Q: Who Was The Most Infamous Art Forger Of All Time?
Published March 08, 2007
A: When it comes to art forgery — and forgery in general — no one is more infamous than the undisputed king of phonies, Elmyr de Hory. Good ole Elmyr seemed to live and breathe fakeness.
What made him infamous wasn't just the sheer number of forgeries he sold, though, but that they were really good forgeries! For 30 years, de Hory sold fake paintings by the world's greatest artists, including Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
In fact, his forgeries were so good and so precise in every detail that they fooled even the most experienced art buyers. When the cat finally came out of the bag about him being a forger, instead of his career taking a turn for the worst, he actually began to attract his own cult following. People began paying high prices for "authentic" de Hory fakes!
Believe it or not, legitimate museums currently host exhibitions of de Hory's works. As if that's not enough, brace yourself for this irony of ironies: the forger's forgeries are now being forged and sold by other forgers! (We know, your head just exploded.) It doesn't get any better: De Hory told his story in Fake!, a 1969 biography by Clifford Irving, an author who himself went on to forge a phony autobiography of Howard Hughes!
So what happened to our Elmer da Forger, you ask? Well, eventually, he ended up penniless (just like a real painter) and committed suicide in 1976, though rumor has it that he faked that, too.
- Q: Who Was The Most Infamous Art Forger Of All Time?
- Published: March 08, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Arts, Culture: Crime and Court, Culture: History, Culture: Society
- Part of a feature: mental_floss Question of the Day
- Writer: Mental_Floss
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Comments on this articleComments
Vox Populi.
Oh...art?
Never mind.
couple of additional points:
1) I worked in the 'industry' -- ie. art scholarship/research & a world class art museum; I'd say 20 to 30% of the stuff in art museums is fake...
2) ...or ILLEGALLY PLUNDERED (especially african, s. american, and european/middle eastern ANTIQUITIES.
3) Orson Welles made a little-known masterpiece/filmic sleight-of-hand about Elmyr, Irving, and himself; it's called "FAKE" and is available on DVD.
additional Elmyr anecdote:
In the early 60s, The Meadows Museum at SMU in Dallas had AN ENTIRE COLLECTION OF FAKES. Once exposed, the museum destroyed the entire collection and had to start buying all over. ahahahaha.
Now, it's a fairly reputable art museum specializing in Spanish art.
As R.A. Wilson once said, "Experts are the easiest to fool."
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Also note: most dealers, curators, collectors, and museum directors SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE. In their field, it's called "having a good eye" -- in any other realm, it's called "wishful thinking".
I think I went to high school with an Art Forger.
No question about it, Elmyr was a genius. I'm glad his massive talents are finally being recognized. It's far harder to copy someone else's style that perfectly than it is to develop your own - let alone a dozen someone else's styles!
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/60703)
Respectfully, your missing the bigger picture.
Fraud and deception is the rule in the artworld.
Mr. Hory is an amateur compared to what is really going on.
Gary Arseneau