8. Otto Wacker
Wacker’s trial
Forgery was a family business for Otto Wacker, a respected German art dealer in the 1920s. His brother Leonhard was a talented painter and restorer of artwork, who was likely the true creator of the works that Wacker passed off as genuine Van Goghs.
Original Van Gogh Self Portrait
It was no doubt Wacker’s professional reputation that led Van Gogh experts to accept his story that the paintings came from Russia by way of Switzerland and that the Russian individual involved had to stay anonymous for fear of family reprimand. In 1928 the fakes were found out, although several art critics and dealers continued to believe that they were genuine. In the end, however, X-rays and pigment analysis proved them to be fakes and Wacker was sentenced to 19 months in prison.
