On Thursday (5 September), David Voss—described by Crown prosecutors because the “principal architect” behind a serious forgery scheme peddling hundreds of faux Norval Morrisseau work—was sentenced to 5 years in jail for fraud.
The sentencing follows an announcement in March of 2023 by the Ontario Provincial Police that their investigation right into a forgery ring of works by the famend Ojibwe artist—dubbed the “Picasso of the North” by Marc Chagall—had uncovered “the largest artwork fraud in world historical past”. The case resulted in prices towards eight folks, together with a member of the late painter’s household, and the seizure of greater than 1,000 work. In June of this yr, Voss pleaded responsible to counts of uttering solid paperwork and forgery.
In her ruling, Justice Bonnie Warkentin famous that “the harm is profound” and the case has “worldwide significance”, including: “The legacy of Norval Morrisseau has been irrevocably broken. His spirituality has been undermined and tarnished.”
Voss’s sentencing follows a five-year sentence for one more member of the forgery ring, Gary Lamont, who pleaded responsible to 2 prices. Six others had been charged final yr. The sentencing marks a big milestone in a case that has turn out to be a form of Canadian cultural crucible, involving not solely forgery but in addition abuse and exploitation of First Nations artists working in “paint by quantity” sweatshops, a Canadian musical icon and a documentary movie.
Morrisseau—a shapeshifting self-taught artist who based the “Woodlands College” of Indigenous artwork that married First Nations and Christian cosmology and conventional native and up to date idioms—turned conscious of forgeries of his work available on the market within the years earlier than his dying in 2007. However it was a 2019 documentary by the Canadian film-maker Jamie Kastner, There Are No Fakes, that introduced the difficulty to wider public.
The movie in flip was impressed by a lawsuit launched by Kevin Hearn—a musician within the Canadian band The Barenaked Women—towards the Toronto-based Maslak McLeod Gallery for promoting him an alleged forgery of a Morrisseau portray. The documentary helped Hearn win a C$60,000 ($44,000) award from the Ontario Court docket of Attraction, overturning an earlier choice in favour of the gallery citing lack of proof of forgeries.
Whereas the police mentioned the movie helped their investigation, Kastner fought an order to show over his footage as proof within the case; he informed The Artwork Newspaper it was “a matter of precept”, that “journalism will not be an arm of the police”. However, the Ontario Superior Court docket dominated in favour of the police final autumn.
“It’s actually incredible that the work the movie initiated continues to snowball and have actual life penalties for the people who had been perpetrating this terrible collection of crimes,” Kastner mentioned after Voss’s sentencing. “I feel [Morrisseau]’d be delighted with the ruling. We all know he fought the forgeries in his lifetime and was annoyed by the identical group of fraudsters now dealing with sentencing.”
The artist’s nephew, Benjamin Morrisseau, remains to be awaiting sentencing for his function within the fraud. There have been a collection of alleged Morrisseau forgeries found hanging in outstanding locations, from the Ontario legislature to the Winnipeg Artwork Gallery and McGill College, since prices had been filed final yr. In accordance with police estimates there are nonetheless greater than 5,000 undiscovered forgeries produced by Voss’s ring in circulation.
“As of my penning this, Voss has proven neither regret nor accountability for the struggling he has brought on to me,” Hearn wrote in a sufferer impression assertion learn in the course of the sentencing. “However I’m only one small piece of the harm he has brought on. His calculated fraud has not solely stolen and utilised Norval’s id as expressed in his work, Voss has additionally exploited the artwork world and Indigenous tradition.”
The property of Norval Morrisseau has suffered damages estimated to be close to C$100m ($73.7m) as a result of fraud, however in keeping with Cory Dingle, the chief director of Morisseau’s property, “Voss’s cooperation has led to the identification of roughly 1,800 work as counterfeit. This pivotal info has enabled the Morrisseau Property—with the assistance of our pro-bono authorized workforce at Mishcon De Reya—to safe forfeiture and restoration of those works.”
In an announcement emailed to The Artwork Newspaper, Dingle added: “Almost 500 fraudulent works have already been faraway from the market, a considerable step in curbing the unfold of those forgeries.”
He additionally urged house owners of Morrisseau work to achieve out to the dstate, noting: “Your cooperation is important in compiling an official catalogue and establishing an intensive report of counterfeit works.”
