A museum dedicated to the French painter Etienne Terrus has learned that more than half of its collection was stuffed with fake works, after an art historian noticed that the paintings showed buildings that were built after the artist's death in 1922.
"It's a catastrophe," said Yves Barniol, the mayor of Elne, the artist's birthplace near the Spanish border where the museum is located, reports The Telegraph. "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."
According to experts, 82 of the 140 artworks at the museum in Elne are fakes. Barniol said the municipality has filed legal complaints for fraud and forgery, but police are still to trace the people who sold the works to the museum.
Barriol said the discovery was made while the art historians were helping to prepare an exhibition to show off the museum and the works of Terrus.
Most of the forged artworks were purchased over the past two decades through the use of municipal funds, while others were donated by local groups that raised donation money to buy them, or left to the museum by a private collector.
The mayor said the community will continue to promote local art, as it has spent a large amount of money to refurbish the museum.
However, detectives believe other museums have large numbers of forged works among their collections of southern French artists.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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