BOGUS PICTURES

Northern Advocate, 6 May 1930, Page 5

BOGUS PICTURES

MILLET IMITATIONS,

GRANDSON'S CONFESSIONS,

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DUPED,

(Received 2.45 p.m.) PARIS, May 5. The art world is thunderstruck by the revelation of a fraud by Jean Charles Millet. For some time a flood of pictures from Barbizoners, French impressionists, has been marketed and has given collectors cause for anxiety. A wealthy collector recently paid Millet £2OOO for a picture said to have been painted by Millet's grandfather, the renowned Francois Millet of last century, and duly signed “J.F.M." Only when an American buyer offered £6OOO for the picture was its genuineness questioned. The grandson, who lives next door to the Barbizon Museum, then made a complete confession. He said he had been accustomed in early childhood to imitate his grandfather's sketches, and had acquired such skill that finally it was .almost impossible to tell his own product from that of his grandfather. He was thus tempted to add the initials “J.F.M." and to sell the pictures. As the business flourished he employed a professional painter named Oazot to produce oil paintings similar to his grandfather’s. Cazot states that he was unaware that his pictures were being sold fraudulently, Ho was actually engaged on a Millet canvas when the police' came

to enquire. The ease with which the faked Millet pictures sold suggested enlarging the operations to include imitations of the masterpieces of Corot, Daubigny and others. The output of such “masterpieces” is estimated at between 3000 and 4000 since 1923. The extent of the fraud will only be known when all the dupes come forward. Probably the majority of the dupes will refuse, preferring to hide their errors, especially in the ease of wealthy Americans.