Reader's Digest

July• 2018 | 93

READER’S DIGEST

gang. Wolfgang admitted 14 forger-

ies worth US$40 million and was

jailed for six years. His wife Helene

53 got four years her 54-year-old

sister a 21-month suspended sen-

tence and Shulte-Kellinghaus

ve years. They were

o ordered to pay

millions of dollars in

compensation.

Eastaugh who

has since analysed

eight more Beltrac-

chis and grown to

ecognise his style

mains on the lookout

ore of the fraudster’s

paintings which are

undoubtedly still hang-

ing in art galleries and

museums around the

world. “We’re joined at the hip now”

Eastaugh says with a smile.

SINCE HIS RELEASE from prison in

2015 Beltracchi has staged many solo

exhibitions and is regarded as a ine

artist in his own right. Now his own

signature appears on his work.

ultraviolet lights but it was his exten-
sive knowledge of pigmentation that
brought the Beltracchis down.
Using an electron magniscope he
discovered that the master forger had
made a rookie error by using
two historically inapp
priate colours the mos
damning of which
was a titanium diox-
ide white; a pigment
which wasn’t widely
available in 1914
when the painting
was dated. “White tita-
nium wasn’t introduce
until after 1916” s
Eastaugh. “he diference
was only two years but
there was no getting away
from it. I knew I had him.”
Beltracchi’s scheme began to un-
ravel and the couple was arrested
by armed German police in August
2010 and went to court the follow-
ing year. he case was cut short after
nine days of the expected two month-
long trial when German prosecutors
made a plea-bargain deal with the

Nicolaus Eastaugh

examines a painting

tence and

67 fiv

a ls

m

c

e

c

re

rem

formo

pain

by using

pro-

st

ed

s a y s

nce

YOWIE COUNTRY

With alleged sightings of yowies – mythological ape-like

creatures found in the Australian outback dating back to the

late 1800s Kilcoy a small Queensland community recently

revamped the tourist drawcard with a new fibreglass statue

to the lumbering beastie. Locals hope to attract hunters and

fans of Australia’s version of Bigfoot. WWW.ABC.NET.AU