Eric Hebborn - Portrait of a Master Forger
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- čas přidán 13. 03. 2012
- A documentary featuring an interview with Eric Hebborn at his home in Italy. Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) was a British painter and art forger and later an author. On January 8, 1996, Eric Hebborn was found lying in a street in Rome, his skull crushed with a blunt instrument. He died three days later in the hospital on January 11, 1996.
I really miss documentaries like this, without breathless voiceovers, never ending music and constant telling the viewer what to think or endless footage of people walking. Simply the players in the drama telling the story. And what a story!
Fui Gebhardt1 ñ
Exactly. What we get today is constant repetition. They repeat lines.. go to commercial.. come back with the same lines.. and beat it like a dead horse while telling us nothing new just to get 45 minutes out of that 5 liner. This was really interesting and I wish the same.
Louise Oliver Well said.
@NEGUS MBARKA Get lost you are the kind of person who likes modern crap.
For sure.
I love this man. Such an unassuming soul. I could listen to him talk about his trade for a long time. We need more Eric Hebborn’s in the world 🧤
he was asassinated 96
He may have created replica pieces of old art but the man himself is 100% authentic, CLASS.
he is a sociopath, but I myself would not hesitate to go for a pint with him and talk LIFE.
@@e.h.5849 arent we all?
Brilliant documentary. I’ve watched it five or more times, over several years, because it’s such an honest and well-made thing. In this day and age, it’s hard to find such a wonderful person. Even if some thought he was ‘an old crook’, he was an artist in every sense of the word.
The fact that the poor man was found dead, with his face beaten in, speaks volumes. He was an inconvenience to those with money, who rule our miserable lives.
I think the same over this brilliant documentary. I have seen it many times.
The art world/market is just as shady and criminal as any grift.
He deserved a better end.🖤🇨🇦
Once every year for me
So somebody lost a bag over his forgeries and ended up beating him to death. Pitiful.
I take great comfort in watching this - it takes me back to a time when the pace of life was much slower.
Who is the thief a man who made beautiful art and sold it for £670 or the art dealer who sold it for £78,000 ? Nothing changes in the art world , eagles prey on talent . Lovely man i salute you ! regards Sean
I agree
Yep. Just like anyone in power. Double standard. Here in America ur vote means NOTHING. It's an illusion to make u think you have a choice.
When in reality, Big business and the military complex run the show 😢
WHAT A WONDERFUL MAN AND ARTIST
This is amazing. What a legend, I've as much respect for this man than most famous artists.
Nothing but respect for this man. He is a master of his art, and used his skills not only to pull the noses of the greedy dealers, but also to produce beautiful originals in his own name. I like his manner very much.
I would have loved to meet him, and am saddened that he died such a hard death. His murderer cheated the world of all the beauty he had yet to create, and that is unforgivable.🖤🇨🇦
A genius. Watching that man work with pen and ink was magical.
I totally agree
Hebborn blew the art world apart with this honest portrayal of what he did and how he operated. Fascinating documentary. I just checked on google and found out he was assasinated in Rome in 1996 following the release of a book on art forgery. Maybe Eric trod on some expensive toes or sold one of his art works to the wrong person. Sorry I now see his death is covered in the documentary.
Thanks for the spoiler lol
🤦♂️ no Words
Eric Hebborn was an original, intelligent and fascinating personality. He was also a fighter and that is why he had many admirers. I suppose this type of personality often runs into difficulty in real life which requries conformity and blindness more than anything else.
I find Eric Hebborn the most fascinating man that the world of art has ever produced.
Why so churlish? Oh, did you buy one of the forged works?
I could watch this man draw for hours 😐😫
RIP Eric.
Great artist!
Sadly, when I first start to listen to his voice I felt he must have suffered in childhood, I thought he may have been abused, maybe parents were harsh on him. One thing is true, he was gifted! R.I.P
A thoroughly charming man whose original art was unappreciated, and who then was tragically murdered. What a sad story.
I'm so fortunate you just recently uploaded this. Aside from his wonderful drawings, I love what Hebborn has to say about the dishonesty of the art world and art scholarship. He's a fascinating man, and this is documentary is a wonderful, rare treat. THANK YOU!
He fooled all the so-called experts with his own genuine expertise. They hated him for showing up their own ineptitude.
This is great, and his observation that most people don't really look at the art can be proved by the fact that Banksy has hung amateurish copies of famous artists in public galleries, and it has taken up to 2 weeks before the galleries have removed them.
I studied renaissance drawing and know the great masters well. This guys drawings look like the real thing. He nailed Pontormo.
I have one of his pieces though it's not signed by him nor passed off as someone else, it's a small drawing
What a genius and legend! Gone way to soon! 😞
2 of my favourite men Eric Hebborn and Tom Keating .In particular Hebborn was a humble genius.
Fascinating. Who've loved to have met this man.
"Enjoy something for what is is ,instead of questioning what it is not", we should apply that to all things in life
Ok snowflake
Payment records don't lie. This man fooled the museums and they're not going to admit they've been duped. BRAVO !!
If the Art world was truly concerned, they would search for and root out all the other fakes. For those pretentious people I believe that they only care about the money not the truth. Eric and others like him have tremendous talent. He makes so many valid observations about the art world - especially that we should enjoy the art.
☘️🌝🌲
I totally agree
Impossible for me to dislike a rogue who can stick it to the snobs.
@Captain Obvious if it really is about art an not the name behind the aer . Then we would have better artists than Da Vinci an all the rest . Are is not based on talent alone an that's the problem . So fuck the rich . I say make fakes an sell it to them
h. lloyd amen 🙏 brother
NEGUS MBARKA oh, I’m guessing you’ve recently discovered that you own a copy of his forged work, lol.
I love the little parable
about using a " Lamp in
Daylight to look for....
An Honest Man". 👈
So BOB DYLAN 🍷🎸👏
His words are so true....
This is my favorite video on CZcams. Thank you for having posted it.
I love it too. I've watched it at least three times. It's like a musical composition and can be enjoyed over and over again. Hebborn is an intriguing and even delightful character. The end he came to was avoidable, I think, with a little more discretion on his part. Openly exposing his partners in crime, in the land of the vendetta, was not a good choice.
The killer had to be someone who was "burned", not some slimey art dealer who would kill the golden goose.
I don't think so, but perhaps. Hebborn's big mouth and ego exposed some dealers as occasional frauds. That kind of thing would cut into business severely. If someone was ruined by him, it might be enough to get him knocked off. I doubt if the National Gallery of Denmark did it, more likely an Italian dealer.
wow
Download it before it gets taken down, I have a feeling all my favorite videos will get taken down at some point
I admire Forgers---it takes a hell of a lot of raw talent; besides guts, and they're pushing these utterly pompous pedantic art experts to up their game by showing how ignorant they are.
LOVE THIS WONDERFUL REAL ARTIST NOT JUST A DRAUGHTSMAN
Like so many great master forgers, Hebborn makes the so-called "legit" artists and dealers seem so utterly shallow and contrived. A genuinely gifted man.
Eric Hebborn imo is the most interesting man in the world.
Read the description. He was found on the streets of Rome with a crushed skull in Jan. 1996.
Was...been dead for a long, long time.
@12:54 he's terrible, he can't even trace a line already pressured on the paper, golly gosh.
@@taylorj6177 thank you I didn't know what year Eric was murdered.
@@surality ...Yeah thats why he was a master forger and you a YT non-entity.
Great Interview featuring Eric Hebborn.
But having been involved in the Art World for well over 40 years I have heard and seen some very interesting, amusing, and incredible event's surrounding different master works. Mr. Eric Hebborn was definetly a character to put it mildly. He died very sadly in Rome. But the one forger who really stands out from everyone is Martin Kantelberg.....he is the 'Dutch Master'. And what a character he is as he is still out there but lives a very secluded lifestyle. He was not just a great artist with incredible talent but he was also very talented scientifically. And he had no fear!
I remember meeting him and buying a painting from him ( a small Rembrandt).
Later on he would be in every major newspaper and in fact the courier who delivered my painting was in fact Martin Kantelberg. The FBI does not even have a clue how many of his masterpieces are out in the public floating around. I have heard through art circles that a movie about his life is being produced titled 'BRUSH WITH THE LAW"...I can't wait to see this one. I still have his painting and wouldn't sell it for the world.
I could find any videos of martin kantelberg
If you're trying to manufacture a mythic art forger, CZcams comments are not the way to go.
Wouldn't sell it for the world?????
What about Wolfgang Beltracchi ?
So in 6 years no one caught the reference to Orson Welles F is for Fake?
Truly fascinating. Thank you for the upload.
Master art lesson, especially the first segment. It shows how gently he used the dip pen as a tool.
12:36-13:52
42:40-44:28
@NEGUS MBARKA crawl back to the hole from whence you came, your sister is calling
Eric is my new found HERO! DON'T FORGET THE NAME, BUDDY! - "me to myself"...
I to this day am still shocked that no one investigated his murder and that his home was pillaged and his work and archives were stolen ,,,, he only told the truth ,,,R.I.P. Eric ,,
+Stephanie Murray
You say,..."he only told the truth"...I say to you Stephanie,that infact...
Eric only,..... did what he was told. (and that which had already been told)
And that my dear,...is the real truth,that is telling.
Hence those who only do what they are told,...shall never know what its really like to be,....an "Artist"good or bad.
Come,...let us pretend,...take my hand, and let us pretend,and imagine,
that you and i "Wendy" are the dearest of friends.
Come!...fly with me!
"Did you ever know that you're my hero,and everything i would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,...Cause you are the wind beneath my wings" ...
Love,
Peter xoxo
P.s
I am a song writer,...cant you tell?
wow, that was a lot of words that said absolutely nothing. lol
Well, no need to investigate it to know what happened. Someone spent a lot of money on one of his paintings and killed him. Or, more likely, someone had a lot of his paintings and knew they would be proven fake if the artist lived.
You're "shocked" that GOVERNMENTS never cared that someone who was complicit in art fraud that has resulted in probably unknowable amounts of money and the "human capital" necessary to produce it being wasted on FAKES and FORGERIES and FRAUD was murdered? There isn't a "private art collector" in the world who has ever spent one tenth of one percent as much money as governments have on "art", from subsidizing artists to building galleries to paying for public school art programs to all the other ways it has been wasted producing nothing of REAL VALUE to humankind. All it does is reward those who are smart enough to exploit the system or stupid enough to be caught up in it.
To Stephanie Murray. I was curious too , so I looked on google. 1. The hospital thought he was homeless and left him in a side room to sober up !. 2. They thought he may have a stroke and fell over . 3. He had been hit with a hammer. Whatever, he was too good for this world. Great character, I would have loved to meet him . R.I.P. Eric
Thanks for posting!
Awesome! Thank you
If he can replicate some of the famous artists so well that the "experts" are fooled - good for him! The art world has this snobbish attitude toward "unknown" artists, they deserve it!
The art world thrives on new blood... in fact you always hear people moaning about how talentless the latest fawned over artist is.
I have watched this several times . And I've read both his books. These so called experts are shown up for the snobbish idiots they are. It's a lot of money to change hands . But at the end of the day if a painting or whatever gives you pleasure whose business is it ? The pleasure is the most important part.
You just fell for his self serving its not me its them excuse for being a forger. Forgery is a crime & saying its too easy to commit is no excuse. Criminals when they are caught blame their crimes on "it was too easy, therefore its not my fault". Crime is the individual criminals fault. Ponzi if alive to day & given his own documentary would have said, it was too easy & it's the punters fault for being so gullible, Bernie Maddoff found being a criminal Ponzi follower all too easy for decades, because he like Eric, found many allies to assist him in his enterprises especially where many investors did not even know they where invested with Bernie. Since we only get to see one drawing of Erics we can't tell if he was original or not, he did what was lucrative, the most honest part of his interview is when he said even his modest lifestyle cost money. So he had all the tools of his trade to forge old masters, there was no original work. He was not replicating the work he was forging it even to fake marks of ownership with old paper cut from old books. Some money counterfeiters have their "art" down pat, bet you would not think it funny if you got paid with one because you could not tell a fake bill from an original.
You must be unknown
Wow. Beautiful doc. Thank you one of the most interesting looks into the art world i have ever had the pleasure to watch. You are a true youtube star.
Art experts meet an art expert who is Master Artist. Read his book, Confessions of a Master Forger. He went to museums and told the curators that he had created some of there collections and they would not believe him. It is like he said in the last statement of this video, people tend not to look at the art for what it is just the attribution. I must say, there is something about Hebborn's eyes. It's like, he sees all... I would rank him with Michelangelo or Da Vinci.
Their collections.
Yes there is something about his eyes. These are the eyes of someone who was highly intelligent, sensitive but suffered serious abuse in the hands of his own mother at a young age. Of course he saw through everything. There was never a cover story sheltering him from the truth of this world in the first place.
The man is a very good artist, and an expert at understanding human nature...
he's dead
LOVE THIS WONDERFUL REAL ARTIST NOT JUST A DRAUGHTSMAN
I like Eric Hebborn. One, he has a very devoted Staffordshire Terrier. Two, he knows how to correctly use a scythe.
I really think he is more honest than the dealers.
During WWII, a dealer sold several famous paintings to the Nazis. After the war he was on trial for collaboration. His defense was that they were fake paintings that he had produced himself. No one believed him, so he painted a perfect copy of a Monet (I think.) in the courtroom. I wish I could find his name, but it eludes me at the moment.
Van Meegeren
It was a boxer dog, not a Staffordshire!
Fascinating. Thank you.
Absolutely remarkable...
GOOD ON ERIC HEBBORN...HE'S A MASTER IN HIS OWN RIGHT.
SUPERB X FASCINATING DOCO❤❤❤
Nowadays, the artistic value of drawings or paintings has became of little importance, except for a few scholars and connoisseurs. For private collectors - investors - the only interesting thing is their financial value, which relies mainly on authentications, attributions, signatures, certificates. As these investors are not able to recognize any given artists'hand or even good drawings from bad ones, it is really tempting and lucrative to trick them, so there are numerous forgeries on the international art market (really a lot!). If you want to detect these forgeries, obviously you need to learn from the forger himself, and this video is full of information.
Of course, this documentary is now a vintage piece. Scientific investigations have improved, since then. A lot of Hebborn's works cannot deceive anymore every modern research tools like FTIR microscopy, GC-MS, EDX-SEM, Raman spectrometry and so on (at least paintings. About drawings, fake detection is far more complicated if they are done on period paper). Fortunately for the forger, these sophisticated forensic investigations cost a bunch of money. So they are performed only on huge names like Leonardo, Delacroix, Monet or Picasso. Better, they are not performed at all on some of these well known paintings in famous collections because owners don't want to see their investment's value to be brutally diminished. Before trying to set up your own business, remember that Hebborn was murdered in 1996...
Thanks for sharing.
one cant help but admire his skill.
most experts feel half of auctioned high end art is fake..
hate he died like that....
the art world is but a dream....carry on.
Laughed hysterically at the poem ... how adorable. :D
Ultra talented forgers should be respected, not for their acts but for their talent.
Elastic judgement pompous snot really cracked me up!..god so many wonderful cameos in the video.
R.I.P. Grand Master!
People who admire art for its own sake would be more than happy with high-definition posters of paintings...
His point was always when you look at my drawing you should see art not fake art ,, the same mentality goes into fashion when you can admire a bag and lust over it and when told its a knock-off you recoil in disgust ,,, we need a label to enjoy something ,, sad society indeed ,,
+Stephanie Murray
i agree
I BOUGHT A FAKE DESIGUAL BAG in tenerife once
and when on a few occasions ppl admred it..i d admit that
you d say people would say
it s still really nice
no
they didn t
just sorta sheepishly smiled, said nothing and slinked away
soooooooooooooo thick
really
+Stephanie Murray Yes, we humans love our labeling, grouping, and social competition.
I live in San Diego. I can drive an hour south and buy a fake Rolex in TJ for $50. No one will know it's a fake rolex, but if I tell them they sure as hell will think less of me for buying a fake rolex. Such is the way of things.
Why do you think $50,000 luxury cars exist? It sure isn't for transportation.
love how Eric said all that then flushed a fake/real Bruegel down the toilet.
Maybe they think less of you because you'd spend good money trying to impress someone with a fake...
You hang around people that think handbags are important and cared enough to buy fake whatever "designer" handbag to at least LOOK THE PART and you're criticizing them for being "thick"?
Great docu , thanks
Thanks for this upload. Never heard of him and glad I watched it. I suspect someone who found they had a 750pd forgery they paid 1ml for may have gotten their revenge, sadly. He was a very talented man.
If that’s the case, the hit should have been on the dealer, not the artist who only made £750!
Interesting doc, poor old sod should have remembered what happened to Pasolini before of submerging himself every now and then in the murky Roman underworld of rough trade, it might have saved his life.
Here’s my take on this, if people can’t tell the difference then what’s the difference, right.
Fantastic going to read his book
Amazing!
Eric Hebborn a forger of old masters, a rare thing even if they were pen drawings, it takes great skill and a wealth of knowledge from a historical point to pull this off, most if not all forgers target modern art as the skill involved is considerably less
You are so right, I feel,. Hebborn in his own right is a great Master! However, great abstract art is a very great skill also, to create something out of nothing, that touches the soul deeply. You are so right, I feel, a lot of modern art I see, looks like a mess to me and not like art, most sadly.
rjf180
i love abstract art too, when its done right its great, ive tried to make some and its not as easy as it looks :) the best abstract artists understand how to make art, most are grounded in good solid drawing and painting skills, there are too many modern artists that jump on the band wagon and skip these fundamentals and make bad art
+doppel banger
i soo agree
i had a 2 year period where for the 1st tome i also veered away from figurative painting
so
to my immense surprise ..absract art to be well done was enrmously difficult
i never did get it right....
i think
and it wasnt exactly time and money and investmentwise effective either
whereas it s easy to fabricate a Dali or magritte
Ps my rule was in the end
if you can watch the artwork from all for angles then its good
But i dont know whether thats a good rule...either
but i couldn t find any other rule
a lot of abstract art is shite
but when you see a Good One you know all about it
@@doppelbanger5797 I agree, when I was at art college the skill of draghtsmanship was seen as unimportant.. We had one student who's work was so wacky, as was he, they couldn't decide if he was a total genius or completely crap.
In my view, the more skills you can learn, the more tools you have to realise your vision..
I totally agree
A brilliant artist .Love this documentary however I'm seeing this just now.please direct me to the latest on this artist.
Mr. Hebborn was murdered in Rome on January 11, 1996. Before his death he wrote two books, an autobiography "Confessions of a Master Forger" and "The Art Forgers Handbook".
Such of talented painter could create his own pictures under his own name. He lost to the art and world lost the great painter.
Great documentary. I remember C4 doing a programme about him as well although it may have been a rehashed version of this.
It brought to mind the conversation between George & Toby in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy;
George: Ever bought a fake picture Toby?
Toby: Sold a couple once.
George: The thing with a forgery is that the more you pay for it, the less inclined you are to believe that it actually is a fake......
Or words to that effect
What a cool man.
I do enjoy the comments of those criticizing the art experts for their ego when Eric shows plenty ego of his own. I particularly like the section about the collectors mark and his comment "well they look nice for one thing" as his reason for adding them and not to give them a fake provenance. In his mind it's always the experts who should have caught it and his boosts that he got sloppy ones by them, it's all ego.
"Fire! Fire!" said Mrs. Dyer.
"Where? Where?" said Mrs. Claire.
"Down the town," said Mrs. Brown.
"Any damage?" said Mrs. Gamage.
"None at all," said Mrs. Hall.
" Fire! Fire!" said Mrs. Fryer
" Where! Where!" said Mrs. Wiry
" Down the town," said Mrs. Downey.
"Any damage?" said Mrs. Damages.
" None at all," said Mrs. All's
Never heard that one before.
Ok, i am non-English speaking, but is the overall idea it rhime?
Does town/brown actually rhime?
This program was about art, said Mr. Hart
So what's THIS all about, said Mrs. Stout
Don't worry just another clown, said Mr. Brown
Someone who's terribly silly, claimed Mr. Willy
I do agree, said Mr. Crocodile Dundee
Someone shoud kick him out, said Mr. Stout
Because he too was there
holding hands with Mrs. Claire
But that's another story
said Mr. Gallagher, to his friends simply Rory
"Fire! Fire!" Said Ms...
Doh!!!
An 'expert' is simply someone who is very knowledgeable or skilled in a particular area - though from the comments section here you would think that an expert is someone who is not allowed to make a single error of judgement. Hebborn himself often struggled to tell whether he'd created particular works, so let's cut these 'experts' a little slack. If any of you here found a potential old master in the loft, you'd all be whisking it down to your local gallery or auction house for one of these experts to assess.
Pleasant gifted man....
Great documental.
They don't know people are living the lives of these geniuses. That's why they are geniuses. They hold to us with their art. Who questions that Van Gogh is in heaven with the fruit of knowledge. He is the star of all of this cultured right I am-my hand is up.
Hombre Hermoso!!
He may of forged, but what a talent.
He may have.
Hebborn!!!! you complete beauty!!!!
The problem with the art world is the "Elitist and Entitled" self interest. They dont have a strict guideline for determining if a piece is a fake or authentic. Instead one guy just declares him or herself the "authority" on an artist and thats it. True, 100% legitimate pieces of art by the greats have been deemed forgeries simply because the expert is afraid to lose his standing as THE EXPERT. One painting that is known as a Renoir and has been correctly attributed by one group of experts in a Raissone, with an established provenance was then denied by another group because they want to be the only ones who can verify a Renoir. Its just done out of spite and its accepted. So, i love when someone pushes their noses in it.
He was obviously very talented it's a real shame really I'm sure if they could make a decent living and career and get credit for their own work they would.
Doesn't a forgery that is so good it is taken as real in someway speak to the forgers innate mastery and imbues all his creations with a quality all their own. who knows,many years from now the forgers works will be highly regarded for that very reason and become much sought after by collectors
sweet and gentle teddy bear ♥
Thanks Charlie - fascinating
Fantastic programme. Nothing but sheer admiration for Eric. What a talent. Unlike that pompous asshole also featured Brian Sewell who could not appreciate never mind criticise this amazing man's abilities. RIP
Fascinating stuff...
DOH. I didn't consider he'd buy blank paper from or find sheets from 2 or 3 hundred years back. radiometric dating wouldn't help there.
I like this guy.
Fascinating man
What a fascinating life this man has had ..most definitely..
But . . . in the END . . . . And everything depends on that !
Better a struggle with a n i c e e n d than - like Eric - vice versa - 4 sure !!!
Brilliant work. As an artist without social and marketing skills, it's damn near impossible to make a decent living. Though I wouldn't want to forge, I am motivated to go collect some galls and do some ink drawings for fun now 😂 probably a lot harder than it looks
Forgery is only attributed to criminal enterprises.
Me too, as an illustrative pen and ink artist, I have always looked up to the Great Ones...and I believe all great artists practiced copying original works from the Masters. I have never done copies nor been professionally trained in different styles, but that is about to change. Mad respect for this man! RIP Giant
I wonder which dealer or auction house workers, suddenly went on holiday to Rome, in January of 1996?
I have two of his books. I don't know if he produced more. He was no worse than the snobs who ripped off the public for their drawings. If people want to pay thousands for art it's their business. Eric took the experts for a ride. Good on him. They should have been better at their job ! R.I.P Eric.
Good for you - they sell for a small fortune on Amazon now!
very good!!!
awesome…what a cool guy.
A master "forger"... How about simply a master.
Exactly.
Marvellous
Right On! Eric.
Well said.
fantastic Eric. N1
For the 1990s, this guy had a great lineup on his beard.
Trying to place myself in the position of being the Headmaster who just had a delinquent child stick his head in the open doorway to recite a quick poem about fire just as whiffs of smoke come bellowing in thru the door...
It's not a moment you'd likely soon forget
The masters make the rules for the wise men and the fools.
It was a TV show I recorded. I don't think there is a VHS or DVD.
Thank you!