False identities, hoax provenances, countless scams, and even arson and murder - the shocking and art-world-rocking case of John Myatt and John Drewe has it all. In the 1980s and 90s, this British forger-conman duo tainted both the art market and leading museum archives the world over with over 200 forgeries of the work of modern artists like Matis…

From Ancient times up until our present day, artworks and other pieces of cultural heritage have been targeted for destruction by groups and individuals seeking to reorder society to their own narrow ideas. From the Byzantine and Reformation Iconoclasms, to the Nazi modern art purge, and the wholesale artifact obliterations undertaken by contempora…

1994 and 2004 – within one decade, two versions of Edvard Munch’s iconic 19th century Expressionist masterpiece, The Scream, were targeted in major thefts. We all know the work, but what do we know about it? I explore the backstory, meanings, and ubiquity of this arresting modern Mona Lisa, as well as the brazen ways versions of it briefly disappea…

Amid the dark decades of the 1930s and 40s in Holland, a little acclaimed & self obsessed artist named Han Van Meegeren decided to take revenge on the art world that had scorned him – by creating an forgery of the work of beloved Dutch Old Master, Johannes Vermeer. He succeed beyond his wildest imagination, but how did his frankly ugly artworks, di…

In this, the first episode of The Art Crimecast, I explore the unsolved mystery of one of the largest art thefts ever committed, the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA.Find all the images of artworks/content discussed in this episode here on the blog - https://theartcrimecast.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/episode-1-the-gar…