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Forging ahead with art school

0 Comments | Daily Mail (London, England), The, July 26, 2010

Byline: Christian McCashin

HE’S duped the greatest auction houses for years and famously upstaged experts on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Now master forger Martin Bengtsson, 77, is to open a ‘school of forgery’ so that he can pass on how to pass off an Old Master.

Mr Bengtsson, who lives in rural Cork, said: ‘My eye-sight is going but it’s not going to go that quick so I would like to teach people how to paint.

‘I lot of people ask me to teach them to paint and I can teach them to paint in the style of their favourite artist. I’m going to call it “The School of Forgery”.’

The former smuggler and movie stuntman claims his paintings have duped international auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s — and he reckons he could teach someone with basic skills to be able to copy the masters in a couple of weeks.

‘Someone with no skills or experience, I reckon it would take me a month. I think I could teach any one to paint,’ he continued.

Mr Bengtsson’ss own favourites for copying are Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, English painter Richard Henry Nibbs and Irish artist Roderic O’Conor.

He revealed: ‘I’ve never made a fortune out of it because I’ve sold the paintings direct to people who asked me to do them.’

‘But I know some of the did end up at auction at Sotheby’s,

Christie’s and Bonham’s because an Irishman I used to sell a lot to told me.’ One proof of his skills was when he was asked to show how easy it was to fool the Antiques Roadshow.

He explained: ‘I brought in the paintings and their chief valuer said: “Ah, a Richard Henry Nibbs, this looks like fun”.

‘And then he looked at the other one and he said: “This looks from Antonio Jacobsen, 1890-96, New York”. I had to hold my tongue not to blurt out, “You idiot, it was last week in Somerset”.’

Mr Bengtsson has set up a mobile home on his land for the school and will take two or three students at a time.

‘The idea is that it would be nice income and a bit of fun, it’s the fun angle that interests me most
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