Buzz
Art forgery ranks as one of the most profitable illicit industries globally, costing collectors billions annually. It continues to thrive because the potential rewards far outweigh the risks—many counterfeit pieces go undetected. Some forgers even gain notoriety for their audacity.
10. The Famed Forgeries of Elmyr de Hory
Elmyr de Hory became so renowned as an art forger during his lifetime that his villa in Ibiza was frequently visited by the jet set—many of whom unknowingly purchased his counterfeit works. De Hory's life was immortalized in Orson Welles' documentary-style film F for Fake, and even today, his forged paintings can fetch a substantial price. Many museums continue to display his works, as curators believe they were created by master artists.
De Hory was a man on the move, constantly shifting from city to city. Little is known about his early life, with much of it based on his own anecdotes. Born in Hungary, he claimed that his entire family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
In 1947, he arrived in New York City, where he found a way to finance art lessons. While his own paintings never found much success, his meticulous reproductions of other artists' works sold rapidly. To ensure authenticity, De Hory always used period canvases for his forgeries.
De Hory and his collaborators managed to avoid detection until 1967, when a major scandal surrounding fake artworks seemed to point directly at him. However, one question remained: Why did it take so long for anyone to realize the deception?
It was de Hory's meticulous attention to detail that made him so successful. Over the course of his career, he sold thousands of forgeries, including 100 pieces to John Connally, the former governor of Texas. While living in his villa in Ibiza, de Hory received visits from icons like Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles, and Clifford Irving (who authored a biography on de Hory and a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes).
After criminal charges were brought against him, de Hory tragically took his own life in 1976 by overdosing on sleeping pills. Ironically, de Hory's forgeries have themselves become objects of forgery. With a de Hory original fetching several thousand dollars, counterfeit de Hory paintings are now a thriving business.
9. Ely Sakhai’s Undetected Forgeries
Ely Sakhai's journey as an art forger exposed a dark truth within the art world: Many individuals recognized something was amiss with his 'originals,' yet no one took the initiative to expose the truth.
As long as the paintings were sufficiently convincing and linked to a well-known artist, they could be marketed as high-end artworks. This unethical approach enabled Sakhai to amass considerable wealth and live a lavish lifestyle that would have otherwise been beyond his reach. When authorities apprehended him, Sakhai was operating a forgery ring worth millions of dollars, all centered around his Union Square base.
After immigrating to the U.S. from Iran in the 1960s, Sakhai quickly made a name for himself as both a successful art dealer and a key figure within the Iranian-American community. His business interactions often involved Japanese buyers, as it was easier to deceive them with counterfeit works.
Sakhai earned substantial amounts of money—up to $ million—by progressively dealing in higher-end pieces. One of his prized forgeries was a work by French Impressionist Marc Chagall, which fetched over $300,000 at auction in 1990.
But something unusual happened. Just three years later, Sakhai resold the same Chagall to a Japanese businessman for over $500,000. The FBI initiated an investigation and uncovered that Ely Sakhai was running a forgery operation, buying inexpensive, lesser-known paintings and then passing off his counterfeit versions as authentic to unsuspecting buyers.
He would forge certificates of authenticity and ‘issue’ them for his counterfeit pieces. This tactic seemed to work remarkably well, as he was not caught until 2004. However, one lingering question continues to perplex investigators: Who was the actual artist behind these forgeries? Since Sakhai himself was not an artist, who did he have access to? The mystery remains unsolved to this day.
8. The Wacker Case
Today, Vincent van Gogh’s masterpieces regularly fetch millions of dollars at auction, solidifying his place as one of the world’s most revered artists. However, his brilliance was recognized even at the dawn of the 20th century. In fact, his works were so highly sought after that a German conman named Otto Wacker orchestrated a significant scam involving van Gogh’s paintings in 1927.
When Wacker claimed to possess 33 van Gogh paintings, art dealers eagerly made offers. However, there was one major issue: The paintings were all fakes.
Grete Ring and Walter Feilchenfeldt, the managers of the firm that purchased the paintings, didn't realize the deception at first. They had planned a major exhibition but had only received 29 of the paintings on time, leaving them eager for Wacker to deliver the remaining four.
When the last four paintings finally arrived, Ring and Feilchenfeldt were relieved. However, upon closer inspection, they quickly realized the paintings were certainly not by van Gogh. While they managed to remove the fakes from the exhibition before their reputation was harmed, the managers were understandably furious about being deceived.
Over the course of the next five years, a series of experts, curators, and art dealers scrutinized the paintings. In 1932, Wacker was convicted for his forgeries. The investigation took so long because Wacker was a forger ahead of his time, using chemical techniques to make the fakes appear convincingly authentic. He also paid meticulous attention to detail.
Some of the paintings Wacker sold were genuine van Goghs. However, his forgeries were so skillful that even the most thorough testing of the era couldn't distinguish them from the originals. The Wacker case led art dealers to improve their methods for detecting increasingly sophisticated fraud.
Pei-Shen Qian and the Bergantinos Diaz brothers became entangled in a major art fraud scandal. Qian, a poor artist who arrived in America in 1981, had begun his journey modestly by painting Chairman Mao portraits in his native China. Little did he know that his paintings would one day become part of a multimillion-dollar deception.
Pei-Shen Qian's arrival in the U.S. in 1981 marked the start of a journey that took an unexpected turn. Struggling for most of the decade, Qian painted on street corners in Manhattan. His innocence in the world of art fraud was clear, having come from painting portraits of Chairman Mao during his time in China.
The scheme was set into motion when Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz discovered Qian's paintings in the late 1980s. Seeing the potential for profit, he realized the authenticity of Qian’s work could be exploited. The pieces were so convincing that they could pass as genuine works from other famous artists.
Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz worked with his brother Jesus Angel to make the scam a success. The brothers’ method involved sourcing old materials to make the paintings appear aged. They would visit flea markets to find old canvases and use methods like applying tea bags to new canvases, adding a vintage look.
Despite the fortune made off his work, Pei-Shen Qian did not benefit significantly. In the 1990s, he received only a few hundred dollars for each painting. Even by 2008, when he was paid $7,000 for his art, it was still a tiny fraction of the millions generated by the fraudulent scheme.
Once the paintings were in their possession, the Bergantinos Diaz brothers turned to art dealer Glafira Rosales to sell them. She managed to offload the majority of the fakes to the prestigious Knoedler & Company gallery.
What truly shocked everyone was the length of time the scam went unnoticed. It wasn’t until Glafira Rosales admitted to the FBI that the entire operation began to unravel. Both the Bergantinos Diaz brothers and Rosales were convicted for their roles in the scheme.
Pei-Shen Qian was the one who managed to escape the consequences. Returning to China, where extradition is seldom enforced, he laughed at the situation. When reflecting on the scandal, he remarked: 'The FBI said [the paintings] were done by the hands of a genius. [...] Well, that’s me. How strange it feels!'
6. The Stay-At-Home Fraudster John Myatt
Like many before him, John Myatt was a skilled artist who struggled to sell his own works. In the 1980s, Myatt’s wife left him, leaving him to care for their two children, both of whom remained with him.
The sudden changes in his life left John Myatt in a precarious situation, wondering how he could provide for his two children as a single father. He found a way by entering the art forgery business, which not only helped pay the bills but also allowed him to spend more time with his kids.
Myatt's journey into forgery began when he placed an ad offering legal forgeries, which he painted for £250 each. His work caught the eye of John Drewe, an art dealer who would become his partner in the fraudulent operation.
Myatt's first big break came when he sold a forged Albert Gleizes piece for £25,000. 'Twelve-and-a-half-thousand pounds [split with Drewe] means I can get a car that works and doesn’t break down all the time,' Myatt said of the unexpected windfall.
For the next seven years, Myatt continued the profitable ruse, selling over 200 paintings, some fetching as much as $150,000 each. However, Drewe’s increasingly erratic behavior led Myatt to end their partnership.
Eventually, Drewe’s ex-girlfriend revealed the truth, and Drewe was sent to prison. Myatt was convicted in 1999, admitting to creating 200 forgeries, though only 80 of them have been recovered.
John Myatt has become a vocal critic of the art world, saying, 'The nonsense, really, is that paintings should be priced the way they are, that a van Gogh can go for, what is it, $75 million? That’s disgusting.' Since his release from prison, Myatt has shifted his focus to teaching Scotland Yard how to identify fraudulent art.
5. The Most Successful Art Forger In History
Wolfgang Beltracchi was widely regarded as a wealthy hippie who had an intimate knowledge of the art world. Residing in a $7 million villa in Freiburg, Germany, near the Black Forest, Beltracchi and his wife lived luxuriously, even staying in the penthouse of the prestigious Colombi Hotel while their villa was being built. His lavish lifestyle was funded by his extraordinary success as one of the most skilled art forgers ever.
For much of his early life, Wolfgang Beltracchi was a wanderer—living the life of a restless hippie, traveling through places like Amsterdam and Morocco while indulging in drugs. Despite this, his talent for copying art seemed to surface early. He once amazed his mother by completing a Picasso replica in just one day.
Self-taught and remarkably skilled, Beltracchi could mimic a vast array of artistic styles. His expertise extended to copying Old Masters, surrealists, modernists, and nearly every other artistic movement throughout history.
Beltracchi's journey into the world of art forgery began innocently enough. He noticed that paintings depicting 18th-century winter landscapes were selling for relatively low prices, while those featuring skaters commanded much higher prices. Seizing the opportunity, he bought the cheaper paintings, added skaters to the scenes, and sold them for a significant profit.
While the exact number of his counterfeit artworks remains unclear, it is likely immense, given the length of time he successfully evaded detection. Some of the world's most renowned auction houses—such as Sotheby's and Christie's—have sold his forged pieces for amounts reaching into the millions of dollars.
One of his fakes, a forged Max Ernst painting, fetched $7 million at auction in 2006. Only 14 of his forged works were officially cited in the criminal case against him, yet his total earnings from just those 14 pieces amounted to a staggering $22 million.
4. The eBay Frauds
In 2001, Kenneth Walton, Scott Beach, and Kenneth Fetterman created 40 fraudulent 'shill' accounts on eBay, working together to artificially inflate the prices of the art they were auctioning. They carried out this scheme with over 1,100 artworks, earning more than $450,000. However, their greed nearly led them to sell a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting for over $100,000, which they almost succeeded in doing.
Shilling—bidding on your own items to artificially inflate their price—is strictly prohibited by eBay's policies. However, the three men went ahead with the practice, using multiple accounts to place bids on their own auctions. When their greed led them to try and sell a counterfeit Diebenkorn painting, their entire scheme began to unravel.
They weren't motivated by financial need. Kenneth Watson, a well-compensated attorney, admitted that boredom was what drove him to engage in this illegal activity—for the excitement of it. One day, he bought an $8 painting from a junk shop, and seeing that it resembled the work of the relatively obscure 20th-century artist Richard Diebenkorn, Watson took a paintbrush and added the signature 'RD52.'
Diebenkorn's art is highly sought after by a small group of collectors who know his work. Watson crafted an elaborate story, positioning himself as unaware of the painting's potential value, to add authenticity to the forged piece.
He claimed that his wife wouldn’t let him hang the painting in their home, so he stored it in the garage. Watson also mentioned that he had bought the piece in Berkeley, where Diebenkorn had created much of his work, and casually referenced the signature to add weight to the narrative.
His goal was clear: he wanted people to believe the painting was a genuine Diebenkorn. And his plan worked. The auction price surged to $135,805 before eBay and the FBI intervened. Ultimately, all three men were convicted for their roles in the fraudulent scheme.
Even while he was under FBI investigation, Watson continued to sell phony art on eBay. As this was the first known case of high-dollar fraud on eBay, the company was forced to change their policies to curb the sale of forgeries on their site.
3. The Egyptian Mona Lisa
Meidum Geese is one of the most iconic paintings in Egypt and has been dubbed the Egyptian Mona Lisa. Discovered in the tomb of Pharaoh Nefermaat, it was supposedly painted between 2610 BC and 2590 BC.
Meidum Geese was considered one of the greatest pieces of art from that era due to its high quality and level of detail. Since it was first uncovered in 1871 by Luigi Vassalli, it has been consistently heralded as an artistic masterpiece. Unfortunately, a recent examination determined that it is probably a hoax.
Highly respected researcher Francesco Tiradritti, who is also director of the Italian archaeological mission in Egypt, studied the painting in person and from high-resolution photographs. After extensive examination, he said that there was overwhelming evidence that the painting was a fake.
He is convinced that Luigi Vassalli himself painted this piece in 1871. The first clue that raises suspicion is the types of geese shown—the red-breasted goose and the bean goose—both of which are tundra species and unlikely to migrate as far south as Egypt during the winter months.
Another problem with the painting involves its color palette. Beige is not found in any other Egyptian artworks from this period. Additionally, the shades of red and orange used in the painting do not match the colors seen in Atet’s chapel, where Vassalli supposedly discovered it.
Vassalli was both a knowledgeable scholar and a talented artist, so it’s plausible that he could have created the 'Meidum Geese.' However, the most convincing evidence against this theory comes from another painting found in Atet’s chapel, which portrays a vulture and a basket.
To the untrained eye, this might appear insignificant. But to an Egyptologist like Vassalli, this image carries significant meaning—it represents the letters 'G' and 'A,' the monogram of his second wife, Gigliati Angiola.
2. The Fake Portrait Of Mary Todd Lincoln
For many years, a famous portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln adorned the governor’s mansion in Springfield, Illinois. The portrait was painted in 1864 by the well-known artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter as a gift for Mary Todd to present to her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.
Unfortunately, Lincoln was assassinated before he could ever receive the portrait. Although such a historically significant piece would seem a perfect addition to the governor’s residence, it turned out to be a complete fabrication.
In 1929, descendants of Lincoln discovered the painting, bought it for a few thousand dollars, and later donated it to the governor’s mansion in 1976. It hung there for 32 years until it was finally sent for cleaning by a conservator.
The conservator realized that the painting was a deception aimed at the Lincoln family. The portrait depicted an unknown individual, crafted by fraudster Lew Bloom. Bloom manipulated the subject's features to mimic those of Mary Todd Lincoln, then falsely presented it as a portrait of her.
As per Harold Holzer, a renowned Lincoln historian, the brooch worn by Mary Todd in the portrait displayed an 1857 photograph of Abraham Lincoln, which she detested. Additionally, she is shown wearing a crucifix, a Catholic symbol that conflicted with Mary Todd's Protestant beliefs.
Following the revelation of the fraud, the portrait was removed from the Illinois governor’s mansion. It now resides in the Lincoln Library, with its true history now acknowledged.
1. The Spanish Forger
The Spanish Forger is unique in that he was never apprehended. His true identity, motives, and even his background remain mysteries. His name is misleading, as he was likely not Spanish at all.
The Spanish Forger’s genius is clear in what he left behind. It's unknown how long he worked or how many forgeries he created, but his case continues to perplex us.
The first acknowledgment of the Spanish Forger's work occurred in 1930, when Count Umberto Gnoli attempted to sell a painting titled The Betrothal of St. Ursula to the Metropolitan Museum for £30,000.
Gnoli believed the painting to be a 1450 creation by Maestro Jorge Inglese and brought it to Belle de Costa Greene, the inaugural director of the Morgan Library, for validation. However, Greene quickly determined it was a forgery.
Because Ingles was a Spanish artist, the forger of the piece became known as the “Spanish Forger.” By 1978, William Voelkle, an associate curator at the Morgan Library, had compiled a collection of 150 forgeries attributed to the Spanish Forger.
It is widely thought that the Spanish Forger was most active at the dawn of the 20th century. Between 1869 and 1884, a popular five-volume series on medieval art was published. This work not only captured the public’s imagination but also provided a rich source for the Spanish Forger’s creations.
Instead of simply replicating the paintings, the Spanish Forger skillfully combined elements from different works to produce something entirely new. Small errors, like confusion over chess, Latin, and liturgical practices, eventually exposed him. Despite these slip-ups, he maintained his anonymity and remains unidentified.
