‘They didn’t look old enough’: who filled a French art gallery with fakes?

It was dedicated to the work of the local artist Étienne Terrus (1857-1922), a friend of Henri Matisse who had been largely forgotten by the time Traby established the museum in the mid-90s. In May 2018, weeks after Forcada’s discovery came to light, the Musée Rigaud, Perpignan’s main art museum, allegedly withdrew two suspect paintings by Terrus’s contemporary Augustin Hanicotte, lent by a private collector. Another national museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Céret, 14 miles south-west of Elne, is putting a large collection it has just been bequeathed under close scrutiny to avoid such embarrassment; Forcada, who has seen the works, believes 5% are “doubtful”.

Source: www.theguardian.com