Art

Thefts, fakes and the stories behind masterpieces.

5 rabbit holes

• New
  Photography hoaxesThe Cottingley fairies1917. Two young cousins in Yorkshire take photographs of themselves playing with fairies at the bottom of the garden. A few years later the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, publishes them as proof that fairies exist. The cousins only admit how they did it in the 1980s.3 stages · 24 min
• New
  ForgeryThe gallery that sold $80 million of fakesKnoedler was New York’s oldest art gallery, founded in 1846. For fifteen years it sold newly discovered works by Rothko, Pollock and Motherwell, all supplied by one Long Island dealer. They had been painted by a Chinese immigrant artist in a garage in Queens.3 stages · 35 min
• New
  Artists’ livesWhat happened to Van Gogh’s earArles, December 1888. After a fight with Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh cuts off his ear and gives it to a young woman. For more than a century, historians argued about whether he cut the whole ear or just the lobe. In 2016 a forgotten drawing settled it.2 stages · 9 min
• New
  Art theftThe most stolen artwork in historyThe Ghent Altarpiece, painted by the van Eyck brothers and finished in 1432, has been looted, sold, hidden in a salt mine and taken apart more often than any other work of art. One panel, the Just Judges, was stolen in 1934 and has never been found.3 stages · 29 min
• New
  Art theftThe day the Mona Lisa disappearedParis, August 1911. On a Monday when the Louvre is closed, a former museum worker walks out with the Mona Lisa hidden under his smock. For more than two years nobody knows where it is. Crowds queue to stare at the empty wall.2 stages · 17 min