SMART SHORTS - Série d'été du lundi 3 juillet 2023
SMART SHORTS du 3 juillet 2023
Transcript
00:00 You probably don't know Wolfgang Beltrachi.
00:03 Yet, the name of this talented crook is associated with the greatest painters of the 20th century.
00:09 Between the early 80s and his arrest in 2010,
00:12 Wolfgang Beltrachi, from his real name Wolfgang Fischer,
00:16 sold for more than 20 million euros of fake paintings to rich collectors.
00:21 But how to blame him?
00:22 Endowed with a real talent for painting,
00:24 this German born in 1951 managed to fool the best experts.
00:30 It must be said that he thought of everything.
00:32 He buys old paintings of unknown artists,
00:34 painted at the same period as the artist he wants to imitate,
00:37 he washes the canvas, uses pigments from the time,
00:40 and studies the style of the original author.
00:43 He then recovers reasoned catalogs,
00:45 a kind of inventory where all the works of an artist are described very precisely,
00:50 including the lost paintings.
00:52 Once his target is identified,
00:54 Wolfgang Beltrachi uses his talent to reproduce it.
00:58 To sell them, without arousing suspicion, he has a well-rounded system.
01:02 His wife Hélène tells that her grandfather acquired many paintings
01:06 from a Jewish merchant fleeing Nazism.
01:09 It was Alfred Flechtheim who really existed.
01:13 To support this lie,
01:15 Wolfgang Beltrachi photographed his wife in black and white with the work,
01:19 so that it would then be passed on to his own grandmother.
01:23 One of his old friends, Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus,
01:27 is in charge of clearing the houses for sale.
01:29 However, the life of the scams quickly alerts the German authorities.
01:34 During their investigation,
01:35 they discover that a work sold by Wolfgang Beltrachi
01:39 was painted with a white pigment,
01:41 marketed in 1938,
01:43 while he assures that the painting dates from 1914.
01:47 The couple was arrested on August 27, 2010.
01:50 During his trial,
01:51 Wolfgang Beltrachi admits having sold hundreds of renowned fake artists,
01:56 such as Picasso or Fernand Léger.
01:59 He is sentenced by the German justice system to 6 years in prison
02:02 and to pay 20 million euros to the Flouet buyers.