The Criminal to Beat All Criminals

We watched this video today in our art history class about what could possibly be the world's most brilliant art forger. His name is Wolfgang Beltracchi, he lives in Germany, and he can imitate the work of most all famous artists. When asked if he can do Rembrandt, he responded with "Yeah, sure." How about Leonardo? "Yeah, yeah, sure." (It's the German accent and manner of speaking that gets me every time, each of his answers either started or ended with a 'yeah' or a 'sure' and in many cases both haha) However, the sole artist he claims he cannot imitate is Bellini because "Bellini's really difficult."

It's not that Beltracchi copies famous artworks, no. In their own way each piece Beltracchi does is an original Beltracchi, he just lied about who painted it. He 'channels' the artist and paints a piece he believes the artist could have or would have painted had they had the time or if they had felt like it. He says he's forged about a hundred artist and in doing so has earned a hefty sum of millions of dollars. Beltracchi is so good that his forgeries have made it into art exhibits, galleries, renowned museums, and on the covers of art catalogues. He believes he quite well might be one of the most exhibited artists to ever have lived!

My two favorite quotes from the interview:

They sent paint pigments to labs to make sure they had been available at the time the artist had painted. 

Bob Simon: You were really perfectionists weren’t you?

Wolfgang Beltracchi: Yeah, yeah sure.

Bob Simon: And hearing you talk, you were really good criminals.

Wolfgang Beltracchi: Yeah, yeah.

Helene Beltracchi: Yeah.

Wolfgang Beltracchi: Yeah, it’s true.

And:

Bob Simon: You have, in fact, you’ve really upset the art world, haven’t you?

Wolfgang Beltracchi: Yeah sure, they all hate me, these experts now--

Bob Simon: Do you think the experts are just incompetent or that they are also frauds, that they pretend to know more than they know?

Wolfgang Beltracchi: No, no nearly all the experts we have met , we met, they were serious, really serious. Their only problem was that I as too good for them. Yes, that was their problem, that's all. 

I mean when you're in the con business for 40+ years some self-confidence never hurts, right?

As the 60 Minutes interview keeps going, Beltracchi's store becomes even more riveting, especially when he begins to describe how he and his wife, the 'Bonnie and Clyde' of the art world, actually managed to pull of their deception for 40 years. Watch the short excerpt above or the full CBS video here.

Their scam was so flawless that I don't know whether to be horrified or to applaud him. The scariest part is even though they have uncovered a good portion of his forgeries, there are still many left in the world. Think about it, the next time you're in a museum admiring a Degas or a Michelangelo, what if it's actually a forgery done by Beltracchi...?