STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 5

STAMP STORY

old paintings, prepared a new surface which they discoloured to resemble the original, and then skilfully added new frescoes of their own in a remarkable imitation of fourteenth century style. The results were so successful that they were accepted without question as genuine by almost all the leading art authorities. To raise funds for the re-building and restoration of the church, a pair of stamps was issued in September 1951, one of which is illustrated above. And what more appropriate subject for the design than the central figures of the famous frescoes? Of course, no-one knew then that they were fakes. The deception might have remained undiscovered had not the two men fallen out and one of them disclosed what had happened. The sequel was a prosecution in 1953 which aroused intense interest throughout West Germany. It was revealed that the two men had been responsible for other art forgeries, and both were sentenced to terms of imprisonment Such was the unhappy outcome of an artistic enterprise as skilled as it was unprincipled. But the stamps remain as a memento and as a warning—not only to would-be forgers but also to the experts who were so readily deceived.