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Another well known UK conman/forgery 'mastermind', was John Drewe, who met and manipulated a struggling artist, John Myatt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_

Another well known UK conman/forgery 'mastermind', was John Drewe, who met and manipulated a struggling artist, John Myatt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drewe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Drewe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De3S2kkGQow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De3S2kkGQow https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/18/magazine/a-20th-century-master-scam.html https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/18/magazine/a-20th-century-m... >'His unorthodox formula of emulsion and K-Y Jelly was fast-drying, allowing him to paint quickly, if obsessively. "I took no trouble technically," he says. "There was a negligence to everything I did." Even so, his pictures were passing as genuine and selling for tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was enjoying a financial success he could never have approached by painting Myatts. Perhaps no other forger of his or any other time has worked so prodigiously and in so many styles...'

kriro 6y ago
Thanks just watched the provided youtube video. Interesting case. Less greedy and it would have worked perfectly. As someone with 0 idea about the art world it was really interesting to see how well an approach of "fake the history by altering the archives" + medium skill level painting worked. The lady that flew in from France basically already told them "these are pretty bad forgeries" and got the reply "yeah but the documents are legit" and had to go through all kinds of trouble to prove the documents are fake. In my worldview these scams only worked with perfect and amazing forgeries that require some sort of high tech color-analysis and canvas analysis to uncover...alas just faking the chain of trust worked quite well.
- smileypete 6y ago
  Yeah, that lady from France was an expert who truly studied the art itself. The opening words of Eric Hebborn in the follow on video are illuminating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKbbajb5pE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKbbajb5pE Some (most?) of his works are probably hanging in museums and collections, indistinguishable from the genuine thing.

kriro 6y ago

Thanks just watched the provided youtube video. Interesting case. Less greedy and it would have worked perfectly. As someone with 0 idea about the art world it was really interesting to see how well an approach of "fake the history by altering the archives" + medium skill level painting worked. The lady that flew in from France basically already told them "these are pretty bad forgeries" and got the reply "yeah but the documents are legit" and had to go through all kinds of trouble to prove the documents are fake. In my worldview these scams only worked with perfect and amazing forgeries that require some sort of high tech color-analysis and canvas analysis to uncover...alas just faking the chain of trust worked quite well.

smileypete 6y ago
Yeah, that lady from France was an expert who truly studied the art itself. The opening words of Eric Hebborn in the follow on video are illuminating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKbbajb5pE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jKbbajb5pE Some (most?) of his works are probably hanging in museums and collections, indistinguishable from the genuine thing.