INTERVIEW: Director explores infamous art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi

Wolfgang Beltracchi is a dichotomous man: charming yet criminal, artistic yet fake. Depending on one’s perspective, he can be seen as the Robin Hood of the art world or someone who has wreaked untold havoc on the industry, perhaps both. Director Arne Birkenstock’s new documentary, Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery, which is currently playing New York City’s Film Forum, explores this man, his wife Helene and the forgeries that put him in the artistic spotlight.

For nearly four decades, Beltracchi allegedly produced masterpiece after masterpiece, using a variety of techniques to pass them off as originals. One story has him painting a Max Ernst in three days, and that could fetch $5 million.

“Of course, I think this person, Wolfgang Beltracchi, who is a nightmare for the art market, is a huge opportunity for a filmmaker,” Birkenstock said recently in a phone interview. “He has dark and very light sides to him, and that always makes an interesting character for a movie. And, of course, the environment or the world he was doing his criminal business, the art world, is interesting as well.”

Birkenstock documents not only, as he put it, the greed of Beltracchi but also the possible greed of the art market. He explores the question of what makes a piece of art and how one can tell the difference between an original and a purported original.

The director’s father represented Beltracchi in his criminal law case, and that was the entry point the filmmaker needed to tell this story.

“After the law case was over and the judgment was spoken, I was introduced to Beltracchi,” he said. “Then we had, of course, quite a long time of negotiations because my condition was that he has no whatsoever right to interfere in my final cut. I told him I will always show you what I’m doing, but I will decide.”

During the interviewing phase, Birkenstock found the forger to be “very open” to the questions. “He likes to tell his story,” he said. “He is a character, which is a privilege to have as a documentary filmmaker because he is so interesting.”

When Beltracchi told Birkenstock some inside information, the director attempted to check the evidence of the claims. Apparently, if Beltracchi is speaking the truth, there are many more of his forgeries that have yet to be discovered.

“He can of course also play with that knowledge only he has,” Birkenstock said of the 300 alleged Beltracchi paintings. “But talking to experts on art forgeries, they all say, well, actually doing this 40 years, 300 [paintings] is not that much. … He started in the ‘70s, and he did it until about 2010. So if somebody is doing forgeries for such a long time, 300 actually is not such a big number.”

Birkenstock called his subject charming and somebody who likes to be in control. Documenting his exploits was fun but also a struggle.

“I think you can say it is a highly entertaining documentary,” he said. “You won’t be bored by it. Second, it is a film which raises a lot of discussion. It’s really nice to have Q&As and discussions after this film because it gives obviously so [many] things and thoughts to talk about. … Some people after the film, they hate him. Others say, ‘Oh, what a cool guy.’ It is a question of art and the art market. It’s a question about what’s an original. What’s fake? How can you tell the difference?”

Birkenstock takes an impartial stance on deciding whether Beltracchi himself is an artist. He refused to decide what side he falls on in the forgery debate.

“I don’t see myself in a position to decide whether something is art or not,” the director said. “What I can think about is my own work, when I’m in the editing room with lots of material and then trying to find the 90-minute version of the documentary … You can start with any scene and end with any scene. It’s not like a fiction where you have a script. So you have this moment of not knowing what is next. You have moments where you think this is never going to be a film, or it’s so difficult. … The forger, 100 years later, he always knows what to do next. He never has to be afraid for the white canvas. … He knows that what he is doing has been appraised already by the art market, art history and art critics. So originality of an idea, the risk, the artistic risk an artist takes for me is part of the question whether something is art or not.”

He added: “Then, of course, in the Beltracchi case, you have this notion, this strategic notion where he really fooled the art market by inventing provenances. … [Today] he is out of jail. He is working as an artist. He is selling his work. Sometimes it’s the style of others, sometimes in his own style. You see now all the time [the painting is] signed himself with his true name and the right signature.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery is currently playing New York City’s Film Forum. Click here for more information.