Ontario Art Fraud Ring
I had something else planned for this week but I really need to cover this breaking news. Police in Northern Ontario have arrested eight people in connection to art fraud, specifically fraud of a famous, iconic Canadian artist.
The Artist
The artist that I was referring to is Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, an Indigenous artist from the Ojibway Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He is best known for his distinctive Woodland School of Art style (a school that he founded).
To give you some background on this incredible artist, Morrisseau was born on March 14, 1932, in the Sand Point Ojibway Reserve near Beardmore, Ontario. He was a residential school survivor and left formal school at the age of 10, preferring to learn from the Elders in his community. At the age of 19, he became very sick and in an effort to provide him with strength his mother called a medicine-woman to perform a renaming ceremony and this is where he got the name Copper Thunderbird. In the Anishinaabe tradition, this is something that can give a sick person more power and strength to get over the illness. Once Morrisseau recovered he always signed his works with his new name.
Once he started painting he chose subject matter and stories from his community and he was discouraged from sharing these outside the community. But, luckily for art lovers, he decided to break this taboo. His work involved themes of healing and storytelling throughout. “Why am I alive? To heal you guys even more screwed up than I am. How can I heal you? With colour. These are the colours you dream about one night. One day I hope society will use colour therapy instead of psychiatry.” His Toronto show that year was sold out, “but you don’t have to buy to be healed” (Pereira, Djan, and Edwards, 2023).
He rose to fame when the owner of The Pollock Gallery in Toronto, Jack Pollock, met Morrisseau and saw his work in the 1960s. He put on a show of Morrisseau’s work at his gallery in 1962. “I knew that Morrisseau was an artist with vision and I decided then and there that I would show them in Toronto” (Pereira, Djan, and Edwards, 2023). His work quickly captured people’s attention and imagination and it is now exhibited in major galleries around the world and hangs in prestigious locations. He was made a member of the Order of Canada and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1978.
Sadly, Morrisseau’s health began to decline as a result of Parkinson’s disease and a stroke he suffered in 1994. He died of cardiac arrest due to complications with his Parkinson’s when he was 75 in Toronto on December 4, 2007.
However, forgeries were already an issue when Morrisseau was still alive. So much so that the official Morrisseau website offers an authentication service if you own a piece by him and want confirmation. Police have confirmed that there have been investigations stretching as far back as 2000 but no changes have been laid.
Morrisseau knew about these forgeries and allegations but he was a very peaceful person and refused to get mad, even though he actively sought to remove these fakes from the marketplace. Art critic Christopher Hume who spoke to Morrisseau wrote “he says he has been ripped off time and time again yet refuses to lay blame or get angry” (Pereira, Djan, and Edwards, 2023).
History of Crime
So, as we now know there is a long history of fraud and forgery allegations stretching back decades. And as we know no arrests have ever been made. In 2020 the police confirmed that another investigation was ongoing (this investigation is connected to these recent arrests).
In 2019 these allegations were the subject of a documentary called There Is No Fakes which included the story of the Barenaked Ladies keyboardist and guitarist Kevin Hearn, who bought a Morrisseau painting called Spirit Energy from Mother Earth from a Toronto gallery in 2005. The painting was displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario a few years later but they received complaints about the painting so they took it down saying its authenticity couldn’t be confirmed.
Hearn tried to sue the gallery where he purchased the painting but the judge dismissed the charges saying they couldn’t conclusively say if the painting was authentic or not. He then took the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal which ultimately ruled in his favour (which means they ruled that the painting was a forgery).
The Arrests Happening Now
So, fast forward to now. Eight people were arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Thunder Bay Police Service on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. As I said, the police announced that these arrests are the result of the investigation that has been ongoing since 2020. They seized over 1,000 alleged fraudulent paintings, prints, and other works since the start of the investigation and say that some of the work was sold to unsuspected buyers for tens of thousands of dollars. The OPP has called it the largest art fraud investigation in the world in terms of how many pieces are involved and how long it’s been going on.
All eight people arrested are facing over 40 total charges including fraud and defrauding the public. A crazy detail is that one of the people arrested is Benjamin (Benjie) Paul Morrisseau, one of Norval Morrisseau’s nephews. He faces charges of forgery and participation in a criminal organization. It was noted that Banjie is an excellent painter in his own right so it is sad that he was using his talents to rip off and profit off his uncle’s life work.
Obviously, since these people were literally just arrested this week we don’t have a ton of information yet but the police say they have some very compelling, credible evidence and that forensic testing will play a huge role in the upcoming trials.
I’ll keep you updated!
Works Cited
Djan, Edward, Ana Pereira, and Peter Edwards. “Ontario Art Fraud Ring Makes Hundreds of Norval Morrisseau Forgeries Worth $100 Million, Police Say”. The Toronto Star. 2023. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/03/03/opp-to-announce-results-of-fraud-investigation-into-faked-norval-morrisseau-artworks-friday.html
Guignard, Jonathan. “Eight People Charged in Decades-Long Ontario Art Fraud Investigation”. CTV News. 2023. https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/eight-people-charged-in-decades-long-ontario-art-fraud-investigation-1.6297832
Ketonen, Kris. “Police to Release Results of Major Investigation into Fake Norval Morrisseau Art on Friday in Orillia, Ontario”. CBC News. 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/morrisseau-fraud-1.6765310