Otto Wacker: (1898-1976) German

Notorious German art dealer and Berlin cabaret performer and the faker of at least 33 previously unknown Vincent van Gogh canvases that were supposedly painted 35 years before they were found.

In 1932 Wacker was charged with fraud and after an appeal, was sentenced to 19 months in prison.

This story is featured and extensively covered in literature and on the internet.

Otto Wacker

Edouardo Marquis of Valfierno: (C 1900) Argentinian

Dealer in fake art.

Was a small-time South American conman from Argentina who made his living by scamming art collectors.

Valfierno sold fake Spanish masters, such as Bartolome' Murillo in Buenos Aires and was, it is said, the real brains behind the Mona Lisa Art theft.

Also featured and extensively covered in literature and on the internet.

Robert DeNero would be good in the film part don't you think?

Edouardo Marquis of Valfierno

Real Lessard: (C 1900) Canadian

Fake art dealer

Painter and art dealer and part of the forgery partnership with Elmyr de Hory.

He worked for an agent called Fernand Legros who was selling de Hory's forged art production along with fake certificates of authenticity.

Real Lessard:

Fernand Legros: (1931–1983) Egyptian

Fernand Legros was an Egyptian born American art dealer who sold the forgeries of Elmyr de Hory conspiring together with Real Lesard.

It is beleived that Legros kept most of the profits from his dealings across America in selling fakes, without telling De Hory

Fernand Legros

Elizabeth Durack: (1915 - 2000) Australian

A Western Australian artist who signed paintings as the work of Eddie Burrup, who it turned out, was a non existent aboriginal artist.

Fake or a con? You decide

Elizabeth Durack

The Amiel family:

Deletion of the Amiel family story from this web page:

 At the insistance of Ms. Sarina Amiel, the educational information we previously collated from publicly available sources about the Amiel family's alleged activities connected with the selling and distribution of illicit fine art prints, this section has been removed from its historical dateline position on this information page as she feels it is innapropriate for the family to be associated or listed alongside forgers and or information relating to fakes and forgery.

Nice one Sarina!

As Ms. Amiel took great pains to point out to us in an email in which she complained of the stories inclusion, none of those involved were ever charged nor conviced of forgery or art fraud nor of faking works of art, but only of 'mail fraud' and it is therefore innapropriate for them to be accurately included here under any of our headings.

Sadly, as Ms. Amiel is offended by the families prior inclusion in this copious list of the worlds most successful and even 'admired individuals' who were, or have ever been accused or involved with illegal activities assocoiated with art, we naturally do not wish to cause them or her any offence and subsequently have i complied with her wishes and removed the section entirely.

You can freely read the full story of the Amiels in dozens of reports and web sites elsewhere on the internet.

Shinichi Fujimura: (B.1950) Japanese

Aka: Sneaky Fujimara

Not a forger or faker as we know it, but worthy of a place here.

Shinichi Fujimura is a scandalised Japanese amateur archaeologist who was accused and caught on film planting fake specimens and relics in archaeological digs to gain more prestige. Newspapers famously published pictures of Fujimura digging holes and burying the artifacts that his team later found.

Shinichi Fujimura

Ethem Ulge: (B.1964) Turkish

Art Fraudster

Hillsborough Police say the 44 year old native of Turkey, netted about $200,000 in bogus art sales in the USA in 2007. 

Under the eBay username "pakmailseller24," he offered fake paintings on eBay and was arrested in 2008 and is thought to have  netted about $200,000,

Ethem Ulge

Pierre Marcand, (French) 1980's.

The Dali Forgeries

Distributor of Fake Prints.

Marcand was the owner of Magui Publishers Inc. of Beverly Hills, sued by the Federal Trade Commission in 1989 who accused him of selling some 22,000 forgeries from around 1983 onwards. They claimed he was apparently selling fakes as fast as they could crank them out.

The etchings were produced in France by Pierre Spalaikovitch, an engraver and Pascal Giraudon.

FTC 1991

The Commission obtained a judgement against Magui Publishers and its owner for producing and distributing fake prints by Salvador Dali and the court ordered the defendants to pay $1,960,000.00 in disgorgment of unjust profits of distributing fake prints and permanently enjoined them from making any false or misleading claims or unsubstantiated representations about artworks by Dali or any other artist.

Salvador Dali

Andrew Behrman (American) 20 C

Dealer of fake fine art

In 1993, Andrew Behrman was convicted of 'conspiracy to defraud' after selling up to 35 fake paintings bearing the signature of the American artist Mark Kostabi, who himself has something of a controversial approach to art.

Kostabi employs dozens of freelance student artists to mass-produce the paintings which he signs, claiming that it is only the same as Rembrandt and other Old Masters who employed pupils and assistants in their studios!

The Double, Double.

Behman had begun his legitimate career as a salesman for Kostabi, but started his own enterprise of creating fake Kostabi's by employing one of fims own artists, Beate von Ploetz. It was alleged that she received $1,000 from Behrman for each creation she made. These he in turn passed off as originals to unsuspecting collectors in Tokyo. She was never indicted.

It's believed Behrman made more than $100,000 from the scam.

Found guilty of selling fakes without Mr. Kostabi's knowledge but bearing his forged signature, Behrman spent five months in prison and five months under house arrest.

Andrew Behrman went on to write the book Electroboy. A Memoir of Mania, about his struggles with manic depression.

Andrew Behrman

Mark Kostabi

Kenneth Andrew Walto

Kenneth Fetterman: (20 C) American

Internet Fraudster.

Scam artist who occasionally partnered with Kenneth Walton to sell very expensive counterfeit art on rigged 'on line' auctions.

Kenneth Fetterman

Lucien Radu Stanciu 20C.   Romanian

Art Historian

Suspicion abounds in the art world surrounding an ongoing Brancusi sculpture scandal. And there's lots of fingers wagging in the direction of Mr Stanciu and others in his circle as reported in the Romanian press.
Mr Stanciu, who is a controversial Romanian art expert and researcher at the Institute of Sociology in Bucharest, has been the centre of as yet unproven accusations relating to fake Constantin Brancusi stone sculptures.

He miraculously claimed to have discovered a number of long lost Brancusi works, publicly promoting them as original works of art by Brancusi and supporting them with his own certificates of authenticity. (Though many other experts and other officials have questioned his authority to do so.)

Some of these works have been passed on recently as legitimate works of art by Brancusi to collectors and investors in Canada and the USA which latterly have been identified as fakes by recognised Brancusi experts. This very clearly brings into question the validity of previous attributions and authentications Mr Stanciu had issued.

These alleged Brancusi sculptures include river stone sculptures previously illustrated on a Brancusi website which has since been closed down, either voluntarily or by the authorities, bringing much into question.  The site was previously housed at:   http:// www.constantin-brancusi.ro

The Romanian authorities are sitting on the fence on the issue but it should be noted that no formal charges have been brought against Mr Stanciu or any of his associates that we are aware of, though much comment  has been made in the Romanian press concerning this particular issue and others.

*IF YOU CAN ADD FACTUALLY TO THIS ITEM, PLEASE WRITE TO US*

Constantin Brancusi

How to catch a counterfeiter (or even a counterfieter?)

First decide how you are going to spell it!

Typo Traps - Belgium leads the way in ID fraud.

Belgium was the very first European country to issue to all its citizens, identity chip cards with integrated digital signature technology.

In a bid to outwit and foil its identity document forgers, Belgian authorities have come up with a novel way of messing things up for the ID document forgers.

Belgian identity cards, which have four circular arcs in their design, show the country's name in different languages -- French, Dutch, German and English. These are now being printed with intentional misspellings of the word 'Belgium' as written in the British, German or French language on the cards, in an attempt to thwart any potential fraudsters or counterfeiters.

Belgium for example is spelled 'Belgine'  and 'Belguim'. 

Brilliant idea, but would it not have been better if they hadn't brodcast the issue?

I