Inside the 'biggest art fraud in history': what the alleged mass forgery tells us about the market for First Nations art in Canada

One of the alleged fraudulent artworks—purported to be painted by Norval Morrisseau—seized by Ontario police
Courtesy of Ontario Provincial Police
From breaking news and insider insights to exhibitions and events around the world, the team at The Art Newspaper picks apart the art world’s big stories with the help of special guests. An award-winning podcast hosted by Ben Luke, The Week in Art is sponsored by Christie’s.
This week: the extraordinary story behind what Canadian police have called “the biggest art fraud in history”. More than 1,000 fake works purporting to be by the First Nations artist Norval Morrisseau are seized and eight people have been charged. The Art Newspaper’s Editor, Americas, Ben Sutton, tells the extraordinary story, involving a rock star, a television documentary and alleged forgery rings, and what it tells us about the market for First Nations art in Canada.
Photo: Marco Verch Professional Photographer via Flickr
A report into artists’ pay in the UK has exposed the inordinately low sums paid to artists for their labour by arts organisations. We talk to the art collective Industria, who wrote the report, and Julie Lomax, the CEO of a-n, The Artists’ Information Company, which has published the study.
Quinten Massys's An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess) (around 1513)
Bequeathed by Miss Jenny Louisa Roberta Blaker, 1947
© Photo: The National Gallery, London
And this episode’s Work of the Week is An Old Woman (around 1513) by the Northern Renaissance artist Quinten Massys, a painting better known as The Ugly Duchess. A new exhibition at the National Gallery focuses on this work in its collection, exploring its origins in a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, and the combination of satire, folklore, humanism and misogyny from which it emerged. Emma Capron, the curator of the show, tells us more.
• A PDF of Industria’s Structurally F–cked report can be found at a-n.co.uk.
• Industria’s website is we-industria.org.
• The Ugly Duchess: Beauty and Satire in the Renaissance, National Gallery, London, until 11 June.

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