Former secondary school teacher, John Myatt, along with John Drewe, perpetrated what has been described as "the biggest art fraud of the 20th century".
In 1986, John Myatt placed a classified advert in the satirical British current affairs magazine Private Eye. ‘19th and 20th-century fakes for £200’ stated the ad, heralding the birth of what was initially a legitimate business. Producing paintings to order, John painted his way through 20th century art history, commissioned by a man known as ‘Professor John Drewe’. His materials were unorthodox, including household emulsion mixed with K-Y Jelly, yet the quality of his work led Christie’s to value one of his paintings at £25,000. This was the moment that the business stopped and the crime began.
Between 1986 and 1994, Myatt faked as many as 200 works by artists like Marc Chagall and Alberto Giacometti, fooling collectors and experts at Christie's, Sotheby's and the Tate Modern alike. Many of these counterfeit works found their way into private collections and public institutions in the United Kingdom and abroad. Eventually the scheme was exposed by Scotland Yard, and Myatt was sentenced to a year in HM Prison Brixton for his role in this now-legendary art fraud.
Upon his release from prison, Myatt was persuaded to pick up his brush again by the detective who arrested him. In recent years, he has emulated the style of legendary artists like Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Klee, Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh. Comparing himself to an actor immersing himself in a role, he says he climbs into the mind of his chosen artist to adopt, rather than copy, their technique. In a 2005 interview with the Guardian newspaper, Myatt explained: “I try to get the artist’s work to hypnotise me. I also surround myself with lots of books. I like to know everything…where he was, what he was doing…when he was painting.”
