Rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin's Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it's "questionable." Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin's dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting — and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open.
This episode features:
- Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies)
- Gerald McMaster
- Norval Morrisseau, archival
- Gail Dexter Lord
Binge every episode of the art fraud crime podcast series 'Forged' with Adrian Stimson now on the ABC listen app.
More Information
Known as the 'Picasso of the North', Norval Morriseau is one of the most celebrated Indigenous artists in the world. But when a rock star gets a tip about the authenticity of his Morrisseau painting, he finds a sinister underworld with thousands of forged paintings, millions of dollars in profits, multiple fraud rings, and even a suspected murder.
In this six-part series, from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia, host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal the largest art crime fraud in the world.
Adrian questions what this story tells us about how Indigenous art, and lives, matter.