As someone who's worked at a museum, these recent art documentaries are excellent.

DW is the modern Sherlock Holmes of investigative reporting. Bravo and thank you!

I loved the original doc that 22+ mins of this was drawn from. The “Spanish Master” must be absolutely laughing like heck and have updated their CV to proudly show that their modern forgery has been “court certified” as “ancient, looted” Thanks DW for the update.

Another banger doc from DW. They JUST DO NOT MISS. Incredible. Thank you for this gem.

In the first chapter of Charney's book he describes how Michelangelo would create "Greek" statues and have them buried and distressed and then sold through dealers as antiquities to wealthy Italian families in the 15th century.

Thank you DW Doc. You provide important information for the public and make it enjoyable to watch to the end. Gut Arbeit!!

Dang gone it. I'm starting to think that the ancient Greek sculpture of dogs playing poker I bought at a yard sale might be a fake.

I just love watching DW documentaries regarding art ❤.Keep making such documentaries regarding art 🎨 .

An art forger a few hundred years ago would have made a fortune without much scientific and expert scrutiny.

As soon as i saw the title i had to speed click! Superb as per usual!!

Love documentaries like this ..

The interior of the bronze heads have a lot to say: casting techniques, tool marks, plaster content, possible contamination by sandblasting material. Surprised they didn't spend more time in there. Microscopic particles in there could point to manufacturing techniques.

Plot twist - turns out 'The Spanish Master' was actually Stephan Lehmann all along.

Wait a minute! Is that fella's "unexpected death" potentially a silencing of sorts?!?!

What an excellent documentary, my compliments!

I don't understand how they can be valued so high with no continuous provenance. Whenever I watch Fake or Fortune, that's the main determinant.

This was so informative and well-done!!!

Oh, man. And these are the people who give Fiona and Philip far too many thumbs down. The big art market is simply not what it purports to be. Thoroughly enjoyed this video but can't help but think it greatly aids forgers with a wealth of tips to avoid detection.

A fool and his money shall soon be parted. 😂 a buyer’s ego and the greed of the auction houses won’t let them admit the truth.

Impressove and inspirational documentary..i am really impressed by the perfectionism , content , the originality of the content and above all the style of conveyance ❤❤❤

This is a good documentary into the Business of Art that draws in all shades of characters...Master Forgers, Art Thieves, Bancasurance Detectives, Ambulance chasing Lawyers, Forensic expertise assisted by cutting edge technology, a dash of spin doctor press pocketed by Auction Houses...and the Timeless effort of brilliant minds in Academia...trying to even the balance. A mix of the good guys vs the malfeasant bad. And a treasure trove for Cinematic experience.

You only have to read the disclaimer pages in auction house catalogues to realise how corrupt they are.

DW Documentary, vielen Dank wie immer 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Interesting video I was a blacksmith and in my younger days I made more then a few “ Antiques” No $million bronze heads but did pay for most of my house with authentic slave collars. 😉 There are 3 types of fakes, ones you can spot across the room, those you have to pick up and examine and then ones you just can’t tell Also many forgers go over the top, like making an Alexander the Great that should have sent off whistles I think So too how it would have been removed from the stature, I would expect to see more damage Remember too if a person could make something back then a person can make it today. Also while there are some pretty bad fakes some are made by those that know what it should look like and how it was made Most buyers that get bit by these things is because they are stupid and often think they are screwing the seller when in fact they are getting bent over. 😃

Ironically enough, there's a pretty good chance that the "Spanish Master's" work will itself become collectible in a few decades. These notorious fakes have a way of becoming desirable themselves. It's guerrilla art, not unlike Banksy's graffiti, just more of an intellectual graffiti.

I love art forgers because.... they fool the "experts." The Stradivarius violin known as the Messiah (in England) is a fake but the museum which houses it refuses to have the wood tested. That alone tells me it's a fake.

Thank you for the report! Well done! I've been in Greece, and i visited so mane museums, and the only question that crossed in my mind was, is it fake? No doubt, there are some pieces missing about what's the real story behind the Alexander bust? Is it really fake? Nevertheless, it is a masterpiece just to look at it. Looting arts is like cancer.... You can't stop it no matter what ...

Great documentary, but it's moslty a rehash of an earlier Documentary from DW also very worth watching. Good stuff anyway!

Thank you DW! This is very interesting. I have some fascination for Alexander the Great and Augustus and I recognize their faces immediately. The artist makes a great job with the forge but the ancients wouldn’t have approved those portraits: they do not look like them, they are shallow and plain, and above all they are not canonical. Those bronzes would have been melted, not everybody was allowed to produce an Augustus statue. There is a list of characteristics that all the statues have and correspond to how they wanted to look like and the message they wanted to transmit to the people. Only the eye of an expert and some passionate history lovers can recognize them 🤫

Another banger and incredible documentary shared by an excellent (DW) documentary channel....thank you for sharing

Those who melt old coins should be jailed.

This is fascinating. It always seems that nobody values or cares about art, until it becomes very old, or a war breaks out and art is stolen and artists forced to create propaganda art. It shows that when it comes down to it, art is very valuable to humans. It's also fascinating how skilled and talented the forgers are, but how nobody wants what they create because their art isn't old or created by someone famous.

Make a documentary about the destruction of the Iraqi museum in 2003

Fascinating inside look at the art world… really well done DW! 🙌🏻

Auction is just one way to money launder their money

Very nice work!

Love this stuff! Thanks.

An Art forgers is an modernity. It's still own his high value . Because we can't abandon from the past . So, we imitate manythings as well as posible.. .

This is just a shortened version of a DW documentary from 6 years ago with a few minutes of updated extra footage. The original is also on DW's KZfaq channel.

The Spanish Master can't seem to help adding just a little modernity to his sculpts. Alexander and Augustus look way too good to be true. They are too expressive and the nature of the damage is too decorative. They are probably quite irresistible to a silicone valley billionaire with modern sensibilities, no archaeological background and an ego that aspires to be the next conquering emperor.

Wonderful to get a follow up on the previous report. Hopfully DW will keep on this story.

Wow! What a documentary!❤❤

the art "market" is a grift of the first order. not only is it set up to dupe the gullible newly rich, as well as the status seekers (something I don't really have a huge issue with), but it is also a very easy way to launder money (something I do have an issue with).

There was another forger from the late-19th/early-20th century known as the Spanish Forger, though he/she/they specialized in medieval miniatures.

Very educational and enjoyable, But the Alexander bust being bought buy a an American multi-billionare would have been my choice for a happy ending. lol

Truth takes so much courage risks and personal loss, much much more maybe priceless than the fakes of millions! kudos and salute to all these brave men in every field who field truth at all costs and with all visible and invisible risks!

Always truthful and fascinating! Keep doing this! Expose the evil people of the world

DW always has quality documentarys ! But less depressing documentarys of climate problems would be good . Be more creative with more positive and upbeat narratives ! Thx !

I can only imagine this is going to get worse with how fast technology is accelerating. Ai will probably be able to create perfect replicas and material sciences will create very realistic molds.

Not about artwork..about value. If a "fraud" is good art .. or a "forgery" is well done in the style of .. it’s art.

Isn't there a difference in value between a 50 year old fake and a 500 year old fake?

That means you can't trust the auctions 100%. 🤔

its pah-TEEN-ah

Hallo DW Documentary. I am looking for your documentary on what makes a child smart. May I please have access. Thank you.

Got one small copper coin when I was 10 years old. It has any value?

👍 Greetings, Hellas/Macedonia/Thessaloniki.

Shocked 😲

The thumbnail 😭💀

14:38 - "It's a fantastic piece," but it might only be worth the cost of the materials (12:45)? Why isn't a talented artist appreciated and compensated in proportion to the quality of the work? Might that have something to do with why they choose to forge antiquities?

"patina" is properly pronounced "pa-TEEN-a", not "PAT-a-na".

Most of the ancient artefacts and general paintings are forgeries, copying has been rife since time began.

really hard to feel sorry for a billionaire who falls for such just for clout !

4:21 Should show the pictures that he is pointing at full screen

A great many of these comments are so obviously from bots. What a shame, because it is a good show. They don't need to screw up the flow here with those mundane compliments.

Alexander was not fake. There are many recorded military battles of Alexanders campaigns.

Most of this is from an older documentary about the head that was analyzed.

Well, all these pieces need is for a few more documentaries and tv series to be made about them and they'll be famous enough that someone will pay the same as if they were antiquities. I mean, people paid top dollar for NFTs...

Experts must have watched 'Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable'.

Aaaahhh rich people problems. I will never worry that my dogs playing poker on velvet is fake. I'm just blessed that way.

As an artist crafter I often think about creating fakes. It is far more lucrative than selling replicas. The Spanish masters prove this. It’s more lucrative than getting a degree. The Spanish masters seem to not observe super well. They are fantastic artists but they do not properly study the period they attempt to copy. The problem is there are very few people who have eyes for this combined with the cultural and period expertise to pull it of to perfection and worse fewer people who have the eye to spot the fake. Many academics are stupid in regards to the thing they study. They become esoteric vs putting hands on things. When you become a creator you gain different eyes. When you go one step further and like me create reproductions based on pictures and in person observation then you can see the nuance of the original and can duplicate that to an extent. More importantly you can spot reproductions (fakes) easily. Academics by and large are not capable of the artistic and craft skills to sort this out. They are mostly incapable. Ask a reproduction artist. Otherwise you will remain idiots who let your culture be faked. Don’t be stupid. Ask the artists and craftsmen.

The art world is full of forgeries. Some of which, are sold in big-name auction houses for millions of dollars, it’s almost comically hilarious and tragic at the same time.

What about old forgeries dating from the Renaissance

so thats why carbon dating would not work mmmm i was wondering . nice info . 🤗

They are masterpiece in their own right

And who is controlling the controllers? Just because it is the opinion of ONE man, does it mean he is THE authority?

Antiques should be in Museum for the public, it's human history. I can only laugh if a rich guy paid for a fake.

📍19:48

After all the Greek art minister had an internet connection........🤷🏽‍♂️😂.

The Alexander screams fake, it has a facial asymmetry you just wouldn't associate with the time. Renaissance art maybe.

13:39 very important information more folks should know about the rich.

tks

I wonder what kind of publicity stunts were maybe going on back then in hopes that would be helping them do the money laundering well enough back then too? Like when painting out the image of any slave child who happened to be in a painting too. Or if anybody asks the same kind of crooks throwing works of art stolen into the deep while saying it was only for their religious reasons as to why they were doing so. Michelangelo's orignial works of art would have been a lot harder to just toss into the deep while being followed to try and get away with doing the same thing. Unless of course that was after a whole lot of bombing and burning and then later picking up the pieces in some Archeologist set of work room which sounds way too far fetched anyway. Seems to me there will never be another human being like Michaelangelo the artist too. When would or could a work of art from ancient times which an artist did long ago to depict a fully clothed figure later become an icon instead without perhaps after being re-assembled then only being called a worthless fake or instead the stolen spoils of war?

Why no person time travel to ancient Greece and photograph Alexander Face ( ? )

nothing strange for money laundering industry ...

26:04 “…naive American multi billionaire…” 😂

You’re getting ripped off buying this stuff to begin with.

So how old are these fakes?

Sylvester Stallonne not Alexander 😅

ultimately the greed of money and power of human race takes over truth and purity...the noble and truthful have a tough road too trek for ages, time immemorial.

Original NFTs

Δεν το γνώριζα αυτό. Εντυπωσιακό.

Explain to me how a piece made by the Spanish Master is any less beautiful than a piece from hundreds of years ago ? You don't need to know the history or the value of something to believe it to be worthy or beautiful. If some museum curators and art collectors have their noses put out of joint than too bad.

I like her voice.

I LOVE it!

Is the Spanish master that British bloke that did the fake shipwreck? Lol

If people want to buy this junk let them because none of is worth anything.

😮😮🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Preserved deep in Canada's lakes, seaside, and Ocean's lays, over woods° to again that black ship° ○ Hallow'eve ☆🎃 tricK

I love Alexander the 8

Too much money