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David Stein (born Henri Haddad, January 27, 1935,
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
, Egypt – October 1999,
Bordeaux, France Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
) was an artist who, until 1966, had been frequently sentenced for theft by the French courts before becoming an
art forger Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...
and art dealer with 15 aliases. Stein studied the artworks of
Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...
,
Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
,
Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1905, and the role he play ...
,
Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
, Miró,
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...
and Rouault.


Forgeries

In 1967, Marc Chagall notified authorities of forgeries of his work exhibited in a New York gallery, and Stein was arrested. Art dealers refused to cooperate with the prosecution because they thought that it would have made their expertise in the art field questionable. Stein was convicted of six counts of
art forgery Art forgery is the creation and sale of works of art which are intentionally falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of ...
and
grand larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...
. During his prison term, Joseph Stone, the judge who arrested him, brought him to his office to paint. He remained a friend of the Stein family. In 1989, Stein still continued to make forgeries. After Stein had served his prison term in the United States, he was deported to France, where he served another term. Prison authorities allowed him to make further paintings, although now using his own name. In 1969, a London gallery sold some of these paintings. After Stein was released, he sold his paintings under his own name.


Later life

In the mid-1980s, director
Gil Cates Gilbert Cates (né Katz; June 6, 1934 – October 31, 2011) was an American film director and television producer, director of the Geffen Playhouse, a member of Cates/Doty Productions, and founding dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and T ...
gave his agent Arthur Axelman at William Morris a copy of the book, which had been written without Stein's involvement. Axelman set out to find Stein, and after several years, he located him in Manhattan. Stein became an Axelman client and friend. Axelman introduced Stein to
Keith Carradine Keith Ian Carradine ( ; born August 8, 1949) is an American actor. In film he is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's ''Nashville'', E. J. Bellocq in Louis Malle's ''Pretty Baby'', and Mickey in Alan Rudolph's '' Choose Me.'' ...
and
Alan Rudolph Alan Steven Rudolph (born December 18, 1943) is an American film director and screenwriter. Early life Rudolph was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Oscar Rudolph (1911–1991), a television director and actor, and his wife. Care ...
, director of the movie
The Moderns ''The Moderns'' is a 1988 film by Alan Rudolph, which takes place in 1926 Paris during the period of the Lost Generation and at the height of modernist literature. The film stars Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, John Lone, and Geneviève Bujo ...
, starring
John Lone John Lone (; born October 13, 1952) is a Chinese-American retired actor. He starred as Puyi in the Academy Award-winning film '' The Last Emperor'' (1987), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. A veteran of the E ...
,
Géraldine Chaplin Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an American actress whose long career has included multilingual roles in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German films. Geraldine is a daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of his eight chi ...
,
Keith Carradine Keith Ian Carradine ( ; born August 8, 1949) is an American actor. In film he is known for his roles as Tom Frank in Robert Altman's ''Nashville'', E. J. Bellocq in Louis Malle's ''Pretty Baby'', and Mickey in Alan Rudolph's '' Choose Me.'' ...
and
Linda Fiorentino Clorinda "Linda" Fiorentino (born March 9, 1958) is an American actress. Fiorentino made her screen debut with a leading role in the 1985 coming-of-age drama film ''Vision Quest'', followed that same year with another lead role in the action fil ...
. Stein appeared in the film as an art critic and provided all of the art. Stein was living in France after the United States told him to leave US territory in 1988. He met the French photoreporter Stéphane Korb in 1981 in New York, and they became close friends. For 10 years, with the agreement of David Stein, he has been a confidant in Stein's photo archives and files about his personal life since 1981, including the story of the fake collages of
Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...
comics signed "
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
1960". David Stein tried to escape a number of creditors after the series of Superman collages. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', in 1989, two comics experts discovered a series of fake collages in the Andy Warhol retrospective at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
. The same event happened in Paris three years later. Stein put four fake Superman collages in a public auction. David Stein died in October 1999 in Bordeaux, France, from cancer. He had three children.


Further reading

* Anne-Marie Stein: ''Three Picassos Before Breakfast. Memoirs of an Art Forger's Wife'', New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973 * John E. Cronkin: ''Art Fraud'', New York, 1994, pp. 73ff


References


External links


From a French TV program about Stein

Short account with photograph

The Fälschermuseum in WienKORB-ART
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, David Art forgers 1999 deaths 1935 births