1 00:00:15,370 --> 00:00:25,410 Speaker 1: Pushkin for a charming little town. Schleswig in Germany has 2 00:00:25,450 --> 00:00:29,210 Speaker 1: a magnificent old cathedral. Parts of the Cathedral of Saint 3 00:00:29,210 --> 00:00:33,250 Speaker 1: Peter date back nearly nine hundred years, and King Frederick, 4 00:00:33,330 --> 00:00:37,290 Speaker 1: the First of Denmark is buried there. Decade after decade, 5 00:00:37,770 --> 00:00:41,570 Speaker 1: century after century, new parts were added to the building, 6 00:00:41,970 --> 00:00:46,930 Speaker 1: the new artwork. Late in the eighteen hundreds, Schleswig became 7 00:00:47,130 --> 00:00:50,930 Speaker 1: the regional capital and work began on the restoration of 8 00:00:50,970 --> 00:00:55,490 Speaker 1: the cathedral's great Gothic frescoes. These pictures were painted on 9 00:00:55,530 --> 00:00:59,890 Speaker 1: the walls of the cathedral cloisters. They were glorious, but 10 00:00:59,970 --> 00:01:05,850 Speaker 1: they were fading, flaking, being corroded by six centuries of damp, 11 00:01:06,930 --> 00:01:11,050 Speaker 1: and so the cathedral commissioned a painter, August Olbas, to 12 00:01:11,130 --> 00:01:15,650 Speaker 1: restore the great medieval paintings. His work began in eighteen 13 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:19,250 Speaker 1: eighty eight, and it was widely admired for its beauty 14 00:01:19,610 --> 00:01:26,010 Speaker 1: and clarity. Five decades passed and tastes changed, as tastes do. 15 00:01:27,210 --> 00:01:31,810 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty seven, the church authorities decided that August 16 00:01:31,890 --> 00:01:38,010 Speaker 1: Olbers had done a terrible job. He'd added too much repainting, 17 00:01:38,170 --> 00:01:42,290 Speaker 1: rather than carefully revealing and conserving what was there. The 18 00:01:42,450 --> 00:01:46,770 Speaker 1: new conventional wisdom was that a modern restorer shouldn't add 19 00:01:46,890 --> 00:01:51,130 Speaker 1: anything to the original work, and in particular shouldn't fill 20 00:01:51,170 --> 00:01:54,810 Speaker 1: in the blanks where the original work had disappeared in patches. 21 00:01:55,490 --> 00:01:58,970 Speaker 1: Alba's had done all that, it was agreed that his 22 00:01:59,050 --> 00:02:04,050 Speaker 1: work must be removed, and the original medieval art, even 23 00:02:04,090 --> 00:02:10,490 Speaker 1: if incomplete or damaged, must be revealed. So three men 24 00:02:10,650 --> 00:02:15,290 Speaker 1: began the second attempt at restoration. In charge was Professor 25 00:02:15,530 --> 00:02:20,170 Speaker 1: Ernst Faye, a noted art restorer and a widely admired 26 00:02:20,290 --> 00:02:25,090 Speaker 1: historian of art. Assisting him was Dietrich Faye, his son, 27 00:02:26,010 --> 00:02:28,850 Speaker 1: and at the bottom of the pyramid. Assisting them both 28 00:02:29,290 --> 00:02:34,330 Speaker 1: was a young painter by the name of Lothar Malskat. Faye, 29 00:02:34,850 --> 00:02:40,330 Speaker 1: Faye and Malscat worked diligently for months, protecting the artwork 30 00:02:40,410 --> 00:02:45,490 Speaker 1: with scaffolds and tarpaulin, until finally revealing the restored work 31 00:02:45,810 --> 00:02:51,090 Speaker 1: in all its glory. The critics were astounded and delighted. 32 00:02:51,890 --> 00:02:54,170 Speaker 1: The paintings may have dated all the way back to 33 00:02:54,210 --> 00:02:58,170 Speaker 1: the year thirteen hundred or even earlier. Under the sensitive 34 00:02:58,210 --> 00:03:02,450 Speaker 1: guidance a Professor Faye, they'd been restored so beautifully that 35 00:03:02,530 --> 00:03:07,690 Speaker 1: they might have been painted yesterday. It was a triumph 36 00:03:07,890 --> 00:03:10,650 Speaker 1: something for visitors to the Cathedral of Saint Peter to 37 00:03:10,810 --> 00:03:17,530 Speaker 1: marvel act. Although there was one curious fact about the 38 00:03:17,570 --> 00:03:22,090 Speaker 1: restored frescoes. A local historian was the first to notice it. 39 00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:27,050 Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus had reached the Americas in fourteen ninety two. 40 00:03:27,570 --> 00:03:32,850 Speaker 1: So wasn't it striking that a biblical fresco painted two 41 00:03:33,010 --> 00:03:39,090 Speaker 1: centuries before that voyage depicted eight creatures that were definitely 42 00:03:39,850 --> 00:03:49,090 Speaker 1: unmistakably American. Wild turkis I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening 43 00:03:49,490 --> 00:04:16,090 Speaker 1: to cautionary tales. If Professor Ernst Faye felt awkward about 44 00:04:16,130 --> 00:04:21,130 Speaker 1: the presence of those suspiciously anachronistic turkeys, he didn't show it. 45 00:04:22,010 --> 00:04:26,610 Speaker 1: But then he was a man with powerful friends. Faye 46 00:04:26,810 --> 00:04:31,610 Speaker 1: was undoubtedly an expert in art history, particularly the history 47 00:04:31,650 --> 00:04:35,690 Speaker 1: of church frescoes, and he was a skilled artist too, 48 00:04:36,410 --> 00:04:41,130 Speaker 1: that his most valuable ability was as a networker. In 49 00:04:41,210 --> 00:04:44,690 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, he flattered his way into the circle 50 00:04:44,730 --> 00:04:48,930 Speaker 1: of Hermann Gering, the most powerful man in Nazi Germany 51 00:04:49,050 --> 00:04:53,010 Speaker 1: other than Adolf Hitler himself. Gerring liked to think of 52 00:04:53,090 --> 00:04:56,970 Speaker 1: himself as a great connoisseur of art and loved having 53 00:04:57,010 --> 00:05:00,370 Speaker 1: men such as Professor Faye to reassure him that he 54 00:05:00,530 --> 00:05:06,330 Speaker 1: was Faye's son. Dietrich learned everything his father had to 55 00:05:06,370 --> 00:05:09,530 Speaker 1: teach him about the history of art and the game 56 00:05:09,610 --> 00:05:14,250 Speaker 1: of securing powerful patrons. Before taking on the restoration of 57 00:05:14,290 --> 00:05:17,250 Speaker 1: Saint Peter's in Schleswig, they had been kept busy with 58 00:05:17,290 --> 00:05:21,730 Speaker 1: a string of prestigious commissions to restore paintings across Germany. 59 00:05:22,170 --> 00:05:24,610 Speaker 1: They could scarcely keep up with the pace of work. 60 00:05:25,570 --> 00:05:28,690 Speaker 1: It was at this moment, in nineteen thirty six, that 61 00:05:28,930 --> 00:05:32,930 Speaker 1: Lothar Malskat had knocked on the door of Ernst Faye's 62 00:05:33,010 --> 00:05:35,650 Speaker 1: home in Berlin and asked if he was looking for 63 00:05:35,690 --> 00:05:42,770 Speaker 1: an assistant. Malskat was twenty three, talented and desperate. He'd 64 00:05:42,810 --> 00:05:46,610 Speaker 1: studied at the Art Academy of Kernucksburg, and his professors 65 00:05:46,610 --> 00:05:49,730 Speaker 1: had been hugely impressed by the range of styles he 66 00:05:49,730 --> 00:05:56,730 Speaker 1: could execute. One of them called his versatility extraordinary, almost uncanny. 67 00:05:57,850 --> 00:06:00,410 Speaker 1: But when he'd tried to launch his career as an 68 00:06:00,490 --> 00:06:04,610 Speaker 1: artist in nineteen thirties Berlin, he had sunk without trace. 69 00:06:06,250 --> 00:06:11,610 Speaker 1: Professor Ernst Faye looked Malskat up and down, coolly, appraising 70 00:06:11,690 --> 00:06:14,810 Speaker 1: him as he might have appraised a Flemish still life. 71 00:06:15,490 --> 00:06:21,290 Speaker 1: Malskat looked hungry. He'd been sleeping on park benches. Professor 72 00:06:21,330 --> 00:06:25,970 Speaker 1: Faye offered him a job whitewashing his house. It was 73 00:06:26,010 --> 00:06:32,130 Speaker 1: a start. Malskat was a quick learner. Under the tutelage 74 00:06:32,170 --> 00:06:36,210 Speaker 1: of Professor Faye, and with access to Faye's extensive library 75 00:06:36,250 --> 00:06:40,810 Speaker 1: of ecclesiastical art, Malskat learned more than most people will 76 00:06:40,850 --> 00:06:47,090 Speaker 1: ever know about restoring church paintings. The duo of Faye 77 00:06:47,090 --> 00:06:50,770 Speaker 1: and Faye were now a trio, or so it seemed 78 00:06:50,770 --> 00:06:55,170 Speaker 1: to Malskat, But to Ernst and Dietrich Faye, the hungry, 79 00:06:55,210 --> 00:06:58,410 Speaker 1: homeless guy they'd taken pity on. He'd only ever be 80 00:06:58,450 --> 00:07:04,210 Speaker 1: the hired help. A year later, Faye, Faye and Maulscat 81 00:07:04,650 --> 00:07:08,650 Speaker 1: stood in the cloisters of Schleswig Cathedral and contemplated the 82 00:07:08,650 --> 00:07:14,010 Speaker 1: work of August Olba's Alba's Remember had taken moldering work 83 00:07:14,130 --> 00:07:18,810 Speaker 1: from the thirteen hundreds and sumptuously restored it, adding paint 84 00:07:18,970 --> 00:07:22,370 Speaker 1: where the original was thinning and freestyling over the gaps 85 00:07:22,410 --> 00:07:25,890 Speaker 1: where the original had gone. His work had been admired 86 00:07:25,890 --> 00:07:31,010 Speaker 1: of the time, but times had changed. Alba's's renovation had 87 00:07:31,050 --> 00:07:34,890 Speaker 1: to be carefully removed. The medieval work underneath needed to 88 00:07:34,930 --> 00:07:39,650 Speaker 1: be uncovered and displayed, and so the trio began to 89 00:07:39,690 --> 00:07:46,690 Speaker 1: scrape away all traces of Alba's' work, slowly, slowly, slowly. 90 00:07:47,930 --> 00:07:52,850 Speaker 1: But perhaps Alba's had been careless, or perhaps his successes 91 00:07:52,850 --> 00:07:58,090 Speaker 1: had been because when they'd finished, there's nothing left. Professor 92 00:07:58,130 --> 00:08:04,810 Speaker 1: Faye reported, a worried mouse cat nothing well, almost nothing. 93 00:08:05,410 --> 00:08:11,330 Speaker 1: See for yourself. No, no, no, just can't be. The 94 00:08:11,450 --> 00:08:16,170 Speaker 1: paintings were more than six centuries old. They were jewels 95 00:08:16,170 --> 00:08:19,850 Speaker 1: in the crown of German heritage, or at least they 96 00:08:19,890 --> 00:08:23,930 Speaker 1: had been. Now they were a few flakes of paint 97 00:08:24,130 --> 00:08:28,690 Speaker 1: on a moldy old wall, and Professor Ernst Faye was 98 00:08:28,730 --> 00:08:35,850 Speaker 1: in charge of the disaster. Schiser Schis swore Ernst Faye, no, no, 99 00:08:35,930 --> 00:08:40,810 Speaker 1: don't worry, you can fix this. Mouscat fetch them whitewash, whitewash, 100 00:08:40,890 --> 00:08:45,730 Speaker 1: Professor Faye, We're going to start again. Then start again 101 00:08:45,810 --> 00:08:50,730 Speaker 1: they did. Lothar mauscat had started working for Ernst Faye 102 00:08:50,730 --> 00:08:55,650 Speaker 1: by whitewashing his house. Now he was whitewashing the cloisters 103 00:08:55,690 --> 00:09:00,690 Speaker 1: of Schleswig cathedral. He gave himself a completely blank surface 104 00:09:00,770 --> 00:09:04,890 Speaker 1: on which to work, the whitewash slightly tinted to give 105 00:09:04,930 --> 00:09:08,810 Speaker 1: the impression of age, and then he began to paint 106 00:09:09,450 --> 00:09:13,250 Speaker 1: free hand, finally living up to the promise his Kernicksburg 107 00:09:13,370 --> 00:09:18,610 Speaker 1: professors had admired. His uncanny ability to work in any style. 108 00:09:19,850 --> 00:09:24,250 Speaker 1: Was the whole scam Malskat's idea or Dietrich phase, we 109 00:09:24,370 --> 00:09:29,290 Speaker 1: don't know. Jonathan Keats, and artist and art historian, thinks 110 00:09:29,330 --> 00:09:32,730 Speaker 1: that even though Malskat was the one holding the brush, 111 00:09:32,850 --> 00:09:37,970 Speaker 1: the mastermind was the man in charge, Professor Ernst Faye himself. 112 00:09:39,610 --> 00:09:43,530 Speaker 1: Malskat was not painting purely from his imagination. He had 113 00:09:43,570 --> 00:09:47,210 Speaker 1: studied Professor Faye's books, which were filled with medieval art. 114 00:09:47,730 --> 00:09:51,570 Speaker 1: He had, of course observed August Olbers's work up close, 115 00:09:51,610 --> 00:09:55,410 Speaker 1: as he carefully scraped it away and into the mix 116 00:09:55,450 --> 00:10:00,930 Speaker 1: of nineteenth century restoration and medieval work, he stirred other influences. 117 00:10:01,890 --> 00:10:05,330 Speaker 1: He based the face of Jesus on an old classmate 118 00:10:05,450 --> 00:10:09,850 Speaker 1: from Kernicksburg. He boldly drew a prophet with the features 119 00:10:09,890 --> 00:10:14,050 Speaker 1: of his own father, and the Virgin Mary was inspired 120 00:10:14,130 --> 00:10:18,290 Speaker 1: by the beautiful young actress Hans Knottec a huge star 121 00:10:18,410 --> 00:10:22,730 Speaker 1: in the German movies of the day, After all, reasoned Malskat, 122 00:10:23,290 --> 00:10:26,170 Speaker 1: if you're going to draw the Virgin Mary base her 123 00:10:26,250 --> 00:10:30,690 Speaker 1: on a woman who also inspired devotion a film star, 124 00:10:31,810 --> 00:10:36,570 Speaker 1: it all sounds absurd, and Malskat was certainly improvising more 125 00:10:36,610 --> 00:10:40,610 Speaker 1: than one might expect. But he had a gift and 126 00:10:41,170 --> 00:10:46,730 Speaker 1: expertly inhabited the simple, almost cartoonish style of the fourteenth century. 127 00:10:48,010 --> 00:10:51,730 Speaker 1: The finishing touches came from Professor Faye, who gave the 128 00:10:51,810 --> 00:10:55,810 Speaker 1: brown and orange drawings the patina of the ages by 129 00:10:55,850 --> 00:10:59,610 Speaker 1: gently rubbing them with a brick. The whole thing looked 130 00:10:59,690 --> 00:11:04,690 Speaker 1: rather convincing. Film star or no film star, that said, 131 00:11:05,490 --> 00:11:08,490 Speaker 1: in a biblical image that was supposed to have been 132 00:11:08,570 --> 00:11:14,250 Speaker 1: painted two centuries before Columbus sailed to America, surely including 133 00:11:14,410 --> 00:11:20,530 Speaker 1: eight turkeys, would see the deception immediately unravel, wouldn't it. 134 00:11:21,770 --> 00:11:39,290 Speaker 1: Cautionary tales will return after this message. In Nazi Germany, 135 00:11:39,650 --> 00:11:43,170 Speaker 1: there was really only one possible reaction to the discovery 136 00:11:43,210 --> 00:11:49,170 Speaker 1: of eight turkeys on a supposedly medieval fresco. The murals 137 00:11:49,610 --> 00:11:55,090 Speaker 1: were genuine. It was history that had been faked. The 138 00:11:55,170 --> 00:11:59,130 Speaker 1: idea had already been circulating that a German explorer named 139 00:11:59,210 --> 00:12:03,650 Speaker 1: Diedrich Pinning had reached the Americas in fourteen seventy three, 140 00:12:04,210 --> 00:12:08,770 Speaker 1: nineteen years before Columbus. Although there isn't much evidence that 141 00:12:08,810 --> 00:12:13,130 Speaker 1: this is true, the theory was enthusiastically endorsed by the 142 00:12:13,210 --> 00:12:18,730 Speaker 1: Nazi authorities in the nineteen thirties. Now the Schleswig Turkeys 143 00:12:19,010 --> 00:12:23,130 Speaker 1: showed that Pinning hadn't been the first. Here, at last 144 00:12:23,370 --> 00:12:27,690 Speaker 1: was definitive proof that the Aryan race had not only 145 00:12:27,730 --> 00:12:32,490 Speaker 1: reached the America's centuries earlier than that swore the Mediterranean 146 00:12:32,610 --> 00:12:38,250 Speaker 1: scoundrel Columbus, but they'd returned home with a population of 147 00:12:38,370 --> 00:12:44,530 Speaker 1: wild turkeys. The theory was ludicrous on its face, but 148 00:12:44,570 --> 00:12:49,890 Speaker 1: it was almost universally embraced. The Schleswiger Truthan builder or 149 00:12:50,010 --> 00:12:55,650 Speaker 1: Schlesswig Turkey pictures should have been an embarrassment. Instead, they 150 00:12:55,650 --> 00:13:01,410 Speaker 1: were a cause for national celebration, and perhaps that shouldn't 151 00:13:01,450 --> 00:13:06,370 Speaker 1: be surprising. Germany had become a fascist state, keen to 152 00:13:06,410 --> 00:13:11,210 Speaker 1: amplify any idea that suggested and greatness, no matter how 153 00:13:11,290 --> 00:13:16,250 Speaker 1: absurd that idea might be. There were rewards for complicity, 154 00:13:17,090 --> 00:13:22,410 Speaker 1: and there were punishments for dissent. After all, Professor Faye 155 00:13:22,690 --> 00:13:27,130 Speaker 1: was responsible for the restoration. Professor Faye was friends with 156 00:13:27,170 --> 00:13:31,770 Speaker 1: Herman Gering, and people who upset Herman Gering had a 157 00:13:31,770 --> 00:13:35,170 Speaker 1: tendency to disappear. If you had a problem with the 158 00:13:35,210 --> 00:13:39,010 Speaker 1: Turks of Schleswig, Herman Gering had a problem with you. 159 00:13:42,730 --> 00:13:46,170 Speaker 1: One of the historians who promoted the Turkey sketches as 160 00:13:46,330 --> 00:13:50,970 Speaker 1: vital historical evidence was Professor Alfred Stanger, one of the 161 00:13:51,090 --> 00:13:56,290 Speaker 1: leading ideologus in Nazi Germany. Stanger declared that the restoration 162 00:13:56,570 --> 00:14:01,050 Speaker 1: was as restrained as it was careful, which when you 163 00:14:01,090 --> 00:14:05,530 Speaker 1: think about it, is true, and that the murals were 164 00:14:05,570 --> 00:14:12,090 Speaker 1: the last, deepest final word in German art. Is a 165 00:14:12,130 --> 00:14:16,130 Speaker 1: lie still a lie when everyone in power agrees to 166 00:14:16,130 --> 00:14:21,610 Speaker 1: believe it. Yet there was one notable voice raised to 167 00:14:21,650 --> 00:14:26,930 Speaker 1: expose the lie. The original renovator of the murals, eighty 168 00:14:27,010 --> 00:14:31,890 Speaker 1: year old August Olbers, was still alive and mightily surprised 169 00:14:31,890 --> 00:14:35,410 Speaker 1: to hear so many historians building theories off the back 170 00:14:35,450 --> 00:14:39,850 Speaker 1: of those turkeys. Herr Albas came forward to declare that 171 00:14:39,890 --> 00:14:42,930 Speaker 1: the Turks of Schleswig hadn't been painted in the year 172 00:14:43,090 --> 00:14:47,450 Speaker 1: thirteen hundred. He had painted some himself in eighteen eighty nine, 173 00:14:47,530 --> 00:14:51,370 Speaker 1: or so four of them. Anyway, Olbers had been restoring 174 00:14:51,410 --> 00:14:55,290 Speaker 1: a mural depicting King Herod's massacre of the Innocence, and 175 00:14:55,570 --> 00:14:58,570 Speaker 1: there was a blank space underneath it which had wants 176 00:14:58,690 --> 00:15:03,810 Speaker 1: contained medieval work. Olbas decided to add an alternating pattern 177 00:15:03,970 --> 00:15:07,890 Speaker 1: of foxes and turkeys. It was a visual allegory for 178 00:15:08,050 --> 00:15:12,650 Speaker 1: King Herod's combat nation of cunning and greed. But Alba's, 179 00:15:12,730 --> 00:15:16,130 Speaker 1: remember had never pretended to be doing anything other than 180 00:15:16,210 --> 00:15:19,650 Speaker 1: filling in the gaps between the original work. It's what 181 00:15:19,730 --> 00:15:24,050 Speaker 1: people had wanted back then. As Lothar Malskat had been 182 00:15:24,170 --> 00:15:29,330 Speaker 1: riffing away, faking medieval frescoes while drawing inspiration from art 183 00:15:29,450 --> 00:15:35,570 Speaker 1: history books, contemporary film stills, and Albas's nineteenth century editions, 184 00:15:35,570 --> 00:15:39,210 Speaker 1: he must have seen those turkeys and liked them, not 185 00:15:39,410 --> 00:15:43,690 Speaker 1: caring or more likely not realizing that they could never 186 00:15:43,770 --> 00:15:48,570 Speaker 1: have been in the underlying medieval work. After all, Malskat 187 00:15:48,970 --> 00:15:57,450 Speaker 1: was an artist, not an ornithologist. Alba's had originally painted 188 00:15:57,650 --> 00:16:05,010 Speaker 1: four turkeys. Malskat's allegedly medieval restoration now contained eight. And 189 00:16:05,130 --> 00:16:08,770 Speaker 1: now there were two awkward facts pointing to the conclusion 190 00:16:08,850 --> 00:16:15,090 Speaker 1: that Faye Faye and Malskat were frauds. First, it was 191 00:16:15,410 --> 00:16:20,090 Speaker 1: perfectly obvious that Aran Vikings had not brought turkeys back 192 00:16:20,130 --> 00:16:24,610 Speaker 1: from the Americus of the twelve hundreds. Second, the man 193 00:16:24,690 --> 00:16:27,330 Speaker 1: who had originally put those turkeys on the walls of 194 00:16:27,370 --> 00:16:32,050 Speaker 1: the cloisters of Schlesvig Cathedral, August Olbers, was telling everyone 195 00:16:32,330 --> 00:16:38,450 Speaker 1: exactly what had happened. Yet given the political context, nobody 196 00:16:38,490 --> 00:16:42,850 Speaker 1: wanted to listen. Experts queued up to explain that old 197 00:16:42,890 --> 00:16:49,370 Speaker 1: hair Olbers was evidently suffering from dementia. The grand lie 198 00:16:49,570 --> 00:16:54,050 Speaker 1: was further cemented in nineteen forty when Heinrich Himmler, head 199 00:16:54,090 --> 00:16:58,890 Speaker 1: of the Nazi SS, ordered that every German school should 200 00:16:58,890 --> 00:17:03,450 Speaker 1: receive a copy of Schleswig Cathedral and its murals. An 201 00:17:03,450 --> 00:17:08,530 Speaker 1: illustrated book by the Nazi art historian Alfred Stanger. It's 202 00:17:08,690 --> 00:17:13,530 Speaker 1: quite a book. Stanger notes that the schleshfig figures resemble 203 00:17:13,650 --> 00:17:17,770 Speaker 1: those from further west and south in Germany. It's proof 204 00:17:18,050 --> 00:17:23,010 Speaker 1: that Germany is one nation. Maltscat had painted them to 205 00:17:23,090 --> 00:17:27,730 Speaker 1: fit Nazi racial stereotypes. I had to paint the apostles 206 00:17:27,730 --> 00:17:31,410 Speaker 1: as long headed Vikings, he said, because one did not 207 00:17:31,490 --> 00:17:37,690 Speaker 1: want Eastern roundheads. Maltscat evidently knew how to please his audience. 208 00:17:38,330 --> 00:17:42,650 Speaker 1: Stanger almost purs with pleasure as he uses the murals 209 00:17:42,690 --> 00:17:46,450 Speaker 1: to draw a link between the German bloodline and the Vikings. 210 00:17:47,530 --> 00:17:52,570 Speaker 1: Stanger explains that the unknown painter, working around twelve eighty, 211 00:17:53,130 --> 00:17:59,850 Speaker 1: displayed astonishing powers of discernment in portraying the turkeys he 212 00:17:59,890 --> 00:18:07,970 Speaker 1: had observed and reproduced the creature's individuality and smallest idiosyncrasies. Well, 213 00:18:08,290 --> 00:18:15,210 Speaker 1: I'll grant this, They definitely looked like turkeys. Stanger added 214 00:18:15,250 --> 00:18:19,370 Speaker 1: that the portrayals are not, as so often borrowed from 215 00:18:19,410 --> 00:18:24,250 Speaker 1: reference books, but based on a high degree of personal observation. 216 00:18:25,090 --> 00:18:27,530 Speaker 1: But good to know, just in case you'd been thinking 217 00:18:27,530 --> 00:18:30,890 Speaker 1: that the Vikings had reached the Americas. That brought back 218 00:18:30,970 --> 00:18:34,770 Speaker 1: nothing but an encyclopedia, and just in case there was 219 00:18:34,970 --> 00:18:39,130 Speaker 1: any doubt about the subtext. A guidebook for tourists visiting 220 00:18:39,130 --> 00:18:43,650 Speaker 1: the cathedral of Saint Peter in Schleswig explained that Aryan 221 00:18:43,810 --> 00:18:48,370 Speaker 1: seafarers went to America long before Columbus did. Incidentally, Columbus 222 00:18:48,450 --> 00:18:53,130 Speaker 1: is the descendant of Spanish Jews from Barcelona. Combine one 223 00:18:53,330 --> 00:18:59,610 Speaker 1: part comical fraud with one part fascist ideology, stirwell, add 224 00:18:59,610 --> 00:19:03,250 Speaker 1: a pinch of intimidation and you have a lie baked 225 00:19:03,330 --> 00:19:07,010 Speaker 1: in so thoroughly that nobody seems to be able to 226 00:19:07,050 --> 00:19:12,530 Speaker 1: even imagine the truth. The only comfort, surely is that 227 00:19:12,570 --> 00:19:16,970 Speaker 1: such a thing could never happen in a democracy. Or 228 00:19:17,330 --> 00:19:21,490 Speaker 1: could it? The answer may be less encouraging than we'd 229 00:19:21,490 --> 00:19:28,330 Speaker 1: like to think. Let me explain. Sunday, March the twenty ninth, 230 00:19:28,930 --> 00:19:34,610 Speaker 1: nineteen forty two Palm Sunday. In fact, Winston Churchill has 231 00:19:34,650 --> 00:19:38,370 Speaker 1: grown tired of trying to bomb small and well defended 232 00:19:38,410 --> 00:19:42,370 Speaker 1: German factories and has decided to fire bomb a civilian 233 00:19:42,410 --> 00:19:48,530 Speaker 1: population instead. The British choose Lubeck, a beautiful medieval port 234 00:19:49,210 --> 00:19:53,970 Speaker 1: less than one hundred miles away from Schleswig. Lubeck is 235 00:19:54,010 --> 00:20:00,530 Speaker 1: a soft target, largely undefended buildings supported by ancient dry 236 00:20:00,570 --> 00:20:05,570 Speaker 1: wooden beams. The darkness of the blacked out city unmistakable 237 00:20:05,730 --> 00:20:10,290 Speaker 1: in contrast with nearby fields dusted with sparkling late spring 238 00:20:10,370 --> 00:20:14,730 Speaker 1: frost and waterways glinting in the light of the full moon. 239 00:20:15,890 --> 00:20:20,490 Speaker 1: The Royal Air Force come in low. They dropped four 240 00:20:20,850 --> 00:20:25,290 Speaker 1: hundred tons of bombs, most of them in centuries, and 241 00:20:25,450 --> 00:20:30,090 Speaker 1: the center of the Lubeck burns right in the middle 242 00:20:30,130 --> 00:20:34,530 Speaker 1: of it. All is Lubec's great medieval church, the Marian Kiyoshi. 243 00:20:35,690 --> 00:20:39,450 Speaker 1: The firestorm is so hot that the church bells melt, 244 00:20:42,090 --> 00:20:46,650 Speaker 1: And yet after the embers had cooled, came the miracle 245 00:20:46,930 --> 00:20:52,010 Speaker 1: of Marion Kiyoshi. On the walls of the church, huge 246 00:20:52,090 --> 00:20:57,010 Speaker 1: Gothic frescoes had been exposed. They'd been concealed under centuries 247 00:20:57,050 --> 00:21:00,650 Speaker 1: of whitewash, but the whitewash had been peeled away in 248 00:21:00,690 --> 00:21:06,410 Speaker 1: the heat. It was the most astonishing inspiring discovery. Of course, 249 00:21:06,690 --> 00:21:10,330 Speaker 1: those frescoes now needed to be preserved by the best 250 00:21:10,490 --> 00:21:14,610 Speaker 1: experts in Germany. But there was a war on, so 251 00:21:14,930 --> 00:21:19,010 Speaker 1: Ubec's authorities put up some temporary roofing and awaited the 252 00:21:19,090 --> 00:21:23,370 Speaker 1: day that the war ended. That day didn't come for 253 00:21:23,490 --> 00:21:31,330 Speaker 1: another three years. Lothar Malscat had been jobless and penniless 254 00:21:31,410 --> 00:21:33,730 Speaker 1: at the end of the war, trying to make a 255 00:21:33,770 --> 00:21:38,330 Speaker 1: living by painting erotic pictures. If the German economy hadn't 256 00:21:38,330 --> 00:21:41,610 Speaker 1: been wrecked many young German men killed in the war, 257 00:21:41,850 --> 00:21:44,090 Speaker 1: and if he hadn't been selling them on the streets, 258 00:21:44,570 --> 00:21:49,090 Speaker 1: he might have scraped together a living. But he didn't, so, 259 00:21:49,330 --> 00:21:51,610 Speaker 1: just as he had done back in the nineteen thirties, 260 00:21:51,770 --> 00:21:54,570 Speaker 1: he had gone to the Phay's house in desperation and 261 00:21:54,730 --> 00:21:59,930 Speaker 1: asked for work. Old Professor Faye had died, but his son, 262 00:22:00,010 --> 00:22:04,130 Speaker 1: Dietrich was the same as ever. The art historian Jonathan 263 00:22:04,250 --> 00:22:07,570 Speaker 1: Keats says that Dietrich Faye seemed to be the only 264 00:22:07,650 --> 00:22:11,690 Speaker 1: man in Germany unaffected by the war. He was still 265 00:22:11,770 --> 00:22:17,850 Speaker 1: wearing expensive suits and still smoking expensive cigarettes. And just 266 00:22:18,010 --> 00:22:22,450 Speaker 1: as Dietrich's father had done, Faye Junior treated Mauscat as 267 00:22:22,450 --> 00:22:26,810 Speaker 1: a servant. He set him to work forging paintings by 268 00:22:26,810 --> 00:22:34,690 Speaker 1: the yard chagal Deaga, Gogan, Matisse, Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, van Gogh. 269 00:22:35,450 --> 00:22:39,410 Speaker 1: Even working at speed, Malskat could do them all, not 270 00:22:39,610 --> 00:22:44,810 Speaker 1: always well, but well enough, and Faye had the connections 271 00:22:44,850 --> 00:22:49,730 Speaker 1: to convince people to buy. Not that buyers needed much convincing. 272 00:22:50,290 --> 00:22:53,930 Speaker 1: They were afraid of hyperinflation, which had struck Germany after 273 00:22:53,930 --> 00:22:57,130 Speaker 1: the previous war, and so they were desperate to find 274 00:22:57,210 --> 00:23:01,290 Speaker 1: assets that might keep their value. And after so many 275 00:23:01,410 --> 00:23:05,450 Speaker 1: Jewish connoisseurs had fled Germany or been sent to their 276 00:23:05,490 --> 00:23:09,970 Speaker 1: deaths in extermination camps and their art collection had been stolen, 277 00:23:10,690 --> 00:23:14,370 Speaker 1: it didn't seem strange to find all these paintings floating around, 278 00:23:15,210 --> 00:23:21,490 Speaker 1: and nobody wanted to ask questions about where they'd come from. Then, 279 00:23:21,890 --> 00:23:25,970 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty eight, with post war Germany finally in 280 00:23:25,970 --> 00:23:30,450 Speaker 1: a position to contemplate medieval restoration work, the authorities in 281 00:23:30,530 --> 00:23:35,690 Speaker 1: Lubeck sought out Dietrich Faye, the acclaimed restorer of Saint 282 00:23:35,730 --> 00:23:39,530 Speaker 1: Peter's Cathedral in Schleswig, and asked him to conserve the 283 00:23:39,650 --> 00:23:43,250 Speaker 1: Marion Kirsha murals that had been revealed during the fire 284 00:23:43,250 --> 00:23:48,370 Speaker 1: bombing of Lubeck. Dietrich was given eighty eight thousand marks 285 00:23:48,410 --> 00:23:52,850 Speaker 1: to fund the work. It was a substantial sum relative 286 00:23:52,890 --> 00:23:55,810 Speaker 1: to the wages of the day, something like two hundred 287 00:23:55,810 --> 00:24:01,250 Speaker 1: thousand dollars in today's money. Lothar Malskat was still working 288 00:24:01,250 --> 00:24:05,610 Speaker 1: for Faye on a wage of three marks about seven 289 00:24:05,650 --> 00:24:10,050 Speaker 1: dollars per hour. He duly climbed the scaffold to take 290 00:24:10,090 --> 00:24:14,730 Speaker 1: a look at the enormous murals. When he returned, he 291 00:24:14,810 --> 00:24:19,730 Speaker 1: shook his head. There's nothing there, just dust, a shadow 292 00:24:19,730 --> 00:24:22,290 Speaker 1: of the original. All I have to do is blow 293 00:24:22,330 --> 00:24:27,730 Speaker 1: on it and the shadow disappears. Faye and Malscat could 294 00:24:27,730 --> 00:24:30,290 Speaker 1: see that it would take more than one miracle to 295 00:24:30,370 --> 00:24:35,410 Speaker 1: restore the frescoes of Marion Kirsha. Still they were nothing 296 00:24:35,490 --> 00:24:40,890 Speaker 1: if not miracle workers, right, and so Lothar Malscat got 297 00:24:40,890 --> 00:24:46,610 Speaker 1: to work again, and as always Malscat worked fast. There 298 00:24:46,650 --> 00:24:50,490 Speaker 1: was a deadline. The seven hundredth anniversary celebrations of the 299 00:24:50,610 --> 00:24:55,450 Speaker 1: church were approaching. But so quickly did Malscat restore, or 300 00:24:55,850 --> 00:25:01,050 Speaker 1: rather reimagine, the fourteenth century frescoes that Faye suggested they 301 00:25:01,130 --> 00:25:05,090 Speaker 1: keep working. The pair put up some scaffolding in a 302 00:25:05,090 --> 00:25:11,170 Speaker 1: different part of the church and discovered another wall full 303 00:25:11,210 --> 00:25:16,330 Speaker 1: of fourteenth century paintings. Not everyone was happy with what 304 00:25:16,490 --> 00:25:20,330 Speaker 1: was going on behind that scaffolding. The State Curator of 305 00:25:20,450 --> 00:25:24,450 Speaker 1: Art wrote a confidential report suggesting that Dietrich Faye had 306 00:25:24,490 --> 00:25:30,170 Speaker 1: probably overpainted previous restorations, and a young researcher named Johannah 307 00:25:30,210 --> 00:25:34,010 Speaker 1: Colba managed to examine the work at close range and 308 00:25:34,130 --> 00:25:38,330 Speaker 1: submit her concerns to the city authorities. I regret to 309 00:25:38,370 --> 00:25:41,890 Speaker 1: report that the overpainting is much too thick. There are 310 00:25:41,930 --> 00:25:46,450 Speaker 1: also some strange discrepancies. For example, photographs of the fire 311 00:25:46,570 --> 00:25:50,610 Speaker 1: damaged church in nineteen forty two show that Mary Magdalene 312 00:25:50,810 --> 00:25:54,930 Speaker 1: has sandals in the restored frescoes. She has bare feet, 313 00:25:55,890 --> 00:26:00,690 Speaker 1: some of the saints appeared to have moved. Dietrich Faye 314 00:26:00,690 --> 00:26:03,690 Speaker 1: threatened to sue Johannah Colber. He was a rich and 315 00:26:03,810 --> 00:26:08,450 Speaker 1: powerful man. She was just a doctoral student. She recanted, 316 00:26:09,170 --> 00:26:14,290 Speaker 1: saying that she must have misremembered. But more than a 317 00:26:14,410 --> 00:26:19,890 Speaker 1: faulty memory was required. Anyone examining those wartime photographs of 318 00:26:19,890 --> 00:26:23,730 Speaker 1: the original frescoes revealed after the fire could see clearly 319 00:26:23,850 --> 00:26:28,850 Speaker 1: how much Mouscat had simply invented. Yet, just as in 320 00:26:28,890 --> 00:26:33,250 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, such doubts were waved away when the 321 00:26:33,330 --> 00:26:38,890 Speaker 1: restored paintings were revealed. The response was ecstatic. Images of 322 00:26:38,890 --> 00:26:43,130 Speaker 1: the murals were put on millions of postage stamps. Tourists 323 00:26:43,210 --> 00:26:47,170 Speaker 1: flocked to Lubeck to visit the church. Journalists wrote about 324 00:26:47,210 --> 00:26:51,650 Speaker 1: the striking discovery, while academics breathlessly explained that it would 325 00:26:51,690 --> 00:26:57,410 Speaker 1: rewrite the history of ecclesiastical art. Dietrich Fay was given 326 00:26:57,450 --> 00:27:01,770 Speaker 1: another one hundred and fifty thousand marks and nominated for 327 00:27:01,810 --> 00:27:06,610 Speaker 1: a professorship. In nineteen fifty one, the leader of West 328 00:27:06,730 --> 00:27:12,250 Speaker 1: Germany's fledgling democracy, Conrad Adenau, visited the church to celebrate 329 00:27:12,290 --> 00:27:17,530 Speaker 1: its septuous centenary and stood in the nave, examining the work. 330 00:27:18,930 --> 00:27:24,850 Speaker 1: This is uplifting, gentleman. He gestured up at the rows 331 00:27:24,890 --> 00:27:28,850 Speaker 1: of saints seventy feet above them, ten feet tall, green 332 00:27:29,210 --> 00:27:33,850 Speaker 1: red and earthy brown, revealed by the wartime inferno, and 333 00:27:34,010 --> 00:27:39,570 Speaker 1: restored to their original glory by Dietrich Faye and his assistant. 334 00:27:40,930 --> 00:27:45,330 Speaker 1: What was the fellow's name? Again, nobody knew the name 335 00:27:45,370 --> 00:27:49,090 Speaker 1: of Lothar Malscat, but soon that name would be on 336 00:27:49,130 --> 00:27:59,530 Speaker 1: the lips of everyone in Germany. Cautionary tales will return 337 00:27:59,610 --> 00:28:15,330 Speaker 1: in a moment. Lothar Malskat was fuming. It wasn't the money, 338 00:28:15,490 --> 00:28:19,570 Speaker 1: although heaven knows Dietrich Faye paid him little enough. It 339 00:28:19,610 --> 00:28:24,490 Speaker 1: was the credit. Malskat had created all this art, the 340 00:28:24,570 --> 00:28:28,050 Speaker 1: images that were being reprinted on stamps, and which were 341 00:28:28,170 --> 00:28:32,210 Speaker 1: yet again rewriting the textbooks, and yet nobody even knew 342 00:28:32,210 --> 00:28:36,930 Speaker 1: his name. Faye was publicly honored by Conrad Adnauer, the 343 00:28:37,050 --> 00:28:42,210 Speaker 1: leader of post war West Germany, and Malskat. Malskat was 344 00:28:42,330 --> 00:28:46,250 Speaker 1: hanging out with the other craftsman. He was a nobody. 345 00:28:49,210 --> 00:28:54,530 Speaker 1: Phaye's plan required Malskat's anonymity. The whole point was to 346 00:28:54,570 --> 00:28:57,650 Speaker 1: claim that the work was done by an anonymous artist 347 00:28:57,730 --> 00:29:04,210 Speaker 1: in the fourteenth century. But Malskat wasn't interested in anonymity anymore. 348 00:29:04,890 --> 00:29:07,450 Speaker 1: He didn't want Faye to take the credit. He didn't 349 00:29:07,450 --> 00:29:10,530 Speaker 1: want a fourteenth century painter to take the credit, and 350 00:29:10,610 --> 00:29:13,690 Speaker 1: so he wrote on the wall of the Marion koshare 351 00:29:14,410 --> 00:29:20,770 Speaker 1: all paintings in this church are by Lothar Malskat. They 352 00:29:20,890 --> 00:29:26,130 Speaker 1: of course painted over that inconvenient declaration immediately, and so 353 00:29:26,370 --> 00:29:31,290 Speaker 1: Malskat took an even more extraordinary step. He went to 354 00:29:31,330 --> 00:29:35,170 Speaker 1: the local police station and made a full confession he 355 00:29:35,770 --> 00:29:41,410 Speaker 1: had faked the Marion Kyoshia murals. The police laughed him 356 00:29:41,410 --> 00:29:46,970 Speaker 1: out of town. Much like August Olbas, the elderly restorer 357 00:29:46,970 --> 00:29:49,930 Speaker 1: who had first put turkeys on the walls of Schleshviig 358 00:29:50,010 --> 00:29:54,850 Speaker 1: Cathedral in the late eighteen hundreds, Lothar Malskat was explaining 359 00:29:54,890 --> 00:29:57,850 Speaker 1: to the world exactly what he had done, and he 360 00:29:57,930 --> 00:30:03,530 Speaker 1: was being sneered at, demeaned, and disbelieved. The local newspaper 361 00:30:03,610 --> 00:30:07,890 Speaker 1: pityingly described it as the lamentable case of a painter 362 00:30:08,050 --> 00:30:14,730 Speaker 1: gone crazy. But unlike August Olbers, Malskat had a secret 363 00:30:14,770 --> 00:30:21,250 Speaker 1: weapon are like a camera. He documented every step in 364 00:30:21,250 --> 00:30:25,970 Speaker 1: the process from obliterating the fragile murals with a steel 365 00:30:26,010 --> 00:30:31,250 Speaker 1: brush where necessary, to slapping on fresh whitewash, to exuberantly 366 00:30:31,370 --> 00:30:35,370 Speaker 1: painting on the blank walls. And while the local authorities 367 00:30:35,410 --> 00:30:38,690 Speaker 1: had no interest in even looking at these photographs, the 368 00:30:38,890 --> 00:30:44,850 Speaker 1: national media found Malskat's story and his photographs rather more intriguing. 369 00:30:46,130 --> 00:30:49,770 Speaker 1: For a few months there was a stalemate. The wider 370 00:30:49,810 --> 00:30:53,490 Speaker 1: world believed Malskat, but the great and the good of 371 00:30:53,570 --> 00:30:58,130 Speaker 1: Lubeck were outraged that perceived slander and backed their man, 372 00:30:58,450 --> 00:31:03,810 Speaker 1: the renowned art expert doctor Fay. When Lothar Malskat confessed 373 00:31:03,850 --> 00:31:07,970 Speaker 1: to also forging the turkeys of Saint Peter's Church at Schleswig, 374 00:31:08,250 --> 00:31:11,690 Speaker 1: they regarded this as further proof that he was deranged 375 00:31:11,890 --> 00:31:18,530 Speaker 1: and with delusions of grandeur too, and so Malskat took 376 00:31:18,530 --> 00:31:24,330 Speaker 1: the fight to a surreal new level. He sued himself 377 00:31:24,810 --> 00:31:29,690 Speaker 1: for forgery under German law. This forced the police to 378 00:31:29,730 --> 00:31:35,290 Speaker 1: take action. Malskat's attorney handed over a dossier full of evidence, 379 00:31:35,770 --> 00:31:39,810 Speaker 1: including accounts of those forged Van Goghs and Rembrandts. When 380 00:31:39,850 --> 00:31:44,770 Speaker 1: the police searched Dietrich Faye's house, they found several more forgeries. 381 00:31:45,610 --> 00:31:49,690 Speaker 1: Dietrich Faye was arrested and taken into custody. Within days, 382 00:31:50,010 --> 00:31:54,370 Speaker 1: an expert commission had been assembled, inspected the Marion Kirsha 383 00:31:54,970 --> 00:31:59,770 Speaker 1: and published a report which agreed with Malskat. None of 384 00:31:59,810 --> 00:32:04,370 Speaker 1: the medieval remains were visible at all. The modern pictures 385 00:32:04,410 --> 00:32:09,530 Speaker 1: followed completely new outlines. The twenty one figures in the 386 00:32:09,610 --> 00:32:14,330 Speaker 1: choir are not Gothic, but painted freehand by Mouscat. The 387 00:32:14,450 --> 00:32:18,290 Speaker 1: painting described as old by the restorer Faye, does not 388 00:32:18,730 --> 00:32:22,650 Speaker 1: lie on the medieval layer, but on a post medieval layer, 389 00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:29,210 Speaker 1: and cannot, if for this reason alone, be considered original. Finally, 390 00:32:29,730 --> 00:32:34,250 Speaker 1: the reckoning was coming. Lubeck was about to hold the 391 00:32:34,250 --> 00:32:43,450 Speaker 1: most sensational trial in the city's history. This isn't really 392 00:32:43,490 --> 00:32:47,810 Speaker 1: a cautionary tale about a forgery. It's a cautionary tale 393 00:32:48,050 --> 00:32:53,930 Speaker 1: about complicity, about who amplifies a lie, who tries to 394 00:32:54,010 --> 00:32:57,410 Speaker 1: silence the truth tellers, and who looks the other way. 395 00:32:58,930 --> 00:33:01,850 Speaker 1: I think we can all understand why, in nineteen thirty 396 00:33:01,890 --> 00:33:05,290 Speaker 1: six nobody really wanted to tell the truth about the 397 00:33:05,330 --> 00:33:10,090 Speaker 1: Turkey pictures of Schleswig. In a fascist state where every 398 00:33:10,170 --> 00:33:14,290 Speaker 1: day political dissidents disappeared into the concentration camps, were beaten 399 00:33:14,410 --> 00:33:17,810 Speaker 1: up or murdered. Who really would put their neck on 400 00:33:17,850 --> 00:33:21,410 Speaker 1: the chopping block for the sake of some anachronistic birds. 401 00:33:23,250 --> 00:33:26,610 Speaker 1: But after the war you might have hoped things would 402 00:33:26,610 --> 00:33:31,530 Speaker 1: go differently. Himmler and Gering were both dead by suicide. 403 00:33:32,210 --> 00:33:36,210 Speaker 1: That ridiculous racist book which claimed that the Schleswig murals 404 00:33:36,450 --> 00:33:40,330 Speaker 1: demonstrated the national unity of Germany had been written by 405 00:33:40,370 --> 00:33:43,330 Speaker 1: Alfred Stanger. He had lost his job as a professor, 406 00:33:44,010 --> 00:33:48,170 Speaker 1: the Nazis had lost, so there was nothing standing in 407 00:33:48,210 --> 00:33:52,130 Speaker 1: the way of recognizing the self evident truth that the 408 00:33:52,130 --> 00:33:58,010 Speaker 1: Schleswig murals were modern, except that Germans had already lost 409 00:33:58,170 --> 00:34:01,730 Speaker 1: so much in the disastrous evils of the Third Reich 410 00:34:01,890 --> 00:34:05,330 Speaker 1: and the war, they didn't really fancy facing up to 411 00:34:05,450 --> 00:34:09,250 Speaker 1: any more losses, such as acknowledging that the schless Big 412 00:34:09,370 --> 00:34:13,650 Speaker 1: murals must be fake. And so, even though the state 413 00:34:13,730 --> 00:34:18,930 Speaker 1: curator had recorded his doubts about Dietrich Faye, Faye was 414 00:34:19,010 --> 00:34:23,690 Speaker 1: put in charge of the fragile miracle of the Marion Kirsha. 415 00:34:23,930 --> 00:34:27,450 Speaker 1: You have to suspect that Lubec's authorities had a sense 416 00:34:27,530 --> 00:34:31,130 Speaker 1: that Faye and his assistant would do more than merely 417 00:34:31,290 --> 00:34:37,050 Speaker 1: conserving the old murals. We want no museum. The architect 418 00:34:37,130 --> 00:34:40,610 Speaker 1: of the restoration project had said, lay on more paint. 419 00:34:41,770 --> 00:34:45,410 Speaker 1: Paint out the church beautifully, agreed the Bishop of Lubeck, 420 00:34:46,010 --> 00:34:48,890 Speaker 1: only later to declare that he had been betrayed by 421 00:34:49,210 --> 00:34:55,850 Speaker 1: an extremely cunning deception. Jonathan Keats, the author of Forged, 422 00:34:56,210 --> 00:34:59,770 Speaker 1: Why Fakes of the Great Art of our Age, says 423 00:34:59,850 --> 00:35:03,530 Speaker 1: the trial in nineteen fifty four of Malskat and Faye 424 00:35:04,210 --> 00:35:08,290 Speaker 1: actually became a trial of all the powerful institutions which 425 00:35:08,290 --> 00:35:14,130 Speaker 1: had supported, protected, and perhaps quietly encouraged them. The local 426 00:35:14,170 --> 00:35:18,810 Speaker 1: newspapers agreed. The real defendants are not the forgers, but 427 00:35:18,890 --> 00:35:22,490 Speaker 1: the experts and officials who failed to exercise proper care 428 00:35:23,130 --> 00:35:27,530 Speaker 1: read the newspaper, they didn't mind being deceived. Had Mouscat 429 00:35:27,530 --> 00:35:30,690 Speaker 1: not photographed the empty church walls before he started painting 430 00:35:30,690 --> 00:35:33,290 Speaker 1: his murals, the evidence would have been suppressed by the 431 00:35:33,410 --> 00:35:36,330 Speaker 1: very people who employed him. They are as much to 432 00:35:36,370 --> 00:35:41,810 Speaker 1: blame as the fortres themselves. Indeed, we all want to 433 00:35:41,850 --> 00:35:46,130 Speaker 1: believe in miracles, and when someone punctures our little bubble 434 00:35:46,210 --> 00:35:50,130 Speaker 1: of wishful thinking, we're less likely to thank them than 435 00:35:50,170 --> 00:35:54,250 Speaker 1: to resent them. The Turkeys of Schleswig showed us that 436 00:35:54,370 --> 00:35:58,530 Speaker 1: in a fascist state people will queue up to endorse 437 00:35:58,570 --> 00:36:03,570 Speaker 1: an obvious lie. But the miracle of Marion Kirsha showed 438 00:36:03,650 --> 00:36:08,850 Speaker 1: us that even a democracy isn't invulnerable to grand self deceptions. 439 00:36:09,850 --> 00:36:14,130 Speaker 1: As Lothar Malskat explained at the trial, people liked to 440 00:36:14,130 --> 00:36:17,050 Speaker 1: be fooled. Today we just gave them what they wanted. 441 00:36:18,690 --> 00:36:22,210 Speaker 1: In the end, Lothar Malskat got what he wanted to. 442 00:36:23,090 --> 00:36:27,330 Speaker 1: He was finally acknowledged as the artist who painted the 443 00:36:27,410 --> 00:36:31,090 Speaker 1: interior of the Marion Kyosha. He also got something he 444 00:36:31,090 --> 00:36:36,530 Speaker 1: didn't want. Eighteen months in prison. Dietrich Faye got twenty 445 00:36:39,010 --> 00:36:44,330 Speaker 1: and the Marion Kosher. The melted church bells still lie 446 00:36:44,450 --> 00:36:47,410 Speaker 1: where they fell to the floor of the church, a 447 00:36:47,450 --> 00:36:52,490 Speaker 1: solemn memorial to the horror of war. But not everything 448 00:36:52,650 --> 00:36:58,770 Speaker 1: has been so carefully remembered. Many of Malskat's paintings stayed up. 449 00:36:59,370 --> 00:37:02,410 Speaker 1: He would have liked that, but he would not have 450 00:37:02,570 --> 00:37:05,970 Speaker 1: liked what the guide books now say about the church. 451 00:37:07,090 --> 00:37:10,890 Speaker 1: Gothic crescoes of Christ and Saints add color to otherwise 452 00:37:10,890 --> 00:37:15,090 Speaker 1: plain walls. The pastel images only resurfaced when a fire 453 00:37:15,250 --> 00:37:18,330 Speaker 1: caused by the nineteen forty two air raid licked away 454 00:37:18,370 --> 00:37:24,570 Speaker 1: the coat of whitewash. What an injustice. Surely the guidebook 455 00:37:24,610 --> 00:37:28,210 Speaker 1: should add all paintings in this church are by loth 456 00:37:28,290 --> 00:37:35,490 Speaker 1: arm Mouscat, but it does not. Apparently you can't keep 457 00:37:35,490 --> 00:37:55,650 Speaker 1: a good miracle down. The definitive account of loth arm 458 00:37:55,690 --> 00:38:01,170 Speaker 1: Mouscat's forgery is in Jonathan Keats's book Forged, Why Fakes 459 00:38:01,170 --> 00:38:04,090 Speaker 1: Are the Great Art of our Age. For a full 460 00:38:04,130 --> 00:38:06,570 Speaker 1: list of our sources, please see the show notes at 461 00:38:06,650 --> 00:38:12,090 Speaker 1: Tim Parford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me 462 00:38:12,450 --> 00:38:16,450 Speaker 1: Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan Dilley 463 00:38:16,650 --> 00:38:20,450 Speaker 1: with support from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughan. A sound 464 00:38:20,450 --> 00:38:23,970 Speaker 1: design and original music is the work of Pascal Wise. 465 00:38:24,410 --> 00:38:28,050 Speaker 1: It features the voice talents of Ben Crow, Melanie Gutridge, 466 00:38:28,090 --> 00:38:32,050 Speaker 1: Stella Harford, and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have 467 00:38:32,050 --> 00:38:35,610 Speaker 1: been possible without the work of Mia LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg, 468 00:38:35,890 --> 00:38:40,970 Speaker 1: Heather Fane, John Schnas, Julia Barton, Kylie mcgliori, Eric Sandler, 469 00:38:41,250 --> 00:38:46,970 Speaker 1: Royston Basserve, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano, Danielle Lakhan, and Maya Kanig. 470 00:38:47,610 --> 00:38:51,610 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you 471 00:38:51,650 --> 00:38:54,770 Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review, 472 00:38:55,090 --> 00:38:57,530 Speaker 1: Tell a friend, tell two friends, and if you want 473 00:38:57,530 --> 00:38:59,970 Speaker 1: to hear the show, adds free and listen to four 474 00:39:00,130 --> 00:39:04,890 Speaker 1: exclusive Cautionary Tales shorts. Then sign up for Pushkin Plus 475 00:39:04,890 --> 00:39:08,090 Speaker 1: on the show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin 476 00:39:08,250 --> 00:39:10,290 Speaker 1: dot fm slash plus