Winnipeg Art Gallery in possession of a fake Norval Morrisseau

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/06/2024 (501 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is the latest institution to have a brush with the largest documented case of art fraud in Canadian history.

On Friday, after a lengthy investigation, the WAG was informed by Thunder Bay police that an artwork in its collection previously believed to have been produced by legendary Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau was fraudulent, created as part of an extensive scheme of reproduction and outright fakery led by a now-convicted Thunder Bay man named David Voss.

On June 4, Voss pleaded guilty to counts of forgery and uttering forged documents for his role at the forefront of a fabrication ring which operated from 1996 to 2019.

So far, authorities have identified at least 1,500 fake works that were falsely attributed to Morrisseau, an internationally revered painter who survived St. Joseph’s Indian Industrial School in Thunder Bay to become one of the country’s foremost visual artists.

One of Voss’s Faux-rrisseaus is now confirmed to be a work entitled Astral Plain Scouts, currently held in the WAG-Qaumajuq vault, says Stephen Borys, the gallery’s director and CEO.

The piece was acquired by the gallery in 2000 as a single-item donation by a private donor who is now deceased, Borys told the Free Press Tuesday.

Even while he was alive, Morrisseau, who founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art, was already dogged by a persistent, growing market of fraudulent copies of his existing works, as well as wholesale fabrications of works he never made, produced in his signature style, with bold black lines enveloping defiant bursts of colour.

An artist who often gave works away as gifts or in trade, Morrisseau’s prolific output allowed a laundry list of grifters to make hay off his generosity.

Considered one of the most influential artists in Canadian history, famously referred to by French painter Marc Chagall as “the Picasso of the North,” Morrisseau died in 2007 amid a considerable struggle to authenticate which pieces he had made and which — like those created by Voss’s operation — were blatant attempts to profit off his distinctive approach.

Borys says that the gallery was alerted to the artwork’s potential fraudulence three years ago, and has since worked with police, researchers and other museums across the country to share access to information.

“The WAG is not alone (in dealing with this issue),” he says.

The museum offered to share the painting with the police to assist in the investigation, but were told that would be unnecessary, so the fraudulent work remained in the vault.

Astral Plain Scouts, which hasn’t been exhibited in recent memory, was said to have been produced in 1976, but was identified early on as a possible fake by investigators and researchers because it fit within parameters of other known imitations and forgeries, Borys says.

A sworn admission by Voss this month confirmed those initial suspicions.

Art fraud and forgery is not a modern phenomenon, says Borys, who points to notable artists across time — Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Picasso, to name a few — whose extensive oeuvres were often flecked with instances of fakery and imitation.

“This is nothing new, but the scale (with Morrisseau fakes) is significant. “I don’t recall anything of quite this scale,” says Borys, who holds an adjunct professorship at the University of Winnipeg in the history department.

Borys expressed sadness on behalf of arts institutions and collectors who acquired or cherished now-confirmed fake pieces in good faith, but was adamant the clearest victims of the crimes are Morrisseau himself and the artist’s family.

As of Tuesday, Borys said the gallery hasn’t made a decision on the next steps for the piece of work in question.

For the time being, the WAG will continue to store the forged piece in its vault. The gallery is also in possession of 11 other authentic Morrisseau works, none of which have been flagged for possible fraudulence.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Jill Wilson | Applause

Weekly

A weekly look at what’s happening in Winnipeg’s arts and entertainment scene.

Sign up for Jill Wilson | Applause

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.

Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.