Con/Artist
The Life and Crimes of the World's Greatest Art Forger
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4.0 • 118 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
The world’s most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters—exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio.
The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you’ve ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro’s “Rembrandts,” “Caravaggios,” “Miros,” and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe. In 2019, it was revealed that Prince Charles received into his collection a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, insuring them for over 200 million pounds, only to later discover that they’re actually “Tetros.” And the kicker? In Tony’s words: “Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what’s he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy. It’s the way things work for guys like me.” The Prince Charles scandal is the subject of a forthcoming feature documentary with Academy Award nominee Kief Davidson and coauthor Giampiero Ambrosi, in cooperation with Tetro.
Throughout Tetro’s career, his inimitable talent has been coupled with a reckless penchant for drugs, fast cars, and sleeping with other con artists. He was busted in 1989 and spent four years in court and one in prison. His voice—rough, wry, deeply authentic—is nothing like the high society he swanned around in, driving his Lamborghini or Ferrari, hobnobbing with aristocrats by day, and diving into debauchery when the lights went out. He’s a former furniture store clerk who can walk around in Caravaggio’s shoes, become Picasso or Monet, with an encyclopedic understanding of their paint, their canvases, their vision. For years, he hid it all in an unassuming California townhouse with a secret art room behind a full-length mirror. (Press #* on his phone and the mirror pops open.) Pairing up with coauthor Ambrosi, one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the 2019 scandal, Tetro unveils the art world in an epic, alluring, at times unbelievable, but all-true narrative.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This true-crime memoir set in the art world is a treat even if you don’t know a Warhol from a warthog. Tony Tetro grew up in a blue-collar ‘50s family, developing a passion for art as a young child. In the early ‘70s, broke and divorced with a toddler to support, Tetro fell into an opportunity to forge lithographs by popular modern artists like Dali and Picasso. Soon, he became one of art history’s most notorious forgers—until ‘80s excess and a femme fatale brought him down. Tetro’s unexpectedly endearing voice is hilarious, brash, and suffused with his sincere determination to create absolutely flawless work in the style of his heroes. His nuts-and-bolts descriptions of his processes—not to mention his revelations about the sketchy side of the posh art world—are simply fascinating. Con/Artist is unapologetically fun and even inspiring.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tetro, one of the most prolific art forgers of the 20th century, paints his own life story with flair in this cinematic memoir. Coming of age in Fulton, N.Y., during the 1960s, Tetro started by freehand drawing from examples in his mother's photo magazines, and over time taught himself techniques from art books. As a teen dad (his girlfriend got pregnant when he was only 16), he'd stay up late making elaborate copies of the greats—Rembrandt, Renoir, Picasso. When his young family relocated to Southern California, he took low-paying jobs but also discovered museums. He dabbled in forgeries offered at auction in the early '70s, selling a faked Chagall sketch to a local art gallery. Chasing clients and commissions, he learned to print serigraphs and developed methods to create provenance or realistic history to the paintings (for example, smudging cigarette ash on the back of a faux Dalí). What followed were fancy cars, lavish parties, and traveling the world. But soon, the law would catch up to him and his art forgery empire crumbled. Written in a colorful, conversational voice and blending memoir, art history, and true crime, Tetro's account takes readers on a turbulent, fast-paced, high-stakes roller-coaster ride. This is the art world's The Wolf of Wall Street.
Customer Reviews
Surprisingly educational
I usually refrain from reading books like these because despite editors, they often tend to be not very well written, repetitive and with big gaps in storylines. Some of that is true here, but the author’s wild ride of a life, his clear talent and his ability to pull back the veil of the illegitimate art world is worth the price of admission. He makes consistently bad business and life decisions yet somehow recovers from it all. The real surprise and fun is learning some of the background of the the great masters and to look up the images of their famous paintings, while the author describes details and tells stories about the art. You may not want to buy any expensive art after reading this, but you’ll enjoy the story.
Excellent Read
This book keeps you learning and being entertained all the way through.