Con/Artist
The Life and Crimes of the World's Greatest Art Forger
The Life and Crimes of the World's Greatest Art Forger
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Welcome to the wild west of art forgery in the 1970s and 1980s, where the money is lucrative as long as you have a certain base trait. That trait is, surprisingly, not being a master painter. This is the story of Tony Tetro, the “world's greatest art forger.”
Tony grew up without a formal education, married at the ripe age of 16, and just like every other enterprising individual, he had a dream of “hitting it big” as a young man. What started out as a fun hobby transformed into a lucrative way to make money. After the glitz and glamour of owning his dream cars, having endless supplies of drugs, and schmoozing at top restaurants in L.A. fizzled out, Tony was left spending nearly a year in jail with little or no money left over to show for it.
I was surprised to find that this book reads like a how-to guide to art forgery, but do not get any wise ideas about using Tony's tips and tricks. Nowadays, a painting can go under extreme scrutiny using incredibly interesting techniques, which are detailed in the book. Spectroscopic analysis can tell you which mine your pigments came from, dendroecology can reveal which type of wood your paint pallet originated from, and radiocarbon dating can measure the half-life of the carbon used in the painting.
A local would use an appraiser's loupe to check the DPI, or dots per square inch, to give an accurate idea if it was printed or completed by hand, but I was surprised to find out that most people, buyers and appraisers alike, really did not care if the painting was fake or not. The art was really not all that appreciated by most (I'm sure they were generalizing in the novel), but it was used to show off. All you needed was a sound story, a semi-convincing painting, an appraiser's signature, and you were off to the races. This was pre-internet, so it was extremely hard to verify facts and paper trails.
Some of the other interesting topics include art history, where Tony obtained period paper, his aging techniques, his ties to the mob, the billionaires who hired him to create replicas, and details of the secret room where he stashed most of his paintings & workbooks.
Overall, it was an exciting novel that reads like a film. If you purchased a Rembrandt or Chagall a few decades ago, you might want to go take a closer look.
