French Museum Finds Out More Than Half of Their Paintings Are Fake
The artworks including oil paintings and drawings were bought over the past years using Rs 1.28 crore from the municipal corporation's funds.
A French art museum has just discovered that more than half of their collection was fake. Experts now fear that there could be more such forgeries at other public galleries too. The major fiasco came to notice only after an art historian noticed how paints attributed to Etienne Terrus had buildings which were constructed only after the artist's death in 1922. With that art experts have confirmed that 82 of the 140 works displayed at the Terrus museum in Elne were fake.
The artworks including oil paintings and drawings were bought over the past years using Rs 1.28 crore from the municipal corporation's funds. Some of them were given to the museum by local groups who raised money through donations. The came to light when a guest curator Eric Forcada questioned about the paintings during the reopening of the museum.
Telegraph quoted Yves Barniol, the mayor of Elne, near the Spanish border, as saying, "It's a catastrophe. I put myself in the place of all the people who came to visit the museum, who saw fake works of art, who paid an entrance fee. It's intolerable and I hope we find those responsible."
The municipality has filed legal complaints about fraud. Police have seized the fake pieces of art and are investigating the matter. They are in search of the dealers who sold them. Investigators doubt that there would be more such forgery attributed to southern French artists.
The Terrus Museum in Elne opened in 1994 to honour the local artist. He was born in 1857 and died in 1922. Terrus who spent most of his life in Elne is best known for his landscapes of the Roussillon area, also known as French Catalonia. Terrus studied at the studio of the academic Parisian painter Alexandre Cabanel. His friends included famous artists of the time like Henri Matisse and André Derain.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 01, 2018 12:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).