FAKES OF THE WEEK: FRENCH MUSEUM DISCOVERS OVER HALF OF ITS PAINTINGS ARE FAKE
by Hazed
A French art museum dedicated to the works of a local artist has discovered that over half of its collection are fakes.
Etienne Terrus (1857 to 1922) lived and worked in the tiny town of Elne, just outside Perpignan. The museum was reopened last week after extensive renovation work. But when an art historian was brought in to reorganise the collection, he found that nearly 60% of the works were fake.
Eric Forcada said that it was obvious to him that most of the works were fake. “On one painting, the ink signature was wiped away when I passed my white glove over it.” He added, “At a stylistic level, it’s crude. The cotton supports do not match the canvas used by Terrus. And there are some anachronisms.”
The local mayor, Yves Barniol, described this discovery as a catastrophe. “Etienne Terrus was Elne’s great painter. He was part of the community, he was our painter. Knowing that people have visited the museum and seen a collection, most of which is fake, that’s bad. It’s a catastrophe for the municipality.”
He said that an investigation into the fakes would continue until the culprits had been found.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/30/french-museum-discovers-half-collection-fakes
