ART FRAUDS IN FRANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21021, 9 May 1930, Page 9

ART FRAUDS IN FRANCE

CHARGE AGAINST MILLET. FALSE SIGNATURES TO WORKS. .(United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) - Paris, May r. has been arrested and charged with putting false signatures to art works and ranking false declarations as to the-origip of the pictures. Millet will also be charged with issuing worthless cheques'. A previous message stated: The art world is thunderstruck by . the revelation of fraud by . Jean' Charles Millet. For some time a flood of pictures from the. BarbizOners (French impressionists) has been marketed and has given dealers cause for anxiety. A wealthy collector recently paid Millet £2OOO for a picture said to have been- painted by Millet’s grandfather and duly*- signed “ J.F.M.” Only when’ an. American" buyer offered £OOOO was the genuineness. of the picture 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 his grandfather s. He was thus tempted to add the initials ‘J.F.M.” and sell the pictures. - As the business flourished he employed a professional painter named Cazot to produce oil paintings similar to his grandfather’s. Cazot states that he was unaware that his pictures were being sold fraudulently. He was actually engaged on a Millet canvas when the police came to inquire. The ease with which the faked Millet pictures were sold suggested enlarging operations to include Diaz, Corot, Daubbigny, Monet, Dagaz,' and Cezanne. The output of such “ masterpieces ”■ is cstimated at between 3000 and 4000 since 1923. The extent of the fraud will pot be known until all the dupes come forward. _ Probably the majority of the dmies will refuse, preferring to hide cans' CrrorS ’ cs P cciall J’ wealthy Ameri-