Inside the Weird World of Art Forgery
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2019
- Ken Perenyi knows a thing or two about forging art. He did it for almost 30 years. But now he's gone legit.
Two FBI agents knocked on the door of his Florida home and began a five-year investigation into Perenyi’s production and sale of fraudulent paintings. He'd passed off forgeries of primarily 19th-century artists, like James E. Buttersworth, in major international auction houses.
"Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. The artists that I targeted in 99% of all cases were long dead, but I feel that I paid a tribute to them," Perenyi told VICE News.
Though the investigation eventually stalled and Perenyi was never charged with a crime, he decided to take his business aboveboard. Today, instead of selling his work under some high-profile artist’s name, he legally sells authentic reproductions to clients who want to look like they own high art, without paying the high prices.
VICE News visited Perenyi in his home to reflect on art crime, his new business, and recent concerns that forgers have found a new target: black American artists.
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He wrote an excellent memoir called Caveat Emptor. The most interesting part of his story was something he did not say here. The FBI told the auction houses they could press charges, but none did because they didn’t want to look like fools who sold fakes to millionaires. The auction houses didn’t even want to know which paintings were fakes.
J Editor96 lmao the perfect crime
The auction houses have become something for dead artists, no one believes this anymore today. The pinnacle would be the Banksy painting that shredded itself. They just think "ihmygosh, now it's worth even more!"
Great to know, J Editor96; thanks.
VICE should have include that. Weak reporting.
That's really funny because it's exactly how I would have written it if I wanted to make myself look like an uncatchable genius, and the art establishment like a bunch of greedy fools even though I stole from hundreds or thousands of innocent people.
Action houses don't give a shit!!
They just want their commission!
That Leonardo painting went missing for awhile, it was actually in a Yacht of a Saudi royal. The guy is so rich that he simply forgot about it
Michigan Daddy totally mind blowing man....
what a waste
@Meggion i thought every boat/yacht/cruise in international waters is under the jurisdiction of whatever flag it was registered in. which means if it has a flag of say, Belarus, it paid taxes to Belarus. right.
Hahaha a month or two before that, the Crown Prince arrested many royals under the pretext of fighting corruption, in a time of economic stagnation, and an increasing deficit. November 2017, he spends 450 million USD on a fucking painting.
The royals are watching me & my Art
I’m a painter and honestly I love this guy. It’s hard out here to make a living and he’s taking advantage of the elite class of idiots. I love it
seriously, and what he sells now is affordable to people who actually want to appreciate the art
@@xxjabarri2xx
Affordable??
He just said he charges even more now!!
LMAO YES
@@justicewarrior9187 he said he makes more - cause he's able to create more of the one picture and sell more than he was able to before.
@@justicewarrior9187 No he said he "makes even more now". Because he can sell many more of them without having to worry about trying to sneak them into auctions and pass them as real.
VICE should have done 30 minutes on this guy instead of the 8 chan troll.
True
Facts
I disagree with you on that. A man that blows the whistle is very commendable. You have people actively using your site preaching hate and hurting people. Someone should have said something about it a long time ago..
Search for Wolfgang Beltracchi. He is the Boss in the forgers game.
there are few short docs on this guy on y/t.... & a few good ones on other forgers, art fraud docs..... a family from UK done some of the best frauds out there. put the work in & look them up
where's this dudes movie.
You beat me to it. I would love a movie on this guy.
watch 'F for Fake"
haha, was going to Ireland and living in castles, a movie should be dope!
Elementary did an episode about this.
There's a documentary about the genious forger "Wolfgang Beltracchi" - enjoy ;)
Honestly, they guy is probably an incredible painter after studying and reproducing the greats.
He is probably greater
Yeah would love to see him do an original.
He might not have any original ideas of his own to paint. Maybe why he became a forger.
He is a joke...and shame on vice for glorifying this hack.
Would buy from this guy too even if its just a fake..ppl wouldnt care anyways if the painting theyre looking at is fake or not..bcoz most ppl dont really care about paintings at all
his fakes are so valuable that they have now become “fake masterpieces“ , the irony of being a clever artist. kudos to this man for crossing the boundaries of art and redirecting them.
this guy is a legend
"I liked money, I spent a lot of money."
''I like money'' Idiocracy
Mr Krabs
And then he proceeded to say he's doing even better now. Massive peen energy
@@NoNORADon911 I like money. We should hang out.
I love how honest he is.
- Why did you do it?
- I liked the money.
I would love one of his creations. Wonder if he take forge money. Lol
This guy is great at speaking. His manner, charisma and the style he gives off is awesome. What a character.
She seemed to judge him too much. I respect this dude, he's a legend
Agreed
legends last forever
I thought she seemed pretty supportive and enthusiastic, just doing her job as a journalist
@@Rovemcmanus1312 her face when she asked about the black artists showed she was ready to criticize him if he said he would forge their work. She needs to be a better journalist. Seemed like a gotcha question by the way she phrased it.
@@richardrodriguez8844 Yeah it was like she actually wanted to make it about race instead of art. Ironically, that's kinda racist of her.
This man needs a Netflix doc he’s so talented wth
I never knew that art criminal could be the aspirational goal
I know weird video
3:43 "It would compromise the integrity of the fake."
The man believes in his work.
I mean, he has a point.
His signature isn't on the original, so it can't be a replica if he adds it.
Its obviously a fake if the forger signs it as such....
@@michaelmccarthy4615
But they still buy it. 🤷🏾♂️
@@BvousBrainSystems
Me too,did you not see it? He's good.
She really wanted to talk about race at the end lmao he ain't budging
I love that the question answered itself and he literally just said that.
"Now there are more succesful black artists and they're being victims of forgery, why is that?"
"Well because there are more succesful black artists and you want to forge succesful artists"
lmao.
@@missingclover and it makes complete sense too but she don't seem to believe it =/
She thinks there's more to it but reallly.... it is that fucking simple.... remember when abstract painting was a thing? Everybody tried to copy jack pollard
yeah i said a similar thing even after he answered the question about race she kept pushing him
I immediately just stopped the video at this point. The woman is obviously ideologically possessed.
@@ck88777 Agree but aren't all journalists ideologically possessed especially to a new trend?
i love this.
art is all about perception and demand.
if a forgery can become a masterpiece, then a masterpiece can oneday be worthless too.
the lines are blurred, pardon the pun
It is really interesting to think about this in terms of..what is the true value of art?
@@baddie1shoe uhh thats such a bullshit question, a forger didnt come up with the original idea or had the ability to transfer ideas to paper. they copy images for their own financial gain. nothing more, nothing less.
Yes! This!
@@saberur66 The end result is the same
Ah. med A if I walk across the world to get you a glass of water from the tallest mountain glacier, isn’t it more meaningful than going and getting you tap water? Even if the end result is your hydration
I honestly liked the fact that he said he wouldn’t forge artists who were just starting to build a legacy, especially African American artists. He’s a forger, but he’s got a code. Love it.
_Especially_ AA artists? Someone looking for privilege yet again.
@@1977ajax lol another MAP crypto-nazi yet again go back to bed
I hate that this journalist smirks at him when he talks about how important these pieces are to him. he's dedicated to the perfect recreation of these works, no shit he's going to care about them deeply. how could he possibly make such impressively accurate "fakes" if he only cared about the exploitative part of it?
Clash the truth is what I say
hes a deceptive criminal, nothing else. He lied through most of the story..
I have no problem with forged artworks.
It's a work of art in itself.
Studies and copies are different, a forgery is meant to pass a test.
I wish they had asked him how long it takes for them to catch his fakes
How is it a work of art if it's at best robotic copying, down to microscopic level brush strokes. The reason those original pieces are works of art is because of the vision the artist had in the way they rendered them, not because of their technique. Nobody says, "oh your brush strokes are brilliant" or "your color mixing is impeccable", it's how they use their techniques to carry a message across that matters. So by that extent reproductions are absolutely worthless in terms of the artist creating them, with advanced enough tech, we can have a robot paint perfect 1:1 reproductions down to microscopic level.
This man is a genius. A man of taste he not only steals from the elites who have money to spend idiotically. But the irony he creates in making high class fakes themselves become masterpieces of deception. That in itself is art at its highest form. If you can be so skilled to go under the radar that the FBI comes knocking on your door you have a talent. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Picasso once said "Good artist copy great artist steal" Tarantino said 'Great artist steal they don't do homages' good for him not to put his name on this oxymoron of skill.
oh my god who could have guessed this was gonna end up being about race
ALEXvineyard expected from vice, thought i was the only one who didnt notice
Welcome to Vice News
the smirk on that reporter was so annoying
It wasn’t about race, it was about art forgeries. They included one question involving race
I thought the exact same thing.. I am is actually impressive that they were able to get that in there..
"Who's the master: the painter? Or the forger?" ~ American Hustle
I admire my man's hustle
He likes money
One does admire a clever crook with cultivated principals.
But how's he actually doing it! I wanna know the technique 😂
He is a better painter than the people he is pretending to be. Easy.
@@RandomDirectors yeah but not "easy" lol.
Spend years practicing
"Do you feel any differently now that art thieves are stealing from black people?"
I would have been like "Naw dawg! Scammers gonna Scam"
"oh hey i never really thought about this topic and this guy's life looks really int- aaaaand it's about race."
Never change, Vice.
"I liked the money, I spent a lot of money, when I had a good sale, I would go out to Ireland, stay at Castle Hotel, horseback riding, read books, go to a lot of fancy restaurants. The life it gave me was something that I would not otherwise have had"
Damn 🙂
Mark my words hes still doing it
But now He's doing it legally though.. He said it himself
@@radhikapatil1986 yes hes a talented artist and his past made him famous
"Personally I wouldn't do it" eyes closed looking to the side
That guy is a legend,
Infact some of his fakes have been sold at a higher price than the originals.
Not many people know Butterworth today but that guy is a true legend!
After 4 years of Art school I finally put my skills to the test and forged the graduation tickets. Man the rush of the security guard looking at the ticket and letting you in was unbelievable. I felt like a spy or something.
*"Victimology"*
*I don't think that word means what you think it means.*
I’ve always been fascinated by art forgery. There are so many fakes hanging in world class museums it would boggle your mind. This is especially true of college museums because these institutions take in pieces as donations and it would make no sense for them to “find” it a forgery.
I always like how Vice ends their videos with the right picture to summarize the entire video. Very thoughtful.
Too bad vice sucks now and is full of clowns
I had a Laura Hills flower still-life, bought at an estate auction. Christie's appraised it at 84k usd.
Sotheby's deemed it a forgery.
It's for sale.
So you didnt have Laura Hills but a forgery right?
It was auctioned as a forgery at sotheby's?
That's Neal Caffrey
that's EXACTLY the comment I was looking for
S/O to Antonia and Vice. But how did this become a racial issue?
She is black, and feminist. What did you expected? Sick. I mean, instead of trying to push her opinions as hard as possible - she should listen and try to see and understand the story of her host. This is just... crazy.
More than likely they came across this happening recently to black artists or something prompted them to research this topic and do a video on it. Her question seemed like this video belonged in a longer video. They probably went to him for a historical, personal, and expert testimony. The problem is that there's no apparent context to her asking him that last question. The video didn't state at the beginning that they were looking into the forgery of black artists work.
He reminds me of White Collar's Neal Caffrey somehow
If Neal hadn't been caught and sent to jail.. It was a good show. I miss it
YESS!
art forgery is like a recreation, tribute or replica of any vintage car. It should be appreciated due to dedications and skills of the master forgery. But it should be label either as 'tribute' or 'genuine fake' like John Myatt do. So any public devastation and sceptical can turn to as public appreciation and respect. Master forgery need to be honest to public, but to themselves importantly.
compromise the integrity of the fake 🤯.
this guy is a true artist
He's right. It would compromise the integrity of what it's meant to be. The only way his signature is ending up on there is if someone forged it lmaoo
I love how right at the end she tried to take it to a race place and he handled the question so well.
you're on vice
"it'd compromise the integrity of the fake"
this guy's on another level lmao
Would love to watch a vice clip that ISNT about racism for once..
Vice please STOP with the R" card
It's frankly tiring
Other than that Great job.
"Cool story white man, but how does this affect black artists?"
What😂😂
"Cool comment race-baiter, but how do Black artists affect this man? "
I CAN'T BREATHE
I just learned something. Very well researched 💛
2:40 the girl's face when he flexes about all the stuff his hustling got him lmao
Not everything is racist
He's a cool guy and I like his vibe and how boujie he seems 😂
SilverToju's World boujie af 😂
Omgaaaah Mr. Kennnnn! I just saw him for the first time in years! He is so amazing! Seeing him encouraged me so much. I had absolutely no clue this happened. Lol. He just reminded me Fortune Favors the Bold. Love Mr. Ken & Brigitte 🖤💜
I need a Ken Perenyi Original. This is brilliant, I love the history of his work. One he is a damn great artist from a technical perspective. Second, his thesis mirrors KAWs. They should have a gallery of his works
She really tried to pull the black card on him
"So how are we gonna bring in race?"
This is so fascinating!
Very good interview!
the audio is really weird when he talks sometimes. there's a very tinny echo.
Is it always about race in the end? Jesus
Unrelated and is definitely objectification but Antonia Hylton is a work of art that cannot be forged. Great work by the way this was a great segment.
Kenneth Uyabeme - yep! As long as she doesn’t bring her Race Card everywhere. Ugh. Just shut up and look fine girl.
What is the name of the piece of classical musics starting at 0.44?
Good thing I was sitting down when this took a turn into race. I was so shocked. Never would have seen that coming from VICE.
I like how she tried to force him to say that black Americans somehow have it worse than anyone else in this situation. Also a lot of the time its easier to forge now just because of the way the paintings are made.
There is an old story of Picasso in his final years. Where having gained famed, he would have buyers lined up to purchase his pieces even before it was finished. One day, while working on a piece, a friend, Dr. and buyer of his came by the studio and watched Picasso making the final touches on his latest work.
And stated that he was ready to buy the painting on the spot!
Picasso turned to his old friend and said. "Don't buy it, its a fake!"
"How can it be a fake? I've watched you work on this painting over the past few weeks myself" Said the Dr.
Picasso replied: "it's not because I am Picasso, that I can't paint a fake".
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I like that painting at 0,40 I dont know how to make timestamps :D
What would that cost and where can i get it ?
00:40
This dude is fascinating. Would have liked to see a more in depth interview. But also...Vice.
I'd appreciate that Kandinsky! (Kandinsky might have appreciated that Kandinsky)
That Kandinsky was the only one that looked fake 🙈
This guys life is Movie Gold, it's like a wolf on wall street but instead the painter in a museum
What is that last painting shown at the end called?
King. Forge the art and take the money out of the pockets of the bourgeoisie.
@Corrupt Crooked ikr.. they say the most asinine shit and then they won't back up/justify such things with facts because they know that braindead assholes like themselves will mindlessly agree because "money=bad, stealing=good"
If anyone is interested and wants something slightly more substantial than this I would recommend ‘F for Fake’ by Welles
Vice needs to turn back around and make a longer video on this guy. I want more!
i came across 2 pieces when my front neighbor passes in the 90s and his brother asked if i wanted anything and i saw the paintings first and took them along with an old beattles poster. i still have them and keep them hanging in my room framed.
It's sad the beauty of the art is forgotten and $$$ takes over
This man has a clear vision. I like him.
If this documenary was 2 hrs long, i would have watched the whole thing. Notice his accent in the beginning is a little English, and later, its brooklyn. What a character.
Hyper realism is the technique of depicting through painting what can be seen by the human eye or a picture. This guy is doing hyper-realistic depictions of something of the real world, a painting produced by a famous artist, in a frame that corresponds to the boundaries of the real canvas.
He is also a master in a technique. I am more fan of course of what he is doing in a later stage of life than what de did at the beginning.
This guy has to be lying. He’s definitely still making fakes. He looks like he loves it lol
well don't snitch
Lol. He said he loves money and he’s making more now. This thus diminishes his incentive to forge
Why did she have to bring race into this interview, so typical
If only Mr. Krabs knew how expensive is a Spongebob painting...
Need full hour of this.
Many art forgers go missing. Rich people don't like being scammed.
I think even poor people like me dont want to be scammed too.
How do we know that this video is not a forgery? We could be watching a video about forgery, which itself is a forgery.
Your birth certificate is a forgery.
Lol her cracking up talking to the dude
Orson Welles has a great movie/video essay centered around the world of art forgery called "F For Fake". It's a really unique movie.
Wolfgang Beltracchi is the real deal when it comes to art!
Yeah! Search for him and Perenyi looks like an little kid =D
Real life Neal Caffrey 🤣😂
I'm so disgusted. So so disgusted. But, thanks for this lil' documentary. This world never stops to amaze me, especially when it's about money.
What's the piece at 0:50?
She’s so heated 😂
She's so incredibly fixated on race that she thinks the whole goal of forging black artists must have to do with the white man "exploiting black america" rather than the much simpler, more logical explanation described by the forger and she seems disappointed she couldn't get him to say that.
this guy is a legend. love his unapologetic attitude. super talented. the original artists would have to say the same
what s the painting name at the end on 6.14
Ridiculous how she tried to work in black victimization into the conversation. If Black artists' work are being forged nowadays, because it's in demand, ain't nothin' but a rite of passage, sugar.
Damm i wish i never quit art
Normally I don't like these stories where we're supposed to sympathise with or celebrate grifters, but there's something admirable about a talented artist pulling a fast one on rich people! It's what they deserve for turning art and art criticism into an elitist sport.
This is what a living art genius looks like
FBI: Am I a joke to you?
Ken Perenyi:
Vice:
Money laundering at it's finest
Does anyone know what the painting at 6:17 is?
Where can I buy?