“Sometimes you see your own painting in a museum and you think, ‘Damn, I’m in all these museums and no one knows it’s mine.’” – Wolfgang Beltracchi
This weekend New Yorkers will have the chance to get an inside look at one of the longest running, most profitable scams in all of art history. For almost forty years, painter/forger Wolfgang Beltracchi outsmarted both deep-pocketed collectors and art experts charged with verifying the provenance of the works being sold. Creating whole new works in the styles of artists such as modernist Heinrich Campendonk and early 20th century surrealist Max Ernst, among others, Beltracchi showed an eerie gift for perfectly mimicking masters – and in some cases besting them at their own style.
The documentary Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery, directed by Arne Birkenstock, interviews the man behind the ruse (he’s now free after serving time,) as well as his family, friends, and art world figures who try to make sense of how he got away with it for as long as he did. (Comedy legend Steve Martin was one of the duped buyers of a Beltracchi fake; not surprisingly, he does not appear in the film.) Art of Forgery will have a limited theatrical run this summer, but plays April 12th as part of the KINO! 2015 Film Festival in New York, a festival of German films.
Related: Catching Up With Graffiti Legend RISK
The art world is, of course, a global market now. Art is bought, collected and often warehoused until its value appreciates. It’s not remotely about beauty, soulfulness or appreciation of a fine aesthetic. Credibility is what is being sold – the credibility (i.e., authenticity) of the work, sure, but also credibility accrued by whoever has the ducats to acquire masterworks and then sell them at obscene profits.
Our natural inclination to sympathize with someone who has been ripped off is tempered by the fact that this whole situation is not only the most emblematic of First World Problems, but – more specifically – One Percenter Problems.
Is there some larger life lesson to be learned from all this? Probably not – especially not for poor saps who might be art aficionados with broke-broke financial status. But it can help the casual viewer reassess for him or herself what makes art valuable, what makes it art, and what is the definition of a “real” artist.
Ernest Hardy is a Sundance Fellow whose music and film criticism have appeared in the New York Times, the Village Voice, Vibe, Rolling Stone, LA Times, and LA Weekly. His collection of criticism, Blood Beats Vol. 1: Demos, Remixes and Extended Versions (2006) was a recipient of the 2007 PEN / Beyond Margins Award.
