Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

Arne Birkenstock's 2014 German documentary is about a man who sold forged paintings for forty years. Wolfgang Beltracchi produced new works in the manner of known painters; rather than copying existing pictures he painted ones such an artist might have made but that appear in no record, and built a false history for each. His wife Helene prepared photographs and documents to support those stories. The system fooled galleries, experts and auction houses for years and collapsed in the end because of an error in a pigment analysis. The documentary follows him in the days before he goes to prison, and he does not defend himself but is proud of what he did. The film shows that the art market rests not on expertise but on provenance and story. Who it's for: viewers who like documentaries about the art world and fraud. Who it's not for: anyone expecting distance from its subject; the documentary makes him likeable.