My Favourite Crime

[susie_flo]

Is there anything more fabulous or fitting than fooling the art world with some outstanding forgery?   

I've long been a fan of the likes of John Myatt and Eric Hebborn (whose book "The Art Forgers Handbook" is one of my all-time favourite reads).   Right now I'm watching a Cutting Edge documentary about Shaun Greenhalgh, a forger of seemingly outstanding genius, who churned out a ton of convincing artifacts, statues and paintings in his garden shed and got his doddery old dad to sell them to museums.  

      

A little gallery of a few of his masterpieces is here...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/in_pictures_art_con_forgeries/html/1.stm

Of course, what would be really nice is for someone to announce that Shaun Greenhalgh does not actually exist, and is nothing more than a clever bit of meta forgery...  :-)

On a related topic, I hear a rumour that Clive Owen may be lined up to play John Myatt in a Hollywood version of his story.  Sounds like compelling viewing, though I would have thought a member of the league of gentlemen might make a more accurate visual portrayal of Myatt...  given that he looks like this:


 

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

You should forge one of his forgeries. Would that cancel out and mean you had an original painting. :-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ooh - nice suggestion!