September 1, 2000
CONTENTS:
- Burglars steal artifacts from American-Indian exhibit (burglars managed to disabled security alarms and remove a museum door)
- Faker is the real thing for Hollywood
Burglars steal artifacts from American-Indian exhibit
August 31, 2000
Web posted at: 11:06 AM EDT (1506 GMT)
CENTERVILLE, Washington (AP) -- Twenty-two artifacts were stolen from an American-Indian art exhibit by burglars who managed to disable security alarms and remove a museum door.
Beaded bags, moccasins and a bone breastplate were among the objects snatched Tuesday night from at the Maryhill Museum of Art in south-central Washington.
"It was very selective. They broke into very specific cases and took specific pieces," said Lee Musgrave, a museum curator. "It's impossible to put a financial value on these things."
After disabling layers of complicated alarms, burglars removed a door and its frame to reach the artworks and broke into two cases. "They ripped the entire door off," Musgrave said.
The thieves also ransacked the museum's tiny donation box.
The items stolen probably were taken specifically for private collectors, Sheriff Bob Kindler said, but "we certainly want all the pawnshops and antique dealers and galleries dealing in Native-American art to be aware."
The museum is about 90 miles east of Portland, Oregon.
Faker is the real thing for Hollywood
BY ALEX O'CONNELL
HOLLYWOOD has fallen for the charms of a British artist jailed for faking paintings by famous names by planning a film on his scams as well as buying his works. John Myatt, who brought 200 pieces purportedly by painters such as Chagall, Giacometti and Klee into circulation, has become fashionable in Britain and America since Michael Douglas announced a film of his life.
Employees of Douglas's production company, Further Films, made a recent visit to Myatt's Staffordshire home for research. They spotted some paintings-in-progress, which - unusually - didn't seem to resemble the work of another artist. Highly impressed, they bought a three-painting sequence called The Dealer's Dilemma for about GBP.1,800.
"When they saw my original work they described it in words I didn't understand and said it was 'the happening thing' in the States," Mr Myatt said yesterday. "But I only did it to amuse myself."
For nine years the painter and musician produced fakes of old and new Masters for a collector, John Drewe, who passed them off as the real thing until the scam was exposed in 1995.
Since the film deal was announced earlier this summer Myatt, 55, has sold several paintings to New York clients. Despite the interest, however, Myatt does not consider himself an artist. "I don't know what artists look like," he said. "I just do what I do." He said that he no longer had any real interest in painting forgeries and regretted his former career.
He has not yet met Douglas, poised to play Drewe in the film, which is in the early stages of production.
In January 1999 Myatt, from Sugnall, near Eccleshall, Staffordshire, was jailed for a year by Southwark Crown Court for conspiracy and served four months in Brixton prison. Drewe, said to have made an estimated GBP.1 million from his crimes, was imprisoned for six years after being convicted of forgery, conspiracy to defraud, theft and using a false instrument.
The businessman gained access to the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery, where buyers go to establish the authenticity of works of art. He falsified records to make Myatt's work seem genuine.
Before Drewe became involved in the scam in 1987, Myatt was running a legitimate business painting "genuine fakes" and selling them for between GBP.150 and GBP.200. His wife had just left him to bring up their two children and the former art teacher was desperate to bring in an income.
Variety published a report about this film, June 29
at:
http://www.variety.com/body.asp?HbkId=16718064&subcat=-1&ArticleId=1117783169
'CON' JOB FOR MGM
Art-fraud scandal set up for Douglas to star