OTTAWA – Hovering between a camera and computer in a darkened Ottawa-area photo lab in 2021, Mylène Choquette had to step away to make sure her eyes weren’t fooling her.
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OTTAWA – Hovering between a camera and computer in a darkened Ottawa-area photo lab in 2021, Mylène Choquette had to step away to make sure her eyes weren’t fooling her.
OTTAWA – Hovering between a camera and computer in a darkened Ottawa-area photo lab in 2021, Mylène Choquette had to step away to make sure her eyes weren’t fooling her.
The equipment had just taken the art analyst layers beneath the surface of a painting some were alleging famed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau had made. To the naked, untrained eye, it sure looked like a Morrisseau with its bold shapes and thick black lines juxtaposed on a bright backdrop.
But under the reds and light blues was the outline of an animalistic figure.
The outline wasn’t the surprise. Artists often sketch their impending creations onto a canvas before picking up a paint brush.
It was the array of letters — R, LB — speckled across each part of the painting that took Choquette aback.
She looked back at the original and it took almost no time to realize what the letters stood for. The R was marked on a red patch, the LB on a light blue one.
Could it be that someone had put a paint by numbers-like guide to creating the artwork right on the canvas? That’s what Choquette’s eyes were suggesting but she had to be sure.
After all, this was not just any painting.
It was one of many at the centre of what would become the biggest art fraud case in Canada’s history, an epic drama that has spanned court and police interrogation rooms as well as the country’s loftiest art galleries and museums.
The saga has indelibly shaped the legacy of one of the nation’s most celebrated Indigenous artists, removing at least 1,000 fake Morrisseaus from the market.
Police think more could be out there. One lawyer estimates there are at least 6,000 fake Morrisseaus still in circulation.
Source: Read the original article on www.winnipegfreepress.com
