Wolfgang Beltracchi painted his first forgery in 1965, when he was 14 years old. It was a Picasso of “blue period. When Beltracchi and his wife Hélène started making good money, they began counterfeiting big-name artists like Fernand Léger, Georges Braque and others.

In the early 2000s, Beltracchi painted “Ernst.” The authenticity of this painting was not doubted even by Vernes Spies (former director of Pompidou Center in Paris, who is considered one of best experts on Max Ernst. In the end “Forest” was sold to a Swiss firm for $2.3 million, and some time later painting ended up in the possession of a famous Surrealist collector – Daniel Filipacci, who paid $7 million for it.

After that, Beltracchi’s luck ran out. One of oldest and richest auction houses – German Lempertz – sold the canvas “Kampedonka” foundation from Malta. That foundation decided to carry out an examination, as painting aroused suspicion. As a result, lie was exposed. The court sentenced Wolfgan Beltracci to 6 years in prison and his wife to 4.