The Crime Book

76

Briefly relocating to Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil, de Hory lived off the sales of

his fakes and also began painting

his own works again. However, the

paintings he created in his own

style did not bring in the kind of

money that he had become used

to from selling forgeries.

In August 1947, de Hory moved

to the US and used his charm to

ingratiate himself with members of

the American art world. Suddenly,

he had the opportunity to sell his

forgeries to hundreds of galleries.

He also expanded his repertoire

to include “works” by Matisse,

Modigliani, and Renoir.

Safety first

De Hory took precautions to avoid

the attention of the police. He

remained discreet about his real

profession and provided plausible

reasons why he was selling art at

discounted prices to art collectors

and dealers. He was also careful

never to sell his fakes to the general

public – only to art insiders.

However, in 1955, one of de

Hory’s forgeries was exposed by art

dealer Joseph Faulkner, who

reported him to the FBI. Fearful of

arrest, de Hory fled to Mexico. He

was soon arrested – not for fraud,

however, but as a murder suspect

after an Englishman was found

dead. De Hory spent the majority of

his money paying off the police.

ELMYR DE HORY

Dark days

De Hory returned to the US later

that year, lying low in Los Angeles

and trying to sell his own work, but

he soon moved to New York. When

no one was interested in his art, he

sank into depression, and in 1959,

at age 52, he attempted suicide.

A new friend, Fernand Legros,

who had attended de Hory’s

housewarming party in New York,

drove de Hory to Florida to

recuperate. The pair soon ran out of

money, so de Hory produced three

lithographs and sent Legros out in

one of de Hory’s old suits to try and

sell them. This proved to be a

successful arrangement, and

Legros soon persuaded de Hory to

hire him as his art dealer for a 40

per cent commission on each sale.

And so began a partnership that

would last for eight years.

De Hory and Legros moved to

Ibiza, an autonomous territory of

Spain, where they settled down in

Who would prefer a bad

original to a good fake?

Elmyr de Hory

1951

Sells a “Matisse” to Kansas

City’s Atkins Museum of Fine

Arts and a “Picasso” to the

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery

of Art, also in Kansas City.

1946

Sells a drawing to Lady

Malcolm Campbell,

which she mistakes

for a Picasso.

1949

Forges his first

Modigliani and sells

it to the Niveau

Gallery, New York.

1938

Arrested in Hungary as

a political “undesirable”

after its regime allies

with Nazi Germany

and imprisons artists

and intellectuals.

1952

Sells a “Matisse” to

Harvard University’s

Fogg Art Museum with

several “Modiglianis” and

a “Renoir”. The assistant

director is suspicious and

returns them.

Elmyr de Hory’s life was a series

of ups and downs, with brief periods

of fame and fortune punctuated by

investigations by galleries and law

enforcement agencies.

074-077_Elmyr_de_Hory.indd 76 12/12/2016 17:12

77

a beautiful house overlooking the

Mediterranean. From Ibiza, they

sold forged art to dealers around

the world.

Doubts resurface

In 1964, the quality of de Hory’s

forgeries began to deteriorate.

Art dealers and experts became

suspicious and several gallery

owners who had purchased de

Hory’s paintings alerted Interpol

and the FBI.

By 1967, as more of de Hory’s

paintings were exposed as fakes,

his forgery career came to an

abrupt end. Legros sold 46 of de

Hory’s bogus masterpieces to

Texas oil tycoon Algur Meadows

between 1964 and 1966, but after

discovering that the paintings

were forgeries, Meadows contacted

the police.

An international warrant was

issued for Legros’s arrest and he

was detained in Switzerland.

De Hory went on the run, but

returned to Ibiza in November 1967,

in the belief that he was safe there.

Lasting legacy

However, the Spanish authorities

began to investigate de Hory and

charged him with a number of

crimes, including homosexuality.

He was imprisoned in Ibiza

between August and October 1968,

although he was treated well, and

was permitted to have books, a

deck chair, and wear his own

clothes, among various other

comforts. On his release from

prison, de Hory was expelled from

the island for a period of one year.

De Hory moved to Portugal but

eventually returned to Ibiza.

Meanwhile, the French police

built a case against him and

intended to extradite him for

dealing in fake art. Aware that

extradition was imminent, on 11

December 1976 de Hory took his

CON ARTISTS

own life with an overdose of

sleeping pills. The same year,

Legros was extradited to France

from Brazil, where he was hiding

after failing to honour the

conditions of a suspended sentence

in Switzerland. In France, Legros

was charged with forgery and fraud

for defrauding Meadows. He was

imprisoned for two years and died

a pauper in 1983.

De Hory is renowned as

history’s greatest art forger,

creating more than 1,000 works

during his career. His remarkable

story caught both the attention of

author Clifford Irving, who wrote

the successful biography Fake

(1969), and Orson Welles, who made

the documentary F for Fake (1973)

about his life and work.

There are some art experts who

believe that many of de Hory’s

forgeries have not yet been

discovered and still hang in

galleries around the world. ■

1959

Attempts suicide

and travels to

Florida with

Fernand Legros

to convalesce.

1968

Arrested and

imprisoned for two

months in an Ibizan

jail; he is banished and

leaves for Portugal.

1955

Investigated by the

FBI and flees to Mexico

with a falsified birth

certificate; he is later

arrested as a suspect in

a murder investigation.

1969

Capitalizes on his celebrity

status and tells his story to

novelist Clifford Irving, who

writes the biography Fake!

1957

Visits the Detroit

Institute of Art and

finds one of his

“Matisse” paintings in

the French collection.

074-077_Elmyr_de_Hory.indd 77 02/12/2016 14:41