Fake It and You'll Make It: Elmyr de Hory

Humans are fascinated by two things and two things only in this life: space and keepsakes. That’s it. The astronauts of the Apollo 15 mission knew this, so they took a LOT of stamped envelopes to the moon. You know, for the sake of both science and commerce. This was, however, ag ...  Show more

For these three stories, there is one unifying idea: the show must NOT go on. And in order to ensure the show was indeed stopped, people turned to crimes, sweet, sweet ridiculous crimes. Whether a theater musical director, a bride-to-be, or an Olivia Rodrigo fan, in each instance ...  Show more

A wannabe art dealer sells fake works by American masters of Abstract Expressionism in an $80 million scam, fooling rich collectors and pocketing millions. (Original air date: 8/20/2018) 

This week on Hidden Brain, we explore real and fake, from fine art to fine wine. Shankar speaks with Noah Charney, author of The Art of Forgery, about why art forgers are compelled to spend their lives copying the great masters, and why so many of them want to get cau ...

In 1998, an art gallery gets a mysterious phone call. The caller claims they have been fooled by a master forger and that many of their prized paintings are fakes. Or are they? This is the story of the life and lies of the notorious Eric Hebborn. What did he do, and what does tha ...  Show more

Wolfgang Beltracchi is possibly the most artful forgers ever to have gotten into the game. While most would create a forgery by meticulously copying every line, shape and color in a known masterpiece, Beltracchi studied the artist then made his own original compositions imagining ...  Show more