In a brush with death, Norval Morrisseau is given the name "Copper Thunderbird." He learns to sign it in Cree syllabics, and writes it on his paintings. That artistic signature becomes a clue on the back of Kevin's painting. There are other clues that lead to a jail where Norval was imprisoned (but still continued to paint) and to an old friend of Norval's who sheds some light on what makes an authentic Norval Morrisseau painting.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of physical, sexual violence and abuses committed within Canada's Indian Residential schools.
Support services (Australia):
- Police — 000 (triple-zero)
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN on 13 92 76
- MensLine Australia on 1300 789 97
A previous version of this episode misstated the source of Norval's nickname, "The Picasso of the North." The name was used to promote an exhibition that opened in Montreal in the late 1960s and travelled widely, including to the south of France. We regret the error.
This episode features:
- Kevin Hearn
- Gerald McMaster
- Norval Morrisseau, archival
- Eugene Morrisseau, Norval Morrisseau's son
- Jonathan Sommer, Kevin Hearn's lawyer
- Joseph Sanchez
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.