Robert Driessen forged more Alberto Giacometti pieces than the original sculptor ever made himself. The Dutchman made millions from over 1,000 forgeries. A film tells the story of one of Europe's biggest art scandals.

In 2009, police in Mainz discovered approximately 1,000 forged Giacometti sculptures, leading to a major investigation into art fraud. The forgeries, traced to Dutchman Robert Driessen, were sold for millions of dollars, including a piece acquired by the Robert Mapplethorpe Collection in America.

Prosecutor Mirja Feltman played a crucial role in tracking down the forgers and intercepting a major deal involving over 300 sculptures. The case, which involved elaborate schemes and fictional provenance, exposed the prevalence of art fraud and the blurred lines between genuine and fake masterpieces in the high-value art market.

Hunting the art forgers who made millions from fakes

Mainz, 2009. Police raid a cellar to find a sea of sculptures, fake Giacomettis, some 1,000 bronzes and plaster casts, shown pixelated for copyright reasons. It was a case that sent shockwaves through the art world. Years of investigation led to a man from the Netherlands. The most expensive sculpture, which cost me 10,000 euros, was sold for 52 million dollars to the Robert Mapplethorpe Collection in America. The forger and his coup. One senses his pride as he tells of his mass production of forged masterpieces. He's even quite charming as he speaks of his admiration for Alberto Giacometti. But is it really the art that moves him, or the many millions the sculptures go for? In just 15 years, Robert Driessen produced more than twice as many sculptures as Giacometti himself. Director Stefano Strocki tracked him down in Thailand, persuading him to take part in this documentary. Prosecutor Mirja Feltman agreed to appear in the film too. It was her very first case back in 2009. She's the one who tracked the forger down. When I met Prosecutor Feltman, I really thought, OK, this is incredible, because you don't expect a prosecutor to be like that. She has an amazing personality. She's, like, super sharp. I mean, she's like an encyclopedia of German and international law. Strocki reconstructs the case using 3D-printed sculptures and filming the real investigators from the case, plus the art dealer, a self-styled count who pocketed around 9 million euros with his partners. If you had to write a Hollywood script or a Tarantino movie, then you would expect that this is the kind of fiction protagonists you have to invent. And here instead, they are all there in the story, and they're all real. It was a gift. Yes, this shady character went by the name of Count Waldstein, selling fake Giacomettis out of the trunk of a vintage car. He even commissioned entirely fictional art history books, just to prove the provenance of his bronzes. The driving force is greed. It was more people that didn't have a direct knowledge, for example, of a Giacometti. Of course, they were rich, and they thought, as much as they can scam me, I can scam somebody else, and it will be worth a fortune. Spoiler alert! Solving the case was largely thanks to Prosecutor Feldman. Researching, investigating, and at the very last second, intercepting a deal with a New York gallery for over 300 sculptures worth 50 million dollars. She had a sense that there was much more at play, even deploying undercover agents. The police sometimes said to me, they don't believe that they have so many sculptures. I always believed that. I said, I am of the opinion that if they write 1,300 sculptures, then they are somewhere. She is really the angel of justice in a way. But the moment we talk about these art frauds, this is happening more than you imagine, more times than you imagine. The forger Driessen has done his time, over five years, but his conscience remains clear. It goes to say, in an art market fueled by greed, the line between a masterpiece and a masterpiece of deception is thin.

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Washington

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Washington County

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Council of the City of Sydney

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Breakdown