The Life and Crimes of the World’s Greatest Art Forger

This is the title of a book that jumped off the shelf when I was browsing through my local bookstore on Bainbridge Island the day before Christmas.

First of all, I love non-fiction and whenever I go to a bookstore that is the section where I go to first. The table of new non-fiction books was piled high and I believe that a certain book will call me to pick it up and look at it, so I let my eyes wander around until they zone in on something in particular.

This title grabbed me from the start. I mean, the words “life,” “crimes,” and “art” in the title…how could I not pick it up? Intrigue and mystery around an art forger! Then I looked at the release date to make sure it really is new. Yep, it was…2022. I couldn’t wait to have some time to sit down and dive into this fascinating real-life story.

The inside jacket said that it was discovered in 2019 that even Prince Charles had a few of the forger’s paintings in his collection, even though he didn’t know at the time they were fakes.

Sunday, January 1, I gave myself some time to sit on the sofa and begin this book. Well, it turns out that I couldn’t put the book down and read the entire 272 pages in one day. I’ve NEVER done that before, but the story was so fascinating I just couldn’t help myself.

Want to know the gist of the story? There are so many interesting things that happened to Tony Tetro, the well-known art forger, that I hope they make it into a movie.

Basically, Tony is a self-taught artist who came from nothing. He always loved drawing and painting even as a very young child. He tried to sell his paintings to galleries and collectors, but no one wanted them. And then, while waiting in line at the checkout counter in the grocery store one day, he noticed a book on the circular book display called Fake! by Clifford Irving.

He bought the book, went straight home, read it cover to cover and thought to himself, “I can do that.” And so began his career as an art forger. He would spend hours and hours practicing his art techniques, trying to get the same effect as the great masters like Rembrandt, Miro, Dali, Chagall, Caravaggio (his favorite), Warhol, just to name some of the artists whose style he perfected.

In his own words, he said “to really be a forger, you must have a voracious appetite for information and an eye for detail.” I must say he spent a lot of time reading and researching everything he could find on the techniques used by these artists.

“In reality, you have to learn, learn, learn and practice, practice, practice. I would devour every kind of information I could get…I’d spend hours in an archive and come out with ideas about future forgeries.”

As artists, isn’t this what we have to do as well? Learn, learn, learn, and practice, practice, practice to hone our skills?

He had a secret art room hidden behind a full-length mirror that even the police who raided his house couldn’t find. He made some really sketchy friends, did lots of booze and drugs for a while, bought a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, traveled the world, and went to jail for a time.

He went from being really poor, to really rich, lost it all, and then came back and became wealthy again. Like I said…this is quite a fascinating story. And it’s the first time I sat down and started and finished a book in one day.

I could NOT put it down!

Now, I’m a reader, mostly non-fiction because as the saying goes, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” If you love real-life stories like this, I encourage you to take a day and read this book. It’s filled with art goodies. He describes in detail his method for finding authentic canvas and paper of the age of the artist he is forging, and his exact process for etching. There are lots of interesting art references and details.

Anyway, I just had to share how I spent the first day of 2023. It was a great one and I plan to commit to reading at least one book a week this year, which is my new year’s resolution.

What’s yours?

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