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However, here is a list of the most famous forgers through the history of art. Some are more successful than others, but many manage to fool the experts time and time again. Many made a pretty penny while they were at it too, becoming famous artists themselves. 5. Michelangelo Buonarotti: World-Famous Artist And Forger.
- Yves Chaudron
- Han Van Meegeren
- Eric Hebborn
- Elmyr de Hory
- John Myatt
- Giovanni Bastianini
- Mark A. Landis
- Shaun Greenhalgh
- Tony Tetro
- Tom Keating
This guy has the dubious distinction of faking the most popular painting on the Earth, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The French painter was recruited by Eduardo de Valfierno, who was behind the theft of Mona Lisa in 1911. According to Valfierno, Chaudron created many fakes and they were sold as genuine works to foreign buyers even before the theft...
Perhaps no other forger can be held in as great regard in his country as Han Van Meegeren. Meegeren is one of the greatest art forgers ever. The Dutch painter turned to forging the works of master painter Vermeer due to the failure of his own creations. He sold forgeries of original Vermeer paintings. The world did come to know of his fraud only wh...
The interesting thing about Eric Hebborn is that he didn’t create the exact replicas of the classic paintings. He rather copied the styles of master artists and created his own paintings in them. He also turned to forgeries after his genuine works were not appreciated enough. Hundreds of his fakes were sold through prominent auction houses. His tri...
A Hungarian painter and art faker, Elmyr de Hory was the subject of Clifford Irving novel Fake and the Orson Welles film F for Fake. He has sold more than a thousand fakes, among them the works of faking works by masters such as Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, and Renoir. He was later revealed as a forger and later acquired a celebrity status after t...
John Myatt is the British artist who, along with John Drewe, perpetrated what has been touted to be ‘the biggest art fraud of the 20th century’. He sold his early works as explicit fakes but later collaborated with Drewe to expand the business. Myatt duplicated the works of artists including Chagall and Le Corbusier. He supposedly created about 200...
The Italian sculptor Giovanni Bastianini is one of the earliest art forgers to have been brought before the public eye. He, in collaboration with art dealer Giovanni Freppa, marketed various sculptures mimicking the works of renaissance era. They were bought by renowned museums including Louvre. Later Freppa confessed their forgery when he was give...
Mark Augustus Landis is an American art counterfeiter who donated numerous fake paintings as genuine works to American art galleries and museums. He tricked the museums for more than two decades. He never made any money since none of the paintings was sold. Mark also mixed his genuine works with the fake ones. The documentaryArt and Craft is based ...
The British national Shaun Greenhalgh is one of the top 10 art forgers to ever live and his family was described as the most diverse forgery team ever by the Scotland Yard itself. Starting from 1989, Greenhalgh produced numerous fake crafts which were marketed by his family members. The crafts ranged from ancient sculptures to modern paintings. The...
Anthony Gene Tetro was an American art falsifier who reproduced the works of master artists like Rembrandt, Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall. His works was perfect imitations of the respective originals and they were sold in various auctions. Naturally, he went on to become very wealthy. He was caught only when painter Hiro Yamagata found a forgery o...
At number one in our list of top 10 art forgers is Tom Keating. Keating is a singular character among the ingenious forgers. His aim was not merely to make a fortune. It was rather to dismantle the entire system of art business, which he hated on principle. He believed it to be rotten and corrupt, where the credit went to those undeserved. He claim...
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Apr 9, 2012 · Most famous art forgers share a common motivation: revenge on the art world for snubbing their original work. The money doesn't hurt either. Read about nine of the most famous art forgers in ...
Nov 22, 2022 · Tony Tetro faked works by some of the best artists of all time, fooling collectors, museums, and even royals in the process. ... Ask 100 people what they think an art forger does and 99 will tell ...
Apr 1, 2021 · 2. Eric Hebborn . Eric Hebborn started forgery as an act of rebellion against the state. He started working as a restorer and discovered his talent for copying the styles of many great artists which is when he started taking forgery seriously and created fresh new works from ages-old paintings.
Jun 1, 2015 · The garden shed forger. On 16 November 2007, the failed contemporary artist Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) was convicted for a forgery scheme of unprecedented diversity in the history of art crime.
