Where is john drewe

But then they also use period papers, canvases and paints, or know-how to mimic them. They create signs of ageing. The Myatt and Drewe scam is a case in point. Drewe made exceptional additional efforts to make each canvas look the part—stretching it, adding old gallery stickers to the rear. He even gave a GBP25, donation to the Tate, making him a darling of the arts and, crucially, allowing him to infiltrate the British Art Archives in order to rewrite history to authenticate the bogus paintings, on a scale never done before or since.

Then the Giacometti Association smelled a rat. And what finished it was Drewe being betrayed by his estranged common-law wife. It still works that way. Every artist does them. So there are caveats. Elmyr de Hory, a forger during the s and s, tapped both dodgy and easily fooled dealers to authenticate fakes; he also bought pre-war monographs of the artists he was faking, removed plates from them—these were then typically loosely stuck down on different paper stock—and replaced them with an image of his forgery.

Thus the book then helped authenticate the fake. Although he worked with period pigments, he made the mistake of using a tube of zinc white that was mixed with titanium dioxide, a process that did not come into use until after But he also worked on the leading expert in Vermeer, Abraham Bredius.

Van Meegeren almost got away with it too. Two years later I would have laughed in his face. Interestingly, Myatt never made that much money from his career as an art forger. It was roughly the same amount he would have earned had he remained a teacher. Myatt has never identified all the forgeries that he created — about are still at large, some in museums, and he has no intention of disclosing them.

Second of all, you've no idea how much the look of a painting or a drawing or a watercolour can change just by being reframed. I can't say I know where they are. I suspect where some of them are. Just once or twice I've been places and had a look and thought, that was one of mine.

But you can't tell. While Myatt agrees that jail is the appropriate penalty for art fraudsters, he does not view the crime as a transgression against art history or an artist's legacy, a position I find difficult to accept. At least he acknowledges: "It ought to be, and I think that's probably where I'm slightly deficient. Infamous art forger John Myatt reveals his secret: you have to love the artist.

Please try again later. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accomplice: Impoverished and little-known artist John Myatt created the fake paintings for Drewe. Some pieces were aged with dust and mud.

They were attributed to major artists including 20th century abstract British painter Ben Nicholson and Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. At one stage Michael Douglas was reported to be considering playing Drewe in a film about the elaborate scam. He was caught after a former lover handed documents connected to the forgeries to police. The fraudster left school at 16 and claims to have been a Mossad agent, a consultant to the Ministry of Defence, and the inventor of James Bond-style gadgets, including a chemical warfare suit that folded to the size of a golf ball.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Argos AO. Privacy Policy Feedback. Share this article Share. Replica: The 'Monet' painted by convicted forger Myatt.

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Andrew Levy for the Daily Mail reports that Drewe used the stolen money to purchase luxury cars and "to pay off his son's debts":. Using the forgeries made by John Myatt, Drewe sold fake original artworks. John Myatt, who's own website claims Myatt "was involved in the biggest art con in the UK", now sells "legitimate fakes" and claims his life will be the subject of movies and television shows.