10 Most Faked Artists

Back in 1940 Newsweek reported that out of 2,500 paintings produced by Corot, 7,800 were in the United States. In 1953 ARTnews stated that there was a “saying in France that Corot painted 2,000 canvases, 5,000 of which are in America.” And in 1990 Time magazine let it be known that “it used to be said” that Corot painted 800 pictures in his lifetime, of which 4,000 ended up in U.S. collections. Art historians have noted that Corot sometimes authorized poor artists who imitated him to put his name on their paintings so that they would be easier to sell. In the recent ARTnews survey of art forgery, experts were asked, Who are the ten most faked artists in history? The almost unanimous vote went to Corot. Here is the list, in alphabetical order: Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875) Salvador Dalí (1904–89) Honoré Daumier (1808–79) Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935) Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) Frederic Remington (1861–1909) Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955) Some replies to the ARTnews survey quoted the late Theodore Rousseau, vice director and curator-in-chief of the Metropolitan Museum, who wrote: “We should all realize that we can only talk about the bad forgeries, the ones that have been detected; the good ones are still hanging on the walls.”