Norval Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was still alive when forged paintings in his name started appearing. When he saw hundreds of paintings online "signed" by him that he knew he didn't paint, he started to fight back. To trace the fakes, Adrian goes to Thunder Bay in northern Ontario, the suspected epicentre of the art frauds and a place Morrisseau once called home, to search for who is forging all these Morrisseaus. All signs point to one person.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of 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
This episode features:
- Gabe Vadas
- Kevin Hearn
- Norval Morrisseau, archival
- Jonathan Sommer, Kevin Hearn's lawyer
- Tim Tait
- Lorraine Cull
- Carmen Robertson
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.