Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

Arne Birkenstock's documentary serves up a portrait of the flamboyant Wolfgang Beltracchi, who for decades passed his own work off as long-lost paintings by famous artists—making enormous profits—before being unmasked in 2010, convicted of fraud (along with his wife), and sentenced to six years in a German prison. Much of the film is devoted to interviews with inmate Beltracchi, who was allowed to work in a friend's studio during the day and return to his cell at night. Essentially self-taught, Beltracchi is exuberantly proud of the ease with which he mimics others' styles, and he happily describes the elaborate backstory he invented to convince experts of his paintings' authenticity. Beltracchi even gives a step-by-step demonstration of his process: buying a worthless old painting at an open-air fair, transforming it into a simulacrum of another artist's work, and even placing vintage dust in the crevices of the frame to complete the illusion. Auctioneers, appraisers, and even some snookered buyers are also interviewed, but despite a few angry denunciations (and home movies that depict his family living in luxury) Beltracchi emerges here barely scathed. Partially, this is because the art market—with its emphasis on ever-escalating prices and willingness to cut corners in determining provenance—comes across as colluding in Beltracchi's crime in pursuit of profit. In the end, Beltracchi seems less a nasty con-man than a genial fellow whose talents exploited flaws in an already corrupt system. Recommended. (F. Swietek)