Michelangelo and other talented falsifiers who managed to fool the world of art

Art has long turned into a profitable business, which brings millions of especially experienced people. After all, real masterpieces cost huge sums. The dealer receives his share, the auction house receives commissions, and the buyer receives the desired picture. And in this chain, it is not beneficial for anyone to find out that in fact the picture is a fake. Therefore, such incidents are usually silent.

Experts believe that on the international art market, about half of the paintings can be fakes, and in large museum collections of fakes about 20%. So, in April 2018, one museum in France discovered that 82 of Etienne Terrus’s 140 paintings stored in his collection were false. Fakes were discovered only when the keen visitor noticed that some of the buildings depicted in the paintings were built after the death of the artist.

1. Khan Van Megeren
In 1932, the Dutch artist Khan van Megeren, wounded by criticism that his work was “unoriginal,” decided that he would create a “new and original work” by copying a picture of the great master Johann Vermeer. Continue reading →