AMAZING ART FRAUD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 964, 6 May 1930, Page 9

AMAZING ART FRAUD

MAo I tKo LUnhU Al\lL> SOLD TO DUPES

CLEVER ROGUE CONFESSES

Reed. 12.20 p.m. PARIS, Monday. The art world is thunderstruck by the revelation of Jean Charles Millet that for some time a flood of pictures from members of the Barbizon School of French impressionists, which has been marketed, has given collectors cause for a n-xiety. A wealthy collector recently paid Millet £2,000 for a picture painted by his grandfather, and duly signed J.F.M. Only when an American buyer offered £6,000 was the genuineness of the picture questioned. The grandson, who lives next door to the Barbizon Museum, then made a complete confession, and said he was accustomed in his early childhood to imitate his grandfather’s sketches. He acquired such skill that finally it was rlmost impossible to tell his own pro ductions from those of liis grandfather.

He was thus tempted to add the nitials J.F.M. and sell them.

As business flourished he employed a professional painter named Gazot to produce oil paintings similar to his grandfather’s.

Gazot states he was unaware his pietures were being sold fraudulently. He was actually engaged on a Millet canvas "when the police came to inquire.

The ease with which the faked Millets were sold suggested enlarging the operations to include Diaz, Corot Daubigny, Monet, Degas and Cezanne! The oytput of such “masterpieces” is estimated at between 3,000 and 4,000 since 1923.

The extent of the fraud will only be known when all the dupes come forward. Probably the majority of the dupes will refuse, preferring to hide their errors, especially the wealthy Americans.

The leading Barbizon painters were Theodore Rousseau, Millet, Corot, Trayon, and Daubigny.