Fake art scams aren t new. Just earlier this year, a former Los Angeles auctioneer agreed to plead guilty to an art fraud scheme where he fabricated 25 paintings in Basquiat s style and sold them to an Orlando, Florida gallery. The scam was exposed when a consultant spotted a FedEx label on the back of one painting that used a font that was introduced six years after Basquiat s death.
A batch of paintings gifted to the Vancouver Art Gallery nearly a decade ago turned out to be fakes. Now the gallery has launched an exhibit showing how they confirmed it.