juliet would have wanted
46:36
that to happen he probably
46:43
painted over many cubist paintings while the cubist paintings there are
46:48
also many many possibilities
46:54
because the flat surface or because he was not liking his cubist
46:59
period anymore [Music]
47:04
for whatever reason juliet chose to paint over his previous efforts perhaps
47:10
we should respect that decision and leave these paintings covered how many more covered works are there
47:18
the answer to that we will likely never know nor will we ever know just how big the
47:24
fake art market is not all forgeries get detected despite best efforts to safeguard against
47:31
misattribution and scams the spate of scandals which have rocked
47:36
the art world in recent years with prized paintings being declared near worthless fakes means there is
47:43
insecurity fear and paranoia amongst museums collectors and auction houses
47:49
alike fake works masquerading as originals continue to litter the market
47:55
we will never know just how many are fake forgery is deceit and the aim of a
48:03
forger is not to be found out [Music]
48:15
the value of fake art on the market is probably impossible to
48:22
determine exactly what i can say is that
48:27
in the massive forgery scandals we've seen the international forgery scandal we've
48:33
seen in the last years they have caused millions of dollars of
48:38
damage to collectors auction houses art dealers
48:44
the estimates of forgeries on the market range between 20 and 30 percent
48:51
so that means that almost all museum collections or private collections are full of eggs
49:01
just as methods of detection improve and evolve so do the forges themselves then
49:07
always be one step ahead and the higher valuations in the art market go the
49:12
greater the length to which forges and their agents will go to get a piece of this extraordinarily lucrative action
49:20
particularly if the aspiring artist that is the forger considers himself overlooked and wants to get his own back
49:28
there will be forgery for as long as there is a market for art
49:34
perhaps in the future attitudes towards originality will change and ideas will
49:40
once again be considered part of the collective just as they were before the renaissance and the skills of
49:47
craftsmanship will be ascribed greater value
49:52
art itself is a reproduction of life perhaps art by its very nature
50:00
is therefore false [Music]
51:12
some years ago i decided that i wanted to be immortal as so many artists want to be but
51:18
i've never really been any good at painting or drawing so i couldn't take the usual means so instead what i
51:25
did was i applied for a copyright on my mind with the idea that i could continue to
51:31
think after my own death by licensing my mind to an artificial
51:38
intelligence and i don't know right now what to think of that because i'm still alive but
51:44
maybe after i'm dead and i am able to think about it i'll have a better idea
51:49
of what it means to be alive and what it means in terms of the degree to which we
51:55
are what we think as opposed to the embodied selves that we think of
52:01
ourselves as being when we think of ourselves as being alive
52:30
you

[admin]

Forger and the Con Man - The John Myatt Story
directed by Bosie Vincent
Narrator Eric Myers
Sep 15, 2021



Transcript

it's the most important question in the worldwide art market is it genuine
0:08
or is it fake when a forgery is passed off as the real thing there are fortunes to be made
0:15
and lost for nearly a decade two englishmen did
0:20
just that
0:27
[Music]
0:42
fall of 1995 out of the blue a woman telephoned scotland yard with
0:47
information about her former partner it wasn't the first time in my career
0:52
that one received such a call from the woman scorned here was somebody who was
0:58
clearly very upset at the breakup of her relationship who had in her words a considerable
1:04
amount of evidence to show that her husband as she referred to him had been involved in considerable
1:11
criminal activity in the art market and have been orchestrating a major fraud
1:16
[Music] dick ellis and another detective in the art and antique squad met the woman at
1:22
her local police station on october 5th 1995. her name was bathsheba gadsmith
1:30
the two of us went and interviewed her first of all upstairs in the police station
1:36
the bizarre story she told police uncovered a fraud that had been going on for eight years
1:43
but good smith had more damning evidence than the two detectives could have dreamt of and then she said i've got
1:50
quite a lot of exhibits for you she invited jonathan and i to go round
1:55
to a street uh in hampstead where in fact her car was parked
2:01
and out of the boot of that car she then produced several inliner full of papers
2:08
it was like an aladdin alliance cave without those bin liners
2:14
we would have had very little evidence to go on the trash bags contained photographs
2:20
catalogs and bills of sale it wasn't certain what it all meant
2:25
but as scotland yard detectives began sifting through the material one thing became clear
2:31
somewhere in these trash bags was the key to one of the most extraordinary and audacious scams the art world had ever
2:38
seen and this was the man behind it an
2:43
englishman called john drew we very quickly formed an idea of john
2:48
drew that he was an extremely intelligent and
2:53
deep thinking fraudsmen
2:59
this story goes back to the late 1970s when london was the center of a thriving
3:04
music industry soho was a magnet to anyone who thought they had the talent for writing a hit
3:10
song one of them was a former art student and budding composer called john mayat
3:19
was taken on by a record company and was quite successful he had a hit single called silly games
3:26
everything seemed to be going well then one day the man who ran the business arrived at work with a problem
3:35
my boss at gto records had been out to dinner with marcus seif
3:40
and this marcus thief actually owned the whole mark suspenses
3:46
he came back the next day he said oh god you know i've seen these fantastic paintings by this uh this artist called raul doofy
3:53
this marcus sephie's paid ninety thousand for this one and sixty thousand for those so they're brilliant i wish i got something like that i just happened
3:59
to hear it and i said well i could do that dick why don't you just let me do them a couple of goofies so we
4:05
went out and the art shops got anything but duffy on it that's nice and that's nice quite like that
4:11
he said well they've got to be bigger than marcus sees
4:16
so i said well you know 250 each then looking back on them i mean they were
4:21
not very good but they were good enough he paid me 500 pounds for the paintings and then he went out and spent 600
4:27
pounds each on the frames and they hung them up as you went in and you saw these
4:32
gigantic doofies over the fireplace of course marcus and lady steve come back you know walking through the door and
4:38
it's like my doof is bigger than you do for his and no one had said anything about it you know and dick was sort of excited because
4:45
really i mean he could have easily spent 200 000 pounds on these paintings but in fact he got them for 500 quid plus the frame
4:54
john maya had been to art school but this was the start of a new career
5:00
he set himself up in business as a legitimate forger of the modern masters i just thought i can do this to genuine
5:06
fakes it's a good idea it was not long before he received a telephone call from a man who would
5:12
change his life the first phone call john drew ever made to me was exactly the same as the first
5:17
phone call that anybody else would hello i've seen your advert in private eye are you interested in a familiar with an
5:22
artist called matisse well of course i was yes i'd be interested in a painting by mati
5:30
a few days later he drove to his local railway station and caught a train to london to deliver his fake matisse to
5:36
his new client [Music] he said i'll be standing at the top of
5:42
the platform whatever it would be at houston station and i said well you'll recognize me because i'll be the man carrying a
5:47
painting the very first time we met we went to a little coffee shop in houston and he
5:54
gave me a check and i went home
5:59
[Music] at the time maya was making a living as a part-time art teacher his marriage had
6:06
broken up and he was taking care of two small children you know when a thing like that's happened the mums just walked off you
6:13
really do close up into a very tight unit it's just the three of you
6:18
and bedtime stories romping around pillow fights and all that it was great i mean looking back on it i loved it
6:29
working at home painting his genuine fakes suited the single father drew became a lucrative client and mayat
6:37
grew to like him i thought he was very different from anybody else i'd met before he was something else all together he was kind
6:43
of mysterious and intriguing and
6:49
exciting every few weeks mayat would take the train to london to deliver another of
6:56
his genuine fakes to his seemingly wealthy and influential buyer
7:02
john maya was soon taking the subway out to the affluent london suburb where professor drew lived
7:08
i say the fifth time i'd met him we were driving off to his house and there i'd meet his wife
7:15
and then occasionally um we drop off somewhere in hampstead and pick up the two children from school so
7:21
by the sixth time i was seeing john i was actually meeting his family as well two years passed during which drew
7:28
bought a dozen paintings from maya then just when maya thought the relationship with his patron was finally
7:34
over drew had a surprising request
7:39
at the end of the painting number 12 when i was 13 he said to me well what would you like to do
7:46
it was unheard of for a customer to uh you know to do that so i said well i've always liked cubist paintings i love
7:51
cubism um maybe i'll just do something like that okay in your own time you know very nice
7:57
off you go same money uh so i flipped through an art book and i found a drawing cubist drawing
8:03
i thought well i'll turn this into a painting i know how to do this on the dining room table that night i am as
8:09
they say knocked up a small cubism by albert glaze a couple of weeks later maybe sooner the
8:16
phone rang and he said um john you know that painting by albert glaze that you you did for me i said yes john he said
8:22
well i've just taken that into christie's and sotheby's and they think it's worth 25 000 pounds
8:28
[Music] are you interested in you know going hard with me and having
8:33
12 000 pounds gosh and
8:38
you know that's when i made my big mistake really because i mean i didn't even stop and think about it
8:46
and i just thought you know twelve thousand pounds as far as i was concerned was just the answer to so many problems you know
8:53
we could the three of us could really um do with that so um
8:58
so i said yeah do it yes like it or not john maya had allowed himself to be
9:04
trapped by john drew jonah came over as a
9:10
very likable um man who seemed to have been suckered into this by john drew
9:17
at a vulnerable time in his life mine's just a mark maya was the tool maya was nothing more than a hammer
9:23
um you know to pound the nail i think john mayer was probably being groomed from the first order that john drew made
9:28
of him from his country retreat john maya had now embarked on a life of crime
9:36
giacometti was next it was an obvious choice giacometti had been one of john maya's
9:42
favorite painters since art school he used rapid movements of a pencil almost like a skeleton
9:50
he wrote in his book that as he worked the figure would sort of elongate and get bigger and get taller and taller
9:55
sort of so it would stretch out a bit more the giacomettis were i would say
10:01
second rate maybe even third rate fakes yet they got out there
10:09
but the success of the scam depended only in part on the quality of john maya's paintings
10:16
john drew had mastered a different kind of fake and one which a gullible art market found much more impressive
10:23
he began changing the archives in some of london's biggest galleries and museums
10:29
how he did this was brilliant in its simplicity in the museum archives he would find a
10:34
catalog belonging to a gallery that had gone out of business this was the starting point for his
10:40
cunning fraud well we found out that his research must have consisted on taking out
10:46
catalogues from the archives and cutting and pasting
10:53
and creating a collage catalogue and putting that back in to
10:58
what was now a corrupted archive these doctored catalogues consisted of
11:04
photographs of genuine paintings and also photographs of fake paintings so when any would-be art historian went
11:12
to those archives to check out a painting new on the market lo and behold there was everything there to suggest
11:18
that this was something which had been around as they were being told in the providence
11:23
the painting's history or providence as it is called was now impeccable
11:29
it appeared to all the world that the fake painting by maya had been part of an earlier exhibition or sale
11:36
and therefore indisputably genuine but at the same time as vandalizing the
11:42
tate's archive drew was presenting himself as a patron of the arts
11:47
he managed to persuade the most eminent people working at the tate that he was a serious art connoisseur
11:54
he was so in love with this idea of meeting all these posh and wealthy and establishment people
12:00
and having one over on them that that in a way the money was
12:08
the second most important thing it was the doing of it that i learned from working with john being the professor
12:14
the mixing with all these people and knowing that you knew something that they didn't
12:21
i think you could say a typical con man's relationship to the tate gallery to get to where he wanted to be
12:28
um he needed to if you like have a certain amount of influence with the tate gallery and then to be able to
12:36
bring that influence to bear in backing whatever he said about works of art to
12:42
give him some credibility in the art market but drew's attempts to ingratiate
12:47
himself to the tate horrified the forger john maya i've done some not very good
12:52
paintings by a minor french artist from the 1950s 96 called bisiere
12:58
john had taken it into his head to present them to the tape gallery so so he said would you come down as
13:05
you'd love to see this he said what do you come down as a consultant art historian and you know so i kind of put my suit
13:10
and tie on and went down and attended the meeting
13:18
they came up from where it was they had white gloves on i mean you really had to laugh
13:24
it was just so unreal
13:30
this one guy i think he was a deputy head of it he said come down with me um mr martin i'll show you where we're
13:36
going to hang these so we went from this lovely boardroom into the gallery itself
13:43
and he said no we're going to have one this side there and you know i thought
13:49
what can you say that's a very good very good choice after the only time i really got furious
13:55
with john drew i really do like to thought you know do you want to get caught what are you doing the worrying thing from my point
14:03
of view was that there was no oil paint on it it was all emulsion paint it was a house painting
14:08
and there i was sitting in the boardroom of the bloody tape gallery with two paintings which had just been painted in
14:14
emulsion paint and they were saying we've just got to take these down to conservation to have a look and i thought oh right
14:20
you know why does he do this drew's tactics took great nerve and there was method in his madness
14:27
you might consider this as an odd move to do on on behalf on a fraudsman's
14:33
side but it's not it's actually quite a clever thing to do because if he can get the busier hung up
14:39
in the tate it's literally 100 provenance that you've got a genuine vision
14:44
and that's what he was trying to do we walked along the middle bank and found some public that's where i had a
14:51
crack at him the only time i really did have a go at him because i just felt you know you're on a different planet here
14:56
this is just stupid i think he made an impression on him he said well what am i going to do then you know what how am i
15:01
i don't know what you're going to do but what you are going to do is going to get those paintings out of there
15:07
john drew came up with an extraordinary way out of the predicament he would retrieve the forged paintings
15:13
by giving the tate a huge donation came up with something that was a problem with the paintings so he gave
15:19
him 25 000 pounds instead and he got the paintings out
15:31
i got them back and i burnt them i was so relieved to go back and put them on the bonfire
15:40
i'd love to have them now i must say those are the pains that nearly made it into the taste
15:50
john maya and john drew continued conning the art world selling forgery after forgery into a seemingly
15:57
insatiable market maya could hardly believe he was getting away with it
16:02
after all mayat was only using household water-based paint mixed with petroleum jelly
16:08
meanwhile john drew was cleverly doctoring maya's canvases to make them look older and more authentic
16:16
he would then change the stretches at the back was the first thing he didn't usually put old stretches on then he would also use um furnish
16:24
attacks which he would treat with salt and so that would um that would corrode them so they looked you know nice and
16:30
rusty around the edge perhaps a bag of dust out of the hoover
16:36
on the back of the thing you know that hoover it all off so there was dust in the crevices
16:43
just a bit of coffee or tea on the front just just to take the you know the edge off it
16:49
the technique seemed to be working and maya's paintings were selling well little did they know that someone was on
16:56
to them in 1991 a painting came up for sale at
17:02
sotheby's the prestigious auction house in london
17:07
the picture of a standing figure was apparently by alberto giacometti one of the most influential artists of the 20th
17:14
century maya had spent the previous four years trying to perfect his giacometti
17:19
forgeries it might sell for three hundred thousand dollars
17:33
but across the english channel in paris there were doubts about the authenticity of maya's giacometti
17:40
american mary lisa palmer lives and works in the french capital she is one of the world's leading
17:46
authorities on giacometti in november 1991 she received a copy of
17:51
an auction catalog and her suspicions were immediately aroused it was wrong there was something
17:57
wrong man he could have done but it's a head of a man so a head of a man and a female nude is sort of exchanged you
18:03
know and of course the signature was a bit thick and a bit too well applied
18:11
mary lisa palmer immediately flew to london she examined the picture at sotheby's and told the experts there
18:17
what she thought well i told them that unfortunately that i thought that the painting was incorrect and um
18:23
i asked them if they could give me an x-ray of the back and they said but miss palmer
18:30
other people who know the work of giacometti think it's fine and on top of it the
18:35
provenance that is given in our auction catalog you will find the proof of the pudding in the tate archives
18:44
problem was that according to the sotheby's catalogue the authenticity of the giacometti was impeccable
18:50
its providence was listed in detail
18:55
undeterred mary lisa palmer went straight to the tate gallery as sotheby's promised she found a
19:02
photograph of the dubious giacometti in the tate gallery archive but she came to a different conclusion
19:08
if the painting was fake so too was the provenance.

Fake provenance is used to help authenticate a fake work of art. -- Provenances: Real, Fake, and Questionable, International Journal of Cultural Property, by Cambridge University Press

what i discovered that day was that um
19:15
someone was tampering with the archives this was extremely extremely dangerous
19:21
for the art world among the many artists that mayat was
19:27
now forging was ben nicholson a british artist producing abstract paintings
19:33
after the second world war i said to john drew ben nicholson would be a good choice because from his point
19:38
of view from from the providence point of view he was english so you didn't have to
19:44
worry about prominencing things abroad maya set to work trying to master the
19:50
seemingly simple process of producing a ben nicholson
19:55
i tend to sort of stick with him from about 1950 to 1960 and during that period he was kind of
20:01
playing with a limited number of shapes which were based on jugs goblets mugs and things
20:07
when i was passing these off as fakes i wasn't doing them as well as i am today in fact the things i'm doing today the nicholsons are much much better i
20:13
struggled quite a lot early days and it was really just a learning curve for me [Music]
20:19
john maya began turning out nicholson's while john drew put the new information
20:24
about the artist to good use it's very good i mean he's quite a handy carpenter that he used to make the frames in the
20:29
same way that nicholson made his friend he got me to actually do the ben nicholson signature on the wooden
20:34
stretch of the back of the canvas it worked maya's fakes passed the ultimate test
20:41
[Music] the chilling thing i think was that that these paintings would be shown to
20:46
in ben nicholson's case i mean ben nicholson's son-in-law who had been a senior figure in a very important british gallery
20:52
was saying oh yes and authenticating these paintings as john maya was churning out the fakes
20:59
at home unknown to him john drew had made contact with the police
21:04
but about something quite different and much more sinister
21:12
we met at the battersea heliport where this character came in by helicopter and it was john drew
21:18
and he had his two children and of course the pilot and co-pilot was helicopter had hired for the day just to impress
21:24
the detectives from scotland yard and he came through this long story of hell he was a professor with a stat of the other
21:29
and how he came across these mafioso trying to sell stolen paintings and so forth
21:34
from the start charlie hill had his doubts about the man who was offering himself as a police informant on the
21:40
italian mafia especially when drew invited him to a restaurant that charlie hill understood
21:46
to be a hub of mafia activity in retrospect what john drew was up to
21:52
became perfectly clear to the scotland yard detective
21:58
he realized that he was about to be revealed as a con man and a fraudster and he wanted to get himself
22:04
[Music] a coup as a police informant so he could use that as a line of defense
22:14
there were plenty of other people who were taken in by john drew and art experts who fell for john maya's fakes
22:21
[Music] in 1994 a man called clive bellman walked into the gallery of a private art
22:28
dealer peter nahum [Music] nahum had spent years working for
22:34
sotheby's auction house he now had a substantial reputation as a dealer specializing in 19th and 20th century
22:40
painting when clive bellman came to us we were in the middle of the deepest
22:46
recessions in the art trade and he explained a few things we had we'd never met him before he'd explain that the
22:52
reason he was selling these pictures which belonged to his neighbor which was a private collection was that
22:58
he had owned a couple of jewelry shops et cetera and goldbust now we feel great sympathy for people
23:04
who have lost their businesses to take him on face value you'd have been perfectly happy with it
23:09
i'm very sensitive to shifty people and clive bellman did not appear to be shifty to me
23:16
the painting bellman was trying to sell was by graham sutherland the providence from an italian monastery
23:22
i didn't like the painting at all i thought it was dreadful but christie's had just sold
23:28
a group of these paintings with the same provenance from the same monastery
23:34
for a great deal of money little did peter nahum know that the
23:40
painting was a fake by john mayat the providence is forged by john drew one of
23:45
the solvents that we got a beautiful graham southern crucifixion and
23:51
john mayer just did the same crucifixion but with a different colour and instead
23:56
of having yellows there was reds both of them graeme southern colours
24:02
the specific red that southand used beautiful little jewel of a painting
24:10
john maya finally decided he had had enough he called up one day from a telephone i
24:15
said john i can't do this anymore and dan went the phone and i remember
24:22
that's that that's that my fork spoon in line
24:30
as the relationship between the two men deteriorated what neither john drew nor john maya
24:35
knew was that their forgery scam was about to be rumbled
24:41
when clive bellman paid his next visit to peter nahum he arrived at the gallery with a painting by ben nicholson
24:48
it came with full provenance labels on the back a catalogue uh
24:54
in which it was exhibited at the rudy scene or one of these non-existent galleries some gallery in the 1950s
25:01
it came with a certificate from the ben nicholson expert who was the ex-director of the tape
25:07
gallery i decided to buy it with somebody else a friend of mine
25:14
this picture wasn't a great ben nicholson but it was quite colorful we thought it was absolutely genuine we did
25:19
not think it was good enough to offer to our clients but we thought it was the sort of picture
25:25
that clients of sothebys and christie's because it was colorful would pay
25:31
good money for so we bought it as a purely commercial transaction
25:37
we are now at the point where we have bought two pictures two mayats drew pictures
25:43
and we believe them both to be genuine one is waiting for seven christie's one's been sold
25:49
in sotheby's some while later nahum was offered a second ben nicholson by a man claiming
25:56
to be raising money for a charity representing the victims of the auschwitz concentration camp my partner
26:02
on the other ben dawson and i are looking at this ben nicholson beautifully signed on the back
26:08
in ben nicholson's handwriting in pencil exactly as he does it has all the
26:13
paperwork a catalogue with it illustrated in from the 1950s
26:18
and we're looking at the picture and the scales start falling from our eyes
26:24
because there are labels gallery labels on the back profiles labels and we think
26:30
this ben nicholson has exactly the same provenance and gallery labels
26:37
as the previous one we had now what are the chances of that
26:43
and then we said this doesn't this is a bit of a worry
26:49
so then we look at the signature beautifully written once
26:55
you realize the handwriting starts falling apart brilliant but you realize not quite good
27:01
enough i had put the whole scam together
27:09
and i put all the documentation together and i called in the police
27:15
the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle came with the dramatic visit to the police of john drew's estranged partner
27:22
with the contents of the trash bags now under police examination the eight years of fraud and fakes was
27:28
about to come to an end in the bin liners
27:33
the most prevalent thing was negatives hundreds of negatives
27:40
of a number of different artists [Music]
27:45
the first stop for the police as they began to unravel the extent of the fraud was once again the tate gallery
27:52
in paris mary lisa palmer had been waiting four years for this moment finally finally
27:59
we arranged that we go to london with all our of our documents which weighed quite a few pounds
28:08
within a week palmer was sitting in scotland yard telling detectives which paintings were genuine and which were
28:15
not the trash bags also gave police the name
28:20
of john mayat as the forger early in september 1995 they raided his
28:27
home it was six o'clock in the morning when jonathan searle and a team of officers
28:34
from scotland yard arrive at john maya's home deep in the english countryside i was in bed i opened the bedroom window
28:40
and looked down at the path and there they all were i think he was half expecting a call from police he knew it
28:46
would come down the line some day or another and when they said this is scotland yard arts and antique squad we have a search
28:53
warrant for these premises yep i just sort of went
28:58
click that's it you know everything else is in the past now this is a whole new thing from now on awful terrible he put
29:04
up his hands at once and he wanted to uh come alongside and they came in and uh i remember
29:12
saying well you know have a look around and funnily enough there was a drawing of sam on the wall
29:18
as soon as i walked into the kitchen i saw a drawing on the um by the fridge
29:25
which you've got telephone numbers written on it i knew ah this this man can draw if he can draw he's probably a
29:31
good enough artist then i looked up the stairs and i saw a giant over there
29:40
and i showed them all over the house they took paintings and they took books
29:46
and they took i got a giacometti up on the wall they took that sam came downstairs and said dad there
29:52
were all these people i said oh don't worry they're building inspectors you know the house is freezing cold and they're going to put a central heating
29:57
in or something um so i said you just get on and do what you do i've got to stand outside and wait for the school
30:03
bus so i got sam on the bus and came in and
30:08
they didn't make too much mess they took filing cabinets and all the rest of it and they said well you have to come off across the police station
30:14
stafford we took all the paintings that we found
30:20
and there were a number of other bits and pieces and we took them back to stafford police station and we did an
30:26
interview in the caution there yes i do know john drew and yes i have
30:32
painted some paintings for him john maya knew the game was up especially when confronted with a
30:38
particularly incriminating piece of evidence they confiscated my briefcase and in this briefcase they got this
30:44
letter and this was a letter i'd written to john drew saying uh i think it's best that we stop doing
30:51
what we're doing because you know fed up with it and he said what's this letter
30:58
you're you're fed you don't want to work with john drew anymore what's this what do you mean you don't want to work
31:03
and i said well um i was kind of spluttering and thinking god are they saying all these things be you know it's being taped all the time
31:12
so they went on and they started telling me what they thought mr drew had been up to
31:17
and and what they thought i'd been up to and it became pretty clear that they knew more about me than i did or and
31:24
more about him than he did they knew everything pretty much police decided it was time to pull in
31:31
john drew within days they raided his house in a wealthy town 20 miles from london john
31:37
true was very polite courteous the surprising thing to me
31:43
was the amount of evidence that um he had still got in his possession
31:49
incriminating evidence in terms of the seals which we had seen on various documents he'd created we
31:55
found the seals typewriters that he used even on the table in the living room
32:01
were sets of documents that he was in the process of actually preparing a huge amount of documentary evidence
32:08
material objects had been preserved drew was taken to the local police
32:14
station where he denied everything at the end of it he
32:19
invited us all out for a drink on the grounds of how nice we'd been and pleasant
32:25
the four-month trial ended in london in february 1999. drew conducted his own defense
32:32
it had its moments of sheer fast when i i mean i would turn around to him and say i know you're guilty you know you're
32:38
guilty they know you're guilty everybody knows you're guilty so why don't you just plead and the judge would say mr maya would you please answer mr drew's
32:44
question i couldn't see the point we were going to get found guilty
32:50
all right and um we were guilty we were probably going to go to prison
32:56
um the best thing to do was just you know straighten up your shoulders get your thumbs in line with the seam of
33:02
your trousers and just take it on the chin there's nothing else to do john maya pleaded guilty and was
33:08
sentenced to one year in prison john drew maintained his innocence
33:15
throughout but he was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison
33:24
years after leaving jail john maya had an exhibition in london's mayfair the
33:29
home of the art establishment where his fakes had deceived so many for so long
33:34
i've got a show in central london the heart of enemy territory what am i going to do
33:41
we had a dealer walking around here earlier on and he was obviously a dealer you know the pinstripe suit and almost not quite the tiki bow but everything
33:47
that cashmere coat and so forth and he walked around with his hands behind his back you know
33:52
he just went out and he looked at the little matisse down there he said jolly good mates
33:58
very nice of the 200 or so maya fakes only 72 have ever been found
34:06
john maya though has no intention of letting on now which paintings are genuine and which are my fakes
34:14
they're out there and um they will blossom and flourishes leaves on a tree
34:20
um why not if anybody came back to me with one that i'd done and after 20 years i honestly
34:26
wouldn't know for certain but i thought i had i would always say no i haven't seen this you know if you come to me with one and
34:32
say did you paint this 20 years ago and i said yes all that's happened is that you've lost a fortune
34:37
so what's the point what is the point
34:43
[Music]
34:55
[Music]
35:09
you

[admin]

Fake or Fortune
Flemish Old Master
Sep 13, 2022

Fiona and Philip visit a church in Port Glasgow to investigate whether a mysterious work depicting Christ after the crucifixion could be a lost masterpiece by one of the great painters of Northern Renaissance art.

Art historian Ian Macdonald thought there was something special about the painting, but he died in 2021. Now his widow Marjorie is taking up the case with the aid of the Fake or Fortune? team. Can they find the answers Ian was looking for?



Transcript


0:00
at 42 million the art world where paintings change hands for fortunes
0:06
so thank you very much but for every known masterpiece there may be another still waiting to be discovered my god
0:13
there's a lot of state with this one international art dealer philip mould and i have teamed up to hunt for lost
0:18
works by great artists we use old fashioned detective work and
0:24
state-of-the-art science to get to the truth science can enable us to see beyond the
0:29
human eye i don't believe it every case is packed with surprise and intrigue it's like a
0:36
challenge who am i but not every painting is quite what it seems that's the sort of thing you might
0:43
associate with a faked painting it's a journey that can end in joy it is indeed
0:48
by john constable oh really wonderful or bitter disappointment the work is not by
0:54
henry moore so sorry in this episode we're investigating a
0:59
who done it with a difference whoever designed it
1:04
did so with a master's eye can we find out who painted this dramatic image of christ
1:10
and help one woman in her quest to prove her late husband was right ian certainly felt it was a very
1:17
important work and that there was a story to be told about it i'm with him it's a journey that takes us from
1:23
scotland to belgium and the beguiling world of flemish art that was once the
1:28
most prolific in europe it's just magnificent isn't it in one of our
1:35
toughest investigations yet we'll discover just how difficult it can be to identify the artists behind flemish old
1:42
masters this is highest quality and we still don't know the name my goodness this is all making me feel
1:48
slightly worried can we solve the mystery of who created this epic work of art are you any closer
1:55
to finding out who painted it no [Music]
2:06
london the national gallery one of the world's great treasure houses of art
2:12
it would be quite something wouldn't it if we investigated a painting that ended up hanging on these hallowed walls
2:20
well it's not impossible i mean there's even a raphael hanging here that was found in an obscure back corridor
2:29
although justly famous for its italian masterpieces the gallery also holds an
2:34
impressive collection of old masters from northern europe
2:40
referred to as the northern renaissance this stupendous altarpiece is one of its
2:46
jewels [Music] it's very elaborate isn't it and there's so many
2:51
figures crammed in there so why have you brought me to look at this
2:56
because we have a rather interesting email from a viewer have a reason
3:01
uh you've invited viewers to submit paintings which might be a suitable subject for investigation we would be
3:07
grateful if you would consider the lamentation to be such a subject the painting is in the church of john the
3:12
baptist port glasgow the work is recognized and accepted as an antwerp mannerist but no certain identification
3:18
of the painting was made the antwerp mannerists were a group of artists working in the southern
3:24
netherlands in the early 16th century and jan de beer the artist behind this
3:29
picture was amongst the most prominent so the painting referred to in this email then
3:35
could be at least 500 years old and that is the problem when it comes to
3:41
this school of art a lot of the artists were anonymous we just don't know their names
3:48
so as a result we're still in many senses feeling our way this i think is going to take us to the
3:54
low countries on which subject i don't think i've ever heard you speak
3:59
i don't think you ever will how could a centuries-old work from the
4:06
low countries have ended up in scotland on the banks of the river clyde and crucially who painted it
4:13
we've traveled to port glasgow to the church of saint john the baptist
4:18
does this bring back a few memories philip the walk to church on a sunday morning it does i used to go to a church
4:24
very like this every sunday evening as an altar boy been to confession lately
4:30
[Music]
4:40
gosh it's so rare in a catholic church in britain to find an old master of this impact of
4:47
this quality the way the arms of christ just stretch across the painting there's real drama
4:53
in there was a viewer named ian mcdonald who originally contacted us about the
4:59
painting sadly ian died in 2021
5:05
but we've arranged to meet his widow marjorie and the church caretaker jean sweeney
5:12
hello hi marjorie jean nice to see you nice to see you we're just admiring this
5:18
magnificent painting this is obviously christ just brought down from the cross
5:24
philip tell us a bit more about what we're looking at but it's a really powerful expression of
5:30
grief this is the lowest moment in the passion of christ he's been crucified his body is
5:37
there on the ground his mother swooning behind this is the cathartic moment the
5:43
resurrection has yet to come [Music] and how long have you known this picture
5:49
gene well i've known it from up as a child about 10 so you've been looking at it
5:56
all those years yeah and do you like it no [Laughter] no absolutely not when i was growing up
6:03
it was a scary thing to look at a dead man just lying there gosh
6:08
and where does it normally hang normally hangs at the back of the church um just in the left-hand side that's a
6:16
gloomy spot for us isn't it yeah definitely all the congregation looking forward and ignoring it do you have any
6:22
idea when this painting came to the church no i've got no idea how it got here but the inscription on the frame
6:28
says it was the rheodors 1854 to 1895
6:34
herrera dos is a piece of religious decoration in the form of a hanging painting or sculpture positioned behind
6:41
the altar so the inscription tells us the work once hung above the most sacred part of
6:46
the church its potential importance did not go unnoticed by marjorie's husband
6:52
ian what does it mean to you margie well part of what it means to me is what my
6:57
late husband felt about it he was an art history lecturer and he was asked to investigate it
7:04
he did quite a bit of work but never managed to find out who painted it did he get any sense of where it might
7:11
have come from what his provenance was he felt that it was a flemish work possibly 16th century which makes
7:18
absolute sense i mean neverlandish painting of the 16th century was a very fertile time
7:27
if this painting comes from the 1500s then it has its roots in the low countries during the flemish golden age
7:35
when cultural and economic activity flourished in flanders the dutch-speaking region of modern-day
7:41
belgium the port city of antwerp was the commercial center of western europe
7:46
where artists flocked to make a name for themselves ornate religious art was celebrated and
7:53
emperors monarchs and wealthy merchants paid huge sums to commission works to adorn europe's great churches and
8:00
cathedrals could this intriguing oil painting be a lost work by one of the great masters of
8:07
northern europe or is it a much lesser work what about value philip i mean it's
8:12
tricky at this very early stage but can you put a value on this well i'm glad you said tricky at this really
8:19
early stage because it is we haven't got a name to it yet however we could be talking up to a hundred
8:24
thousand pounds but there's always a butt without an artist's name
8:31
we may be talking little more than a tenth of that so
8:37
gene if it does turn out to be up to a hundred thousand pounds what do you think the church will do with it i would
8:42
like to think they were to sell it nobody notices that nobody misses it and what about you
8:48
audrey well ian certainly wasn't particularly interested in money but he felt it was a very important work and
8:55
that there was a story to be told about it i'm with him the quality and the
9:00
power of it is such that if we can place it in time if we can give it an artist's name
9:06
some more of its mystery it's a leo i think will work upon us indeed
9:12
[Music] ian first began his quest to find out
9:18
the truth about this painting 30 years ago since his death margie's been keen to
9:23
carry on his work [Music] margie we're here because of ian of
9:29
course your late husband and his quest to find out more about the painting so tell me a bit about him
9:34
well he was an art history lecturer which is how i got to know him he loved to share his knowledge
9:41
how did the painting come to his attention then well his late brother-in-law bishop john mohn was the
9:47
bishop of paisley he asked ian if he would investigate it did he keep any documentation any
9:53
correspondence relating to the research that he was doing yes there's quite a thick file of all the letters and
9:59
photographs he also tried to identify how it had come here because of course that's the other big mystery isn't it
10:05
yes [Music] after several painstaking years ian was
10:11
unable to solve this whodunnit reluctantly he abandoned his research
10:16
it was only while watching fake or fortune that his hopes were reignited he was always so impressed with the way
10:23
you did things the way you x-rayed things you analyzed paint and things he could never have done
10:29
and so he thought well there's an opportunity possibly to identify the artist and here we are yeah
10:36
i'm so sorry that ian is not here to take part in this this journey that we're about to embark
10:42
on this painting that he cared so much about yes he would have relished the opportunity to debate about it and find
10:48
out how he had come here were you carrying on his quest for him yes that's true but in a way i feel a
10:55
bit of an impostor because he was the one that did all the work and in fact
11:00
i'm the fake fake or fortunate definitely not you're carrying it on in his memory and
11:06
hopefully we'll find the answers he wanted well thank you and i hope you do find the answers
11:14
we have a huge challenge ahead of us but we're determined to continue ian's quest
11:21
to kick off our investigation i've sent the picture to the kelvin center for conservation and cultural heritage
11:27
research at the university of glasgow before we make a start on the scientific
11:32
analysis i want to take a closer look
11:37
this is very much the sort of painting you would have encountered as you crossed europe
11:43
in the 16th century in a catholic church and i think it's terribly important to
11:48
get a sense of how one might have seen it in the darkness
11:53
of a church interior the only light being stained glass just filtering
11:59
through the windows or possibly flickering candles this is
12:05
an image designed to move you
12:13
what is clear is that this picture has been beautifully designed
12:19
you start in the left hand corner with the figure of john looking in
12:25
and then your eye bobs along the top and then you slip right down to the bottom left
12:34
and then up the eye goes again it whirls around whoever designed it
12:40
did so with a master's eye but as you get closer and begin to start
12:46
picking it apart i'm beginning to feel different messages different sort of
12:52
stylistic accents look at mary magdalene i mean one of the first things i note
12:59
is her dress which incidentally is beautifully painted more delicately as it happens than a lot
13:07
of the other areas in the picture and to my mind is much more suggestive
13:13
of italian painting of the south and in contrast look at the figure of
13:19
john in the far left hand corner the painting is much more opaque more solid
13:25
it feels almost as if this artist is looking in one direction and then another
13:31
whoever painted this picture was familiar with early neverlandish painting of the
13:38
1500s but it also feels to me like an artist who's seen the great masters of italy
13:45
the likes of raphael and others and has fused them together
13:56
while philip gets to know the port glasgow picture i'm following up on the leads left by marjorie's late husband
14:02
ian so this is ian's file with all sorts of correspondence in it
14:08
not much in the way of provenance lewis but there is one note that he's written here early parish priest in port glasgow was
14:15
a fleming by which he means was from flanders in belgium
14:20
so that's something to look into rather helpfully ian's drawn up a list of seven potential names for the
14:26
painting most of which i've never heard of let alone know how to pronounce we've got ambrosius franken hieronymus franken
14:33
france franken i assume they're all related martin devos
14:38
france flores someone called the flemish raphael and then jan massisma says
14:47
seven names could one of them have painted the port glasgow picture
14:56
at the gallery in london we're taking a closer look at the contenders
15:02
so here's our painting in port glasgow and ian has left us a list of seven
15:07
potential suspects in this ecclesiastical whodunit so let's start with the first one
15:13
the man known as the flemish raphael turns out to be this artist michiel coxy
15:18
apparently very famous in his time coxy is a real name to country with he was the first flemish artist to go to italy
15:26
and establish a career there he immersed himself in the works of michelangelo and
15:31
raphael and he brought this style back to the netherlands hence his name the flemish raphael next up
15:39
nyan masseys i usually associate masses with non-religious subject matter
15:45
but let's just keep him in the mix okay then we have this man franz flores
15:50
another big name and another one of those artists who went to italy when he returned to antwerp he became a
15:56
huge success and i've looked into him as well and he trained many of the next generation of flemish painters including
16:03
the next candidate on our list martin devos he was a protege of franz flores then we have
16:10
the franken brothers they sound a bit like a band don't they franz hieronymous
16:15
and ambrosius no portrait for him i'm afraid i mean they were a massive dynasty a sort of family firm which
16:22
wasn't rare at that date definitely wants to keep in the mix okay so we've got our lineup of seven
16:27
suspects and all we need to do now is try and work out which one of these it could be but we've got to be careful
16:34
here because we're dealing with artists who ran workshops picture
16:39
making factories in which many assistants and pupils could be working on the same painting
16:45
we've got to make sure that we're dealing with the work of a master rather than one of his minions
16:55
in order to understand whether the painting was the work of many hands or one i'm traveling to the belgian city of
17:01
antwerp in the 1500s it was a thriving commercial center for the production of
17:06
art the city had many workshops where painters came together under the
17:11
direction of a master the most famous master of them all was peter paul rubens
17:19
today his workshop has been carefully preserved hi natasha hello
17:25
i've arranged to meet natasha peters an expert on painters and their workshops
17:31
so in this where rubens lived yes so actually the house was divided into his living
17:36
quarters and his workshop and so it could pop from one to the other very easily
17:42
this place was once a creative powerhouse of flemish art
17:48
so this is a gallery now natasha but originally this was reuben's workshop or one of them yes well actually it's the
17:54
only workshop left in antwerp and originally there would have been hundreds of workshops so this is quite
18:00
special quite exceptional and had you come in here in the 17th century you would have found it filled with life
18:06
with apprentices with journeyman and everybody was working on paintings in various stages of completion and
18:12
apprentices were drawing making copies etc so filled with life the artist workshop was a slick
18:19
operation at the helm the master painter not just a highly skilled artist but a
18:26
businessman who ran his studio like a picture production line
18:31
assistants were employed to prepare panels and grind pigments with oil to
18:37
keep a steady stream of paint flowing young apprentices would learn their
18:43
craft by sketching plaster casts and copying works
18:48
they would be trained in the master's style to increase production the master
18:54
employed journeymen freelance painters who were paid by the day and travelled from workshop to workshop
19:03
journeyman are very valuable assets to any workshop and that's also the secret
19:08
of antwerp success it's people working together one day for one painter the
19:13
next day for another painter so that's really why they could arrive at this huge production and why antwerp's
19:19
paintings were shipped all over the world there's one unfinished work of art on
19:25
display that provides a rare glimpse into the way a master and his workshop collaborated
19:30
could the port glasgow picture have been made in the same way
19:36
looking at this painting then for example how much of this would have been journeyman and how much ribbons well
19:41
rubens thought up the composition worked it out in a very sketchy stage with the
19:47
contours but because of course it's not finished we can see that the background is already filled in
19:53
by another hand and it might well have been that rubens would not finish this painting himself
19:59
but would leave the work to uh his assistant wow so how much of his paintings did rubens
20:05
actually do then well rubens was a very involved master he was an artist but he was also a businessman he was in england
20:12
for months in spain so he went all over europe and the workshop turned out
20:17
paintings just as if the master was there so i must ask so if we look at rubens today
20:23
it's quite possible that he did the odd brushstroke and that was it or he designed it and then went off on a
20:30
mission and so the workshop turned out paintings as usual in his absence yes in his absence we are
20:37
still not entirely sure how many paintings he actually made in his lifetime and so that notion of that lone
20:44
single master signing off his works does not apply here so
20:50
when it comes to the picture that we're investigating then and obviously what we do on faker forge is we try and attribute it to one artist
20:58
do you think we'll be able to do that no
21:03
no no i don't think so no
21:08
natasha's skepticism shows just how hard we'll have to work to have any chance of identifying the artist who came up with
21:15
the port glasgow picture [Music] back in glasgow at the kelvin center a
21:23
team of experts have been carrying out a series of forensic tests on the painting
21:28
it's interesting that this head is actually a lot healer a lot more see-through
21:35
imaging techniques allow us to see beneath the surface layers of the paint
21:40
right down to the original under-drawing any evidence of changes known in the
21:45
business as pentamenti could indicate the hand of a master
21:50
what we're able to now make out are some significant alterations some changes of
21:57
direction midway look here the knees of christ they're unquestionably
22:04
different from the original lines they've been altered but if we look in the top left
22:10
there's something even more dramatic that's the head of john originally
22:16
john was in profile you can see by that strong dark line that goes down his forehead his eyes were tilted upwards
22:24
but now that's altered the artist has angled john's head slightly towards us
22:31
and instead of the eyes glancing upwards he's gazing into a sort of foreground middle
22:38
distance i mean why has the artist done this well it's quite likely
22:44
that in the process of putting the painting together they felt it's not quite working we need
22:50
a bit more emotional connection who knows but what it does show us
22:56
is that the artist is thinking as they're going along there's some sort of creative process
23:03
this isn't what you'd expect from some copyist or from some student or apprentice i think we're
23:09
dealing with someone who really knows what they're doing it looks like there's a serious artist
23:16
behind the port glasgow picture but who could it be i'm heading to edinburgh in search of
23:22
some expert help i need to follow up on the list of potential candidates that ian identified
23:28
so i've come to the national galleries of scotland i'm meeting senior curator of northern
23:35
european art dr tico zeiford tika hello listen thank you very much
23:40
for helping us out thank you pleasure can he help narrow down our search from the lineup of seven suspects
23:48
i've got a list of names which i just want to run past you and see if any of these strike you as
23:56
possible artists i would probably rule out the franken brothers straight away
24:01
we're talking about a seriously big picture the frankens mostly are smaller they tend to have more crowded
24:08
multi-figure compositions um martin de foss doesn't sound likely
24:14
either i think some of what i said about um the frankens applies to him as well
24:20
he wouldn't be one of my prime candidates i think franz flores and jan massey's this is
24:27
closer to this definitely also in terms of the italianate aspect of the picture
24:33
and then what about the flemish raphael michael coxy he was actually the first
24:39
fleming who worked in italy for a considerable time so in terms of
24:45
absorbing the italianate element he's the artist of all those names uh which i
24:52
would put top on my list one of the things that strikes me going through ian's research is just
24:58
how difficult it's been to try and put any name to this painting why is it so difficult
25:04
not very many of the works are signed this is of course very much different from what artists did later on where you
25:11
always find the signature somewhere have a look at this here for example fiona this is a super painting we have no clue
25:18
who the painter is if you look at how he painted leaves and things it looks like
25:24
embroidery so he was labeled the master of the embroidered foliage so no one
25:29
knows the name of this artist so the art world has come up with this fictitious name just to be able to describe him in
25:35
some way this is highest quality and we still don't know the name my goodness this is all making me feel
25:41
slightly worried about what we're going to do about our picture and then what about how the painting
25:48
could have got from flanders to scotland looking at ian's notes he talks about
25:54
the painting being in port glasgow from 1854 and then he mentions early parish
25:59
priest in port glasgow was a fleming i mean that is all we've got so
26:05
any ideas as to when it it's likely to have come to scotland well early could
26:11
be very early there are close relations between scotland and flanders from the
26:16
15th century onwards but it could also be close to when it sort of the church
26:22
opened and they wanted to give something to the church wow so that's a huge period of time that we have to
26:29
investigate yes i'm afraid so
26:34
with almost 500 years of provenance to consider and no obvious signature the
26:40
scale of the challenge facing us is daunting back in london at the gallery we're taking a closer look at the artists who
26:47
are still in contention so here is ian's list of seven potential suspects
26:52
and tico has ruled out four of them [Music] so that leaves us with three michiel
26:59
coxy jan masseys and franz flores i've got my doubts about yamasays why
27:06
well have a look at this it's called a merry company carousing peasants this is typical of the type of painting that he
27:13
was doing in fact he's been credited with being a pioneer of secular painting in the low
27:19
countries and certainly when you look at our painting it's nothing like it they're having a
27:25
very jolly time and of course this is a heavily religious subject isn't it i think mercedes is definitely off the
27:30
list okay so then we're left with michiel coxy and franz flores
27:36
so i've done some digging into coxy now it turns out he moved in very
27:42
elevated circles he was a favorite of the holy roman emperor he was caught painted to philip ii of spain who
27:49
singled him out to paint frescoes in the vatican in rome and then there's franz flores now he was
27:55
a big player as well he was hugely successful led this very extravagant lifestyle he had a big influence on the
28:01
northern renaissance and he had a large workshop in antwerp as well so we have
28:07
two really very significant names to consider now at work in antwerp in the 16th century
28:19
back at the kelvin center i'm keen to see if another scientific technique can help us date the wooden panel that the
28:25
port glasgow picture is painted on dendrochronology is the process of
28:30
dating wood by measuring the tree rings counting the rings will tell us how old
28:36
the tree is but measuring the distance between them creates a pattern in time
28:41
which can be used to identify not only when the tree was growing but crucially the likely date it was cut down
28:49
looking at a cross-section of the poor glasgow picture through a microscope reveals the bubble-like structures that
28:55
make up the rings measuring these could reveal the earliest possible date the
29:01
panel was made ian tyres is one of the world's leading authorities on denver chronology
29:08
can he put a date to our picture how confident can we be at dating a
29:14
painting by looking at the available tree rings these boards have got 150 or 200 rings
29:21
in them most likely we can date this to within a decade or two in effect each of
29:26
these boards has a fingerprint in it that's a fingerprint in time and place that's a rather remarkable thought what
29:32
about these battles on the back this bracing these are unfortunately a later
29:37
addition to the panel there's no original back left on the panel itself and it's been planed down and this
29:44
cradle has been put on the back in order to strengthen it at some point ouch so all of that information that could have
29:51
helped us stamps labels what have you they've just disappeared into the
29:57
into the into the ether they've disappeared into the bin in the in the wood yard yes thankfully
30:02
dendrochronology can salvage some of the clues lost in restoration and tell us
30:07
more than just the date of the panel there's many layers of information to come out of this does it date does it
30:13
tell us where and does it tell us which trees all material that we would find
30:19
extremely useful and valuable well let's hope that it does produce some answers
30:26
while we wait and see if the port glasgow picture can be dated i've come to the archives of the archdiocese of
30:32
glasgow to follow up on the lead ian left that an early parish priest was a fleming a native of flanders
30:39
can the archives provide any evidence to show he was right i've got here the scottish catholic
30:46
directory which is a list of all the parishes and their clergy and on page 91 here is our church port glasgow st
30:52
john's and it mentions the first priest a reverend john carolyn
30:58
now he's actually from ireland he's not flemish so the the connection to flanders that ian
31:04
margie's husband's been talking about it's not him and then i've looked through
31:10
all the priests that have been at st john the baptist and none of them are from flanders so
31:15
i can't find anything to substantiate ian's theory there i'm wondering if it's a red herring
31:21
there's another lead in the form of the inscription on the frame it says that the painting was the
31:26
raridos in the church from 1854 until 1895.
31:31
meaning it hung behind the altar could it have been a gift to mark the founding of the church
31:39
in the directory it details the opening of the church in 1854 on the 22nd of october of course 1854 is the date on
31:46
our painting it says the church was so densely crowded that numbers were obliged to retire for want of room it
31:52
also mentions a rather intriguing name and mrs colonel hutchison and it says the catholics resident here
31:59
have much reason to be grateful to this excellent lady for the great interest she has taken in their new church and it
32:05
turns out her first name was isabella and in the catholic archive there is this rather sweet little portrait of her
32:12
so digging a bit deeper i can see that she was born in 1780 in fort glasgow and
32:18
she was the daughter of a merchant and the widow of a man called george hutchison
32:23
now the place i found more information about george hutchison is here the center for the study of the
32:29
legacies of british slavery so george hutchison was a late lieutenant colonel in the
32:35
service of the honorable east india company which was a huge trading company that made much of its money off the back
32:40
of slavery so isabella got some of her money from him and she used that money
32:47
for it says here erecting completing and furnishing the residence for the sisters of mercy at lorriston gardens that's a
32:54
convent in edinburgh so the money came from a very dark place
33:01
and she used some of it for the catholic church and this convo in particular
33:06
so i think that's something worth looking into
33:12
i've asked marjorie to join me at the sisters of mercy convent in edinburgh to find out more about isabella hutchison
33:19
did she donate the port glasgow picture to the church one of the many questions about
33:25
your painting margaret is how did it come to be in glasgow in port glasgow to be specific yes indeed indeed so it
33:31
might have something to do with this woman ah this is isabella hutchison we know that she was very wealthy
33:38
we know that she was a benefactor to the catholic church she also
33:44
came from port glasgow and was at the church saint john the baptist oh when it
33:49
opened in 1854 oh my goodness and there's more because the catholic directory states that she
33:56
paid for the furnishings in the church as well as the altar
34:01
right an entry in the catholic directory says
34:06
the altar tabernacle chalice and ciborium and all the altar linens and furnishings together with vestments all
34:13
of which are very elegant and costly were presented by her
34:18
but if she paid for the altar did she also pay for the order piece could be
34:24
could be it's not proof it's quite convincing yes it is and having spoken with the sisters here at the convent i
34:31
mean they think given her relations with the catholic church and how much he gave the catholic
34:36
church that it is quite likely that she the painting to the church as well are you
34:42
any closer to finding out who painted it no but we are working on it so i hope to
34:47
find out very soon but at this precise moment i cannot give you a name i'm afraid it's a difficult one
34:53
it certainly is our provenance trail hasn't got us any
34:58
further in establishing who painted the poor glasgow picture but now we know isabella hutchison most likely donated
35:05
it to the church
35:11
back at the kelvin center it's the moment we've been waiting for ian tires has sequenced the tree rings
35:18
and we have a result it's a huge piece of information marjorie's late husband ian longed to
35:25
know i've asked marjorie to join me we're about to find out whether we can
35:31
date the port glasgow picture so marjorie i know one of the things
35:36
that ian was interested in and wanted to do was apply technology to coming up with
35:42
answers for this picture yes indeed if he didn't have that facility obviously
35:48
in the early 90s and he wasn't he wasn't involved with any lab or anything like that to be fair in the 90s the
35:55
technology we're talking about wasn't as sophisticated as it is now and dendrochronology has come on leaps and
36:02
bounds same what have you found the last ring in the panel is 1574. oh
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goodness how specific can you be on this so that means these trees are still growing in 1574 and therefore the panel must be
36:17
after 1574. that is truly amazing so now we know the date the tree was most
36:24
likely failed and the earliest possible year the panel could have been made and
36:30
mostly panels are used what within 10 years yes the general understanding we have is
36:36
that they are used fresh and very quickly do you think ian would have found that useful oh definitely to get such
36:43
precision would have absolutely amazed him he'd be delighted absolutely delighted
36:50
this is the most revealing clue in our investigation yet the date of the panel means that the
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port glasgow picture could not have been painted before 1574
37:01
ruling out france flores who died in 1570 there's only one potential master left
37:08
in our ecclesiastical whodunit and what a name he was michiel coxy known as the
37:13
flemish raphael to get to know the artist better we're on our way to cox's homeland of belgium
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to see one of europe's most famous artworks in saint barvo's cathedral in ghent
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wow spectacular isn't it it really is
37:33
awe-inspiring we've come to see a masterpiece michiel
37:38
coxy knew well this mystical painting has emerged after
37:45
10 years of restoration just magnificent isn't it
37:51
the adoration of the mystic lamb also known as the ghent altarpiece was
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created by brothers hubert and jan van eyck 600 years ago
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during its long life it has been much copied and coveted as an object of
38:07
desire and it's had quite a life it's been stolen more than once hasn't it stolen
38:13
by napoleon by the nazis it nearly burnt it was recovered by the americans after the war when it
38:20
was found in a salt mine i mean this is a painting with form but what i want you to have a look at is
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this right what do you make of it um what i presume
38:33
this is that isn't it not quite this painting was so admired and desired
38:39
that people wanted their own gentle piece so a hundred years after it was painted philip ii of spain commissioned
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this copy and the artist was coxy oh right the artist who we have
38:53
in our sights as the painter of our work
38:59
the commission to copy this masterpiece for the king was one of coxy's most prestigious
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but he was far more than a mere copyist famous in his own lifetime coxy was
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hailed as one of the great artists of the low countries and his influence on religious art was profound
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his altarpieces were greatly admired and in brussels the royal institute for
39:24
cultural heritage have given us a rare opportunity to compare one by coxy with
39:30
the port glasgow picture conservators here restore the ghent altarpiece and helen dubois and natalie
39:37
le care have offered to tell me more about this authentic work can we find any similarities between
39:44
this and the port glasgow picture that might prove they are by the same artist
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hello helen hello nicely hello hello thank you so much for giving us the time to show us
39:57
this magnificent picture so what can you tell us about its history well this painting
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is a triptych painted by michael coxy it was painted for the church of the
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sablong which is in the center of brussels i mean can you
40:15
at first glance see any similarities the colors are quite striking and there's
40:20
some similarities you have this kind of ochre tone purplish tones which we call also these colors we call shenzhen which
40:27
is different tones combined with each other can you see any other comparisons
40:33
well you can see in both cases that the faces the postures go back to more
40:39
italian examples you can see these painters are both inspired by raphael
40:44
also there's clearly a reference to roman or greek ancient sculptures
40:50
it's like the static coming to life in a funny sort of way yes very much it's very dynamic composition full of emotion
40:57
you see movements people falling backwards there's a lot of action in here your
41:03
picture is is full of emotions very intense as well in this period you can see that the
41:08
flemish artists have not quite understood really the italian of the renaissance sense of
41:14
composition the action is there but it's fixed in time it's just not really quite
41:20
flowing as it does in italian paintings stylistic similarities between the two
41:26
are promising but we have seen evidence that the artist who created the port glasgow
41:32
picture changed things as they went along is there anything similar in the coxy
41:37
painting so nicely have you found any
41:42
similar changes of mind in the painting you've now got to know so well yeah there are a lot of changes
41:49
look at his foot here for example he changed his mind and replaced the
41:54
composition almost as if he's trying to sort of rebalance the figure that's a proof of the creation process of the
42:01
painter well i mean something very similar has happened in our picture of john i mean it's not a foot it's a face
42:09
so both these painters coxy and the one who did ours
42:14
are searching they're never quite satisfied the similarities between this known work
42:21
by michiel coxy and the poor glasgow picture are compelling but these works have something else in common
42:29
both were painted in the aftermath of one of the most devastating periods in western art history
42:37
from the 1520s the reformation swept through europe
42:42
in this religious revolution protestants rebelled against what they believed was a corrupt catholic church
42:50
the result was a series of violent attacks on places of worship countless religious paintings and
42:56
statues were destroyed in what's known as the great iconoclasm
43:03
but in the decades that followed there was a catholic revival and with it a
43:08
huge demand to redecorate empty churches with new religious art to replace what
43:14
had been lost artists like michiel coxy were back in business
43:21
oliver kick is an expert in this fascinating period of art history can he
43:26
find any clues that could support the theory that coxy painted the port glasgow picture
43:33
this is coming straight after a period of religious turmoil with the iconoclasm
43:39
there was huge destruction of altarpieces and works of art in churches leaving lots of empty spaces but leaving
43:46
also lots of opportunities for the catholic painters who came afterwards so they had lots of commissions coming
43:52
in to replace all these destroyed altar pieces i mean presumably it was a great time to be a painter yes these painters
44:00
were working at breakneck speed to produce huge quantities of art to refurnish those churches where were
44:07
these ideas for the composition have come from then do you think what they would often refer
44:13
to is first of all antique sculpture or classical sculpture and then they would also use sources such as workshop
44:20
drawings and then prints they took certain sources and recombined them one
44:26
print for example would be a print after tintoretto where we see that he uses
44:32
exactly the same for shortening of the head of christ there might have been a scrapbook of images from the past lots
44:40
of ideas and then a group of people under the work of a master
44:45
putting paintings like this together exactly it was also an opportunity for artists to look back at previous
44:52
generations and oliver can see similarities between the port glasgow picture and this much earlier order
45:00
piece by a master called bernard van one striking
45:05
comparison is also to be made with a lamentation painted by the painter bernard van orle who was
45:11
working mostly in the 1520s 1530s okay so you're painting a a really
45:18
interesting picture here in response to need after all the destruction
45:23
workshops plundering the past with images and other inspirations putting together
45:29
art this is really tantalizing to me it's
45:35
clear that whoever painted the port glasgow picture was inspired by this painting by bernard van orle
45:45
back in london we're getting together with marjorie to share our latest discoveries
45:52
well margie you've been very patient with us while we've been looking through ian's list of suspects
45:57
and of course this is what we're talking about the port glasgow painting take a look at this
46:03
now this is a triptych by an artist called bernard van orle it's in a church in bruges a triptych of course is a a
46:10
painting in three parts forming an altarpiece or a rare dose like the port glasgow picture yes of course marjorie i
46:18
want you to cast your eyes to the bottom right ah yes a lamentation a lamentation of
46:25
christ but look even closer in comparison to the port glasgow picture oh my goodness my goodness yes
46:33
very similar pause slightly different composition well the more time you spend
46:38
analyzing it the more i think you come up with similarities and if you look at
46:44
the way that the figure of christ is sitting live yes it's almost a mirror
46:50
image and also notice the attitude of the head and the foreshortening
46:56
so the question is did bernard van older who painted this paint the poor glasgow picture yes
47:02
no because bernard van oli died in 1541 and we know that this was painted after
47:08
1574 oh yes thanks to the dendrochronology exactly but this is where it gets exciting because bernard
47:16
van olli and here he is was a master artist with his own workshop full of
47:22
apprentices and pupils and one of them was michiel coxy my
47:27
goodness he looks like quite a guy so he would have seen the work by bernard van
47:32
orle well of course because i mean the risk of stating the obvious this is before the days of internet and
47:39
catalogue resonate and for michiel to be familiar with this
47:44
painting he would almost certainly have had to come into some sort of physical presence with
47:50
it and it strikes me that the coincidence is too great to ignore
47:55
it's not hard and fast evidence but it's certainly compelling and we'll just have to see if the
48:00
experts agree yes let's hope that they do thanks to this early 16th century work
48:07
by his former master we've narrowed our search down to one suspect the flemish
48:13
raphael mikhiel coxy but have we done enough to convince the
48:18
experts back in antwerp i've come to a renowned center for art historical research the
48:25
ruben yanum where i've arranged to meet the leading expert on coxy professor kunrot yonkera hi there hi nice meeting
48:33
you nice to meet you his opinion will be decisive
48:40
kuhn has agreed to share his initial thoughts before he considers our evidence
48:45
does he buy our theory that the port glasgow painter was inspired by bernard van oorley
48:52
one thing that struck me is the similarity of this christ figure to the very unusual figure in the bernard van
48:58
orli painting what 50 or so years earlier is it possible that whoever came
49:04
up with the idea for this picture was connected to or familiar with van allen
49:09
in some way yeah i think so i think certainly you see ideas from bernard van
49:14
ordle literally sampled in this panel the whole composition is being traced
49:20
you see some minor changes in some figures like the saint john but hardly and the
49:25
fact that christ has his knees up in this position was that unusual well it's something that you don't see that often
49:31
in 16th century painting this was introduced by vanoli and so there's this direct line between
49:39
the painter who painted your panel and this early 16th century important
49:46
master it is a piece of what must have been an enormous altarpiece it was cut down oh
49:52
right you think this is this is just a part of the original i think so because the figures are not fully on it which is
49:59
very exceptional so it must have been cut down and it was made at the end of the 16th
50:04
century on the eve of barack that's the period when they start to experiment and sample
50:11
everything that had been tried out in the 16th century and that people like rubens were
50:18
eventually able to build their career on and so this is i think
50:24
a quite exceptional example of such a late 16th century
50:30
panel while retires to consider our evidence
50:36
back in london we're taking stock i think we've built as strong a case as
50:42
we can for this painting particularly given the complexity of this period of art history
50:48
imaging technology has shown us pentimenti some significant alterations the sign that a
50:56
must creative hand is at work dendrochronology tree ring analysis has
51:02
established that the port glasgow picture could not have been painted before 1574.
51:08
and this brings into focus an artist michiel coxy whose stylistic traits
51:14
we've seen in belgium also the painting seems inspired by
51:20
coxy's master bernard van ollie this investigation has certainly had its
51:26
challenges the way the artist workshop operated in the 16th century with its many
51:32
assistants apprentices journeyman it was doubtful certainly at
51:37
the beginning whether we'd ever be able to name a potential master the provenance was initially promising
51:43
we managed to establish that a wealthy benefactor isabella hutchison paid for the church's altar and its furnishings
51:50
which we assume included the painting that's where the trail went cold
51:56
with the help of many experts both here and in belgium we've managed to work our way through ian's list of suspects and
52:03
all the evidence seems to point to one name michiel coxy
52:08
court painter to philip ii of spain [Music] after several weeks we have a decision
52:18
kuhn has consulted with his colleagues and dr tiko zeifert from the national galleries of scotland is joining us to
52:24
deliver their verdict have we done enough to prove that the
52:30
port glasgow picture is a lost masterpiece by michiel coxy
52:37
marjorie is joining us at the gallery to hear the verdict hi marjorie hello good to see you
52:44
marjorie good to be here so this is the day oh are you looking forward to it oh it's so
52:50
exciting dying to know about it in terms of evaluation if if we can give it
52:56
the name that we've been trying to coxy then we could be talking in terms
53:03
of about a hundred thousand pounds it's an impressive picture yes ian would
53:09
certainly agree with you on that what do you think ian would say if he was here now he would be delighted that
53:15
so much interest had been expressed in it it's lovely to be doing this in
53:20
memory of him well we've given it our best shot [Music]
53:26
tico has joined us and we're about to find out if we can put the name michiel coxy to the port glasgow picture so
53:34
you've reached a decision yes are you ready to hear it margie yes as ready as i'll ever be
53:41
i've discussed the research with kuhn in belgium and kuhn's opinion is and i agree with
53:48
him that this painting is not by mario coxy
53:53
oh that's a shame i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news
53:59
what makes you think it's not by michiel coxy well coon's feeling was that the way it
54:06
is painted is not as refined as we would expect him
54:11
in his prime and i think the style it is painted feels a tad later and not mecha
54:18
coxy however there is also good news feels very strongly that the
54:25
painter of this picture here must have had intimate knowledge of machia coxy's
54:31
workshop and the way he worked and it must be a painter that towards
54:36
the end of michiel's life was in the circle of the artist and the prime
54:43
candidate would be his son rafael was he a significant artist in his own
54:49
right or just another person in the workshop he was the oldest son of maria coxy and he
54:56
worked with him he collaborated with him so they sometimes even worked on the same picture we know that
55:04
raphael would have had this intimate knowledge which we we feel was necessary
55:10
to paint this i feel really positive about what you
55:16
just said i mean we had that whole thicket of possibilities did we not and we we've managed to narrow it down to a
55:23
likely name and place and date i think you've done a brilliant
55:29
job frankly at this point in art history with the structure of workshops and
55:34
everything um to find an artist who was responsible from start to finish
55:40
this is the exception rather than the rule so to narrow it down in the way we've been able to i think is actually a
55:48
success so where do you think this leaves us in terms of how we put a value on this picture it's
55:53
such an opaque period of art history that that even just to to give it
55:59
as closely as you have to these key figures i think still makes it a very desirable
56:06
painting i can see museums being interested i can see collectors being interested
56:13
in terms of valuation not probably a hundred thousand pounds probably sixty seventy thousand pounds oh my
56:21
goodness and i'm sure the bishop will be interested to hear that i'm sure he will
56:30
ian macdonald started investigating the port glasgow picture 30 years ago
56:35
thanks to the clues he left us we can now say it was painted by someone in miquel coxy circle most likely coxy's
56:43
son raphael named after the italian painter coxy admired so much
56:50
ian would be very impressed with all the research that's been done it certainly proved that it was late 16th century
56:57
flemish which is what he thought that it was an important work which has also been agreed
57:04
yeah he would be he would be very satisfied with that but he would have relished the discussion
57:09
and that's i think what is missing on the whole that that would have been that would have been his great joy
57:18
now we've finished the work ian began the painting will return home to saint john the baptist church in port glasgow
57:25
where it will go back on the wall for parishioners to enjoy [Music]
57:32
if you think you have an undiscovered masterpiece or other precious object contact us at
57:38
dot co dot uk slash fake or fortune [Music]
57:54
[Music]
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[Applause]
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you