Among the detained authors of fake paintings by Norval Morrisseau was the nephew of the late artist
A high-profile criminal story unfolds in Canada. There, in the city of Thunder Bay (western Ontario), a group of men were arrested, whom the police accuse of forging more than a thousand paintings by Norval Morrisseau, an Indian artist who gained worldwide fame in the 1960s. Eight people aged 43 to 81 were arrested. Among them is the artist’s nephew Benjamin Paul Morisseau. The investigation into the scammers lasted more than three years, it was dubbed the art crime of the century – at least in Canada. It turned out that the production of fakes was put on stream during the life of the artist – in the 1990s. Damage is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Detective Jason Rybak, who was investigating the art crime, told the local press the sensational details of the case. It turns out that three groups of scammers worked in parallel, who made fakes for almost 30 years. The first of them began to operate in 1996, the second – in 2002 (it attracted talented artists from the indigenous peoples to create paintings), and finally, the third group of scammers set up their shop for the production of fakes in southern Ontario a year after the death of the artist – in 2008. Along with the paintings, a fake certificate of authenticity was attached to each of the works. As a result, in early March, more than 1,000 fake works were confiscated, which were given out as Morrisseau’s work. Morrisseau Society director Corey Dingle said there were thousands of counterfeit Morrissos in the market.
The artist Norval Morrisseau is better known as the Copper Thunderbird. He is a native Indian – was born on the reservation in 1932 in northern Ontario. According to local tradition, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. Grandfather was a shaman, and grandmother was a devout Catholic, later these contrasts appeared in his work. Norval began to draw in his youth, and in 1960, the writer and artist Selvin Dewdney, who was engaged in the study of petroglyphs, appeared on his reservation. He rented a canoe and hired Norval as a rower, who told him many local legends, which Dewdney later described in the book Legends of My People, the Great Ojibways. As a result, Norval Morrisseau gained fame, and his paintings began to sell little by little. After that, the bright work of the Indian attracted the attention of art dealer Jack Pollock (not to be confused with the artist Jackson Pollock) and he arranged an exhibition of Morrisseau’s paintings in his gallery in Toronto. She was a great success.
However, it caused criticism from fellow tribesmen, who were outraged that Norval discovered some of the mysteries of the rites and customs of the tribe. For this, the artist was expelled from the tribe. That did not stop him from founding the Forest Indian School of Art, gathering followers and students around him, and continuing to write. Norval Morrisseau created over 15,000 paintings. Participated in the design of the pavilion of Canadian Indians at Expo’67. His exhibitions were held not only in Canada: Marc Chagall, who saw his work at the opening day in Paris, compared Morrissot with Picasso. Despite this, the artist lived most of his life in poverty, struggled in vain with alcoholism, and sometimes changed his works for a bottle of fortified. Norval spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease. He died on December 4, 2007 in a Toronto hospital at the age of 75. He left behind a forestry school that manages his heritage, organizes exhibitions and sells his works. It seems that some of the artist’s descendants were left out of their lot, once they got involved in a criminal business.
By the way, recently at an auction in Toronto a new record was set for the artist’s work: his painting “Animal Unity” (127 x 274.3 cm) was sold for 312 thousand dollars. The previous record was set 10 years ago – then Morrisseau’s painting went under the hammer for 71.5 thousand dollars, set more than ten years ago.
Ontario police have called the Morrisseau forgery scam the world’s largest art scam.