David Voss is a Canadian art

forger Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdict ...

of Indigenous artworks, in particular those of the artist

Norval Morrisseau Norval Morrisseau (March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian artist from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He is widely regarded as the grandfather of contemporary Indigeno ...

, of the Ojibway Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation who has been deceased since 2007. He has forged documents as a part of a fraud ring that was based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Voss and a ring of eight others were arrested in 2023 for forging and selling works allegedly by Morrisseau for over a decade. Voss and his team worked in an assembly to produce forgeries using a "paint-by-numbers" process to create fake paintings. The forgeries were detected when forensic analysts used infrared photographic processes to discover paint-by-number-like pencil markings on the

underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. Thes ...

s beneath the painted surfaces. Voss and his team forged thousands of artworks by Morrisseau. The forgeries resulted in $100 million Canadian dollars of losses to the artist's estate.

ArtNews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

reported that "Voss oversaw the production of thousands of artworks falsely attributed to Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau." 500 of these forgeries have been seized by law enforcement as of June 2024. Voss, who was 52 years of age at the sentencing, pleaded guilty to the art fraud ring charges. The sentencing judge declared the forgery ring as the "largest art fraud in history" in Canada. Artforum magazine called the operation the "world's biggest art fraud." Voss, who was described as the "principal architect" of the forgery ring, was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the forgeries. Gary Lamont, who has been described as "the ringleader of the operation" also received a five year sentence, and six others were charged for the crime in 2023. In addition to Voss and Lamont, Benjamin Paul Morrisseau, who is a nephew of the artist Norval Morrisseau, participated in reparation activities with tribal elders. Also charged were James White of Essa Township and David P. Bremner of Locust Hill and Jeffrey Gordon Cowan of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The 2019 documentary film '' There Are No Fakes'', was inspired by the forgeries of Norvall Morrisseau's art works.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voss, David Living people Art forgers Fraud in Canada Indigenous art in Canada People from Thunder Bay Forgery controversies Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References