De FBI aan het woord over de praktijken van vervalser Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, 40 werken zijn er inmiddels achterhaald. Vermoedelijk zijn er nog enkele honderden in omloop. Spoutz zit de komende drieënhalf jaar in de gevangenis.
“Michigan art dealer Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz grew up in a family of artists. His namesake uncle, Ian Hornak, was famous among Hyperrealist and Photorealist painters, and his mother was a gifted painter as well.
Spoutz became an artist in his own right—a con artist peddling fakes. His specialty was forging the paperwork that he used as proof of authenticity to sell bogus works.”
“[…] The old typewriter turned out to be the smoking gun in the case. “We could tell all of these letters had been typed on the same typewriter,” McKeogh said. The type of a letter allegedly sent from a business in the 1950s matched the type in a letter allegedly sent by a firm in a different state three decades later. Spoutz also mistakenly added a ZIP Code to the letterhead of a firm on a letter dated four years before ZIP Codes were created.”
“[…] Protecting the integrity of America’s art—in all its forms—is a special priority for the FBI and our dedicated Art Crime Team.”
Fbi.gov/news/stories/forging-papers-to-sell-fake-art (via AO)
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