When last year we screened another tale about an art forger, Art and Craft, what most people commented on was protagonist Mark Landis’ seeming obliviousness to the fact that he might be doing something wrong. The main personage in Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery would probably agree. As stunningly talented as Landis, Wolfgang Beltracchi was responsible for the biggest art forgery scandal of the postwar era, forging and selling paintings in the style of early 20th-century masters. Asked what would make a Beltracchi a forgery, he answers, “If I were to sign it.” In contrast to Landis though, as this new documentary makes clear, the stakes Beltracchi plays are much higher. He is a con man who made serious money (at least several million Euros) from his forgeries, and he gets a kick out of being the art world’s self-appointed Robin Hood.

60 Minutes called Beltracchi a “con man of epic proportions,” and dubbed him and his wife Helene, “the Bonnie and Clyde of the art world.” For nearly 40 years the charming and effervescent Beltracchi produced hundreds of meticulous works of art, forgeries of early and mid-20th century artists, using old canvases and distressed frames scoured from flea markets and paints whose pigments he ground himself. He never reproduced known paintings, but, working in an artist’s style, would create entirely new “masterpieces.” For instance, a large “Max Ernst” painting that took him three days to produce might sell for $5 million.

Beltracchi, his wife, and three accomplices were put on trial and convicted in 2011, but he readily admits that the handful of forgeries for which he was held accountable at that time are just the tip of the iceberg. Many others of his works sit, undetected, in some of the world’s greatest art museums and private collections. Directed by his lawyer’s son, Arne Birkenstock, Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery captures the eponymous faker both before and after his stint in prison, and raises the questions…what makes a painting genuine, if you can get the same feeling from a forgery? And when does a forgery become an original?

Best Documentary Film, German Film Awards

“Without any doubt he is the biggest forger of our times” — Vanity Fair

“Beltracchi’s work on a piece in the style of Max Ernst; this ‘Ernst-Beltracchi’ could easily pass for one of the Surrealist’s better “forest” paintings.” — The Hollywood Reporter

“There’s something thrillingly Robin Hoodish about an art forger like Wolfgang Beltracchi.” — grolschfilmworks.com

Betracchi: The Art of Forgery
Documentary – NR – 98 min – Tickets $9
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