WEBVTT - Glafira Rosales 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:06.560 I think that con artists are effective because they are 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:12.360 incredible readers of human beings. What they do better than 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:17.799 almost anyone else is figure out what makes you personally tick, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.360 what motivates you, What are your hopes, what are you 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.680 scared of you know? What are your fears, what are 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.120 your hang ups? How do you see the world, what 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.560 are the biases and the lenses through which you view reality? 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.440 And then what they do is sell that back to you. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.680 They give you the vision of the world that you 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.880 already believe in, the vision of yourself that you want 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:49.159 to see reflected back and not reality. Part of what 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:53.959 makes a con artist story so compelling is there's usually 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.360 a grain of truth that makes the lie more convincing. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.880 So it will with Rosales and the story she was 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.200 spinning to Anne Friedman about a supposed Clifford Still painting. 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.280 It was a wild tale in which the painting was 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.039 said to be photographed then stored in the trunk of 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.480 a car. Only the car's rear engine had caught fire, 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:22.560 leaving the painting badly burned and unsellable. And it happened. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.600 Actually Carlos was preparing the pieces, and he was threaten 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:31.039 them with her dryers and putting them in coal and 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:37.080 hot temperatures, so that one got burned because he forgot 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.160 to turn the hair dryer of, and of course it 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.320 went in flames. And now Anne is waiting for the piece. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.960 Then what is this planation I'm going to give Carlos 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:55.040 tom It would tell them this ironically, and Freedman would 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.040 later use a fragment of the burned painting as proof 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:03.080 the paintings must have been real. After all, what forgers 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.800 would intentionally burn their carefully crafted artwork. In fact, certain 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.880 materials in the burned fragment typically appeared in authentic Clifford 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.600 Still paintings, A mishap that could have hindered the entire 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:23.800 operation became instead proof of the paintings Authenticityfra Rosalee is 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:28.520 unquestionably the most fascinating and elusive character in the story 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.240 of the Knoler scandal. While many of the major players 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.600 have sat for interviews on camera or in print over 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.560 the years, Mosalez has only told her story privately to 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:45.080 federal prosecutors and investigators. Michael Schnayerson and I spoke with 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:50.240 Gfira rosales in early in a small conference room at 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.720 the Lowell Hotel in New York City. She was accompanied 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:59.320 by her daughter solely. Rosales is a shy, diminutive woman 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.600 with straight, dark hair almost shoulder length, and glasses that 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:08.360 make her look rather academic. She speaks softly, apologizing for 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.640 her English these days. Rosales lives with her daughter in 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:17.720 a small Upper east Side apartment, decades before the irresistible 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.560 hustle of New York City life would lure her to 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:26.880 Knodler Fra. Rosales was born and raised in Mexico. My 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.720 father had a lot of cows, all kind of animals, 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.640 and we have to help with everything, of course, so 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.200 it was a little runch so no water, no electricity. 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:42.960 I grew up with a very difficult father. My childhood, 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:47.480 it was very, very difficult. Your father was difficult, well, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.840 he was abusive. You know. We have to get up 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.360 at four o'clock in the morning go and help him 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:59.840 to the farm. Also helped my mom clean places for 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.800 the animals, gave them food, carry water from kilometers away 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.280 because there was no water. And then I went to 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.520 Mexico City, so I studied there. I was a north 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:11.480 I became a Norse, and then I was a study 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.520 in medicine. It was my dream to be a doctor. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.479 Despite her initial dreams of working in medicine, Rosalas was 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.240 intrigued by fine art as well. At the school, they 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.520 teach you about art, about the mural list, the big 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.080 mural list of the country, like the rivera Frida Carlo, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.720 all of them. By the age of nineteen, rosals had 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.120 a boyfriend, a scruffy, an impressive restaurateur in Mexico City 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.920 named Carlos Bergantinos. Carlos had come from Spain to run 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.280 a little eatery in Mexico's capital. City's sister worked as 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.680 a waitress at the restaurant. One night, she called Glafira 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.640 in a panic. As it turned out, a relationship that 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.880 would be fraught with chaos started no less dramatically. She 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.920 was scared that something happened at the restaurant somebody, which 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.480 it was him. It was drunk and he was having problems. 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.720 So I came to help him, kind of rescue him, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:22.160 and from then he never leave me alone. Despite their 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:27.000 chaotic beginnings, bergen Tinos and Rosawa's stayed together and would 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:31.039 eventually have a daughter together. It was bergen Tinos who 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:35.640 first urged Gofra to come to the United States. I 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.560 never want to come here. I never thought that it 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.800 was good to come here. I felt sorry for people 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.760 who came here and went through so much, so I 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.880 never thought to come here. But he convinced me to come. 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:53.760 He said that it was a land of opportunities. Carlos 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:59.040 and a first arrived in Chicago. They lived there only 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.720 for a short time before moving south to Houston, Texas, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.359 where the couple worked many different low wage jobs to 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.839 support themselves. He was working as a waiter, he works 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:18.080 as a chef. I clean houses. I work as a guaitress, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:25.760 bus girl, taking care of elderly people. From Houston, the 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.000 couple eventually moved to New York City. They arrived one 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:35.440 night on a bus at Port Authority, walking past prostitutes 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.320 and drug addicts. They carried their bags to a shelter 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.080 on Fourteenth Street, but were turned away. They ended up 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.599 that first night in a hotel on West fourteenth Street 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.159 with communal bathrooms so appalling that GFRA used a bucket 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:55.320 to avoid them. Longing for a more peaceful and safer community, 0:06:55.839 --> 0:07:00.200 Carlos and Glaf settled in Great Neck Long Island. One 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.039 early business venture for the pair was learning how to 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.599 treat antique furniture, specifically, how to make new furniture look old. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.320 There seemed to be some promise in that. Inside a 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:16.680 local art gallery, one day, Carlos Bergantino stumbled onto a 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:24.200 potentially more lucrative idea. We were selling antiquities and we 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.040 came to a gallery where they were selling art too, 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.560 and they say that this painting is on the style 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.680 of And from there is where Carlos got the idea 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:43.040 of off, if they could work with antiquities, why not 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:47.880 work with paintings making them look old. Tool Fira says 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.920 she resisted the idea, but had no choice. Carlos pressure me. 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:59.320 He pressured me, he um abuse me physically, and and 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.920 vali and um. He also threatened me to take my 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.240 door away. He couldn't go to galeries himself because he 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:15.400 held that reputation, so I had no choice. As it 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.560 turned out, Carlos Burgontina's was highly skilled at aging new 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.640 artworks and presenting them as old master works. He first 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.360 used his burgeoning talent to sell at least one fake 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:32.160 painting presented as a work by the artist Jean Michel Basquiat. Well, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.760 what happened was that painting unentitled one is a fake 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.800 Basquiat painting that was sold by Christie's back in the 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.760 early nineties. That's Richard Gallop, a New York City attorney 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.559 who specializes in the art world. Basiad died I think 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:53.120 in seven. This painting was sold at auction in at 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.560 Christie's and it was consigned to Christie's by Burgontinos, and 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.199 the painting was sold as an authentic Baskia and it 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.840 sold for two hundred thousand dollars, and then Tony Shafrazie 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.400 then exhibited it at his gallery and a Basquia show 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:13.120 back in I think in those days Christie's didn't care 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.839 about verifying or confirming the information, or they had a 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.800 posity of information about the consigner. So the consigner didn't 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.480 have to give his social Security number, didn't have to 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.920 prove how he knew Bascia, didn't have to give any 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:33.719 kind of biographical history of the relationship between him and Baskia, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.240 how he acquieted from the artist. They just took it 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.000 on consignment, put it on the auction floor, and sold 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:44.559 it well more than amazing. Before the Bascia was consigned 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.600 to Christie's. Christie's they had that painting on an easel 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.200 and they called up Gerard Basquia. Gerard was John Michelle's father, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:56.800 and they said, we've got this Basquia. We're not sure 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.000 it's authentic and everything else. Go over and take a 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.560 look at it. And he went over to sixty seven 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.160 Street with a friend of his and they looked at 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.480 the painting and he didn't think it was right. They 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.440 nevertheless put it in the auction and they sold it. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.440 Boskia showed that even the most renowned auction houses were 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.360 willing to compromise for the sake of a sale, and 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.360 that con artists were all too ready to nudge them along. 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.720 Burgundino's tried another fast one at Christie's in the early 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:32.880 nine nineties, damaging whatever small reputation he had. Burgund Tino's 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.680 got into trouble in the early nineties, you know, because 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.080 he went to Christie's and he bid four thousand dollars 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.199 for a South American painting and then ran out of 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.680 the auction room. That's always great when a bitter runs 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.040 out of the auction room. Afterward, they can't get his number. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.000 Literally ran out of there, I guess, so yeah, and this, 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.839 of course at the same time as the boskiat right 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.840 right in and around the same time, they were buying 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.360 paintings all over the place and phonying up paintings all 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:02.760 over the place. On another occasion, around nineteen Carlos made 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.559 a successful bid of eighty five thousand dollars on a 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.240 nineteenth century Spanish painting, but then he failed to make 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.720 payment and take the work. Christie sued him as a result. 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:18.040 Because of these ham handed art deals, money for Carlos 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.320 and Glaphyra was tight. To make ends meet, Glypha sold 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:27.000 Halloween pumpkins. She sold flowers. At one point, she and 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:33.200 Carlos even wholesaled lobsters to New York restaurants. On Long 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.520 Island's north shore, Carlos had come to love fishing and 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.679 hung out with local fishermen. On a whim, he bought 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.160 an old ambulance and filled it with lobsters freshly caught 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.839 by his pals. Carlos would then deliver the lobsters to 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:52.840 Manhattan restaurants in the ambulance. One day, with lobsters on board, 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.840 bound for a local restaurant, Carlos found himself running late. 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.319 The restaurant owner threatened to fire him if he missed 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:05.040 his deadline. In desperation, Carlos turned on the ambulance's siren 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:10.160 and raced through traffic, arriving just in time. Glafia urged 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.439 him not to use the siren again, but Carlos wouldn't 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.280 hear of it. He continued his ambulance lobster deliveries, racing 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:22.080 down the streets of New York with the siren wailing. Eventually, 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.840 Carlos was pulled over by police. Did the ambulance workers 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:30.200 need an escort? No? Carlos said, no problem there. The 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:35.559 cops grew suspicious. What was he transporting? Sheepishly, Carlos pulled 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.720 out two lobsters and displayed them in the glare of 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.640 the spotlight. For a moment, the cops stood in stunned silence. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.880 When Carlos explained his mission, the officers collapsed in laughter, 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:56.920 more art fraud. In a minute, forced to participate in 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:02.280 Carlos's art forgery scheme, of began educating herself in art. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.600 Carlos's mishaps had revealed the obvious He needed to stay 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.240 in the shadows. Fra was now the front person, the 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:17.360 charmer with a surprisingly keen eye for art. Carlos sent 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:23.200 me to look for customers. I took courses, I took 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:28.600 sim possums, I took lectures. Carlos saw himself as something 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.960 of an artist. He even took classes at the Art 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.360 Student League on fifty seven Street in New York. For decades, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.720 the league had drawn up and coming artists, including many 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:46.319 abstract expressionists, Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.160 and Moore. Among the students at the league was a 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.840 Chinese artist named Patian Quan, an immigrant artist taking classes 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.160 and in his spare time selling portraits own street corners 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.920 to earn extra money. He met him in the village 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:07.840 on sixth Avenue. The painter was there doing portraits. I 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:13.600 believe people, and that's how I know that he met him. 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.720 Eager to make a market for himself. Kaan also painted 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.720 Impressionist landscapes. Carlos could tell they were good, but where 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.280 was the potential for in the style of Impressionist paintings, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.440 The originals were among the best known artworks in the world. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.600 Forging a mone water lily painting would be like holding 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.880 up an American flag and claiming it was an original image. 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.000 But creating in the style of works by abstract expressionist 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.560 painters like Pollock, Decooning and the others would work as 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.240 long as Kwan was skilled enough to produce persuasive knockoffs. 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.400 He tried several artists, then he came up with he 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.680 was the best. Carlos tried several artists. Can I say 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.720 something about that? There is like that version I see 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:04.720 on the media that they portrayed Quan the genius. They 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:10.240 portrayed me, I am the billion but patient he could 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:17.440 not do that himself. Of course, he needed guidance. Quan's 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.240 later portrayal in the media as the genius artist would 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.400 irk Lafra. She knew that Carlos's contribution to the paintings 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.080 was just as important as Kuan's. Where would Quan be 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.600 without Carlos's idea to create these paintings in the style 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:38.440 of Lafia saw how much work Quan put into each painting, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.200 but she also knew just how much of the process 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:45.920 was a true team effort. The help that I gave 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.920 it was to say if it was okay, if it 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.680 was not okay, I mean, And how about Carlos? What 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.920 help did he give them? Well? He gave him, the 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.360 materials he prepared, the materials he signed for the pieces. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.200 An ambitious artist himself, Quan had grown up in China's 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:12.040 island city of Joshan and in Shanghai. Early on, he 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.880 had painted portraits of Chairman Mao for display in Chinese 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:20.920 workplaces and schools. But as the Cultural Revolution ebbed, he 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:25.440 had participated in a daring abstract art movement in Shanghai. 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.760 At the same time, Quan had begun copying the works 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.880 of well known Chinese artists. It's important to note that 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.440 in Chinese art there's no dishonor in copying others work. 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.680 It's an homage and for that matter, an historical tradition. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.440 Many artists make a point of creating a sort of 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.960 split screen art, with a traditional painter's picture on one 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.480 side of the campus and a young artist's interpretation of 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:56.320 it on the other. Armed with a student visa and 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.480 his own American dreams, Quan had come to New York 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:04.480 City in one and moved into a tiny white cottage 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:11.000 street in wood Haven. Queen's Surviving as an artist proved difficult, however, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.520 instead of making his name in America, he had been 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:19.600 forced to take jobs in construction. Kwan's neighbor across the street, 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.400 Edwin Gardner, recalled him as unhappy. Whenever he could, Quan 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.920 would go back to China to visit. When he was 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:28.920 over in China, he would feel like a rock star. 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.879 Gardener explained, because when he walked out on the street, 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.840 everybody knew him, but there was no way to make 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.119 a living as an artist in China in those post 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.680 cultural revolutionary years. My name is Jong Hun too, just 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:46.040 ten years away. Put a family name first, but you 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:52.240 called me perfect. I'm painter. Come here. In nineteen eighty two, 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.840 Hong Tu met Kuan in the United States. They became 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.760 friends and fellow artists. Through the night is patient is 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:06.760 very quiet person. And also I heard from other students. Uh. 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:11.880 He told me patient is very frustrated because his wife 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:16.920 during Shanghai, his own family, his wife, his children's during Shanghai. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:22.680 Here he's alone. He feels so lonely, and nobody recogned him, 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:29.080 nobody know his art, nobody especially his English was not 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:34.760 so good. Quan displayed his art on a street corner 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.560 in Greenwich Village along with other Chinese artists who had 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.359 immigrated to America, but eventually he began to present the 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:47.120 sidewalk art scene. Hong too recalls his friends saying, I'm 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:51.040 not good to do that. There's a competition between artists. 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.000 People lower pressed people sit there to make portrait, some 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.040 fifteen dollars four portrait. The other one said ten dollars. 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:05.640 He gonna do that because he clearly had some ambition. Yes, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.040 and he had ambition to be a good artist. Yes. 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:14.280 One day we have a common friend. She brought patient 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.480 to MoMA. Patient was now down to the floor at 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.600 the front of Monet Water, ready painting, and the crying 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:29.760 cried like a baby, kneeling down that day in tears. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.040 At the moment, Quan's passion and his desire to be 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:37.840 a truly great artist was obvious to everyone who knew him. 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.679 One thing on the tellio, that's what I feeled about 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:45.560 American after a few years, and give you married American 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:51.159 even never promise you that you will become because of 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:58.000 or famous a rich artists, but this country promise you 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.760 have the freedom to do. You are undue the last 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:08.879 day of your lafe. I think that early nineteen ninety 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.840 many tense artists plaining portrait in the street, but in 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.040 the same time, and he's still working in the street, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.439 but not like a street portrait artist. He pinned some 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:25.160 small like a landscape that still left opinion. Is his studio, 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.240 then his sail, and then he came out to the 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.000 streets and saw the lands. Yes, that's what I heard. 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:40.040 People find him rosela boyfriend. As they struggled through the 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.479 eighties and early nine nineties, Kuan and hung To had 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.280 much in common, though by outward appearances, hung Too was 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.960 more successful. He found a gallery to represent him both 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.680 in New York and China. He rented a sprawling studio 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:00.280 space and woodside queens. The subways overhead rumbled loudly but 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:05.120 were oddly soothing. Some of his work was winsome, even playful. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.680 He made heavy bronze replicas of McDonald's packaging for French 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:14.800 fries and hamburgers. Other works, particularly at the Art Students League, 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:19.680 showed a darker side, but four hung to the immigrant 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.720 experience on which he based his work was ultimately uplifting, 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.679 not so for Quan. One day, Carlos and Glyphura stopped 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:34.440 to admire the paintings of a Chinese artist doing Impressionist landscapes. 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:39.320 So skilled was the artist that Carlos introduced himself. He 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.399 showed Kwan a book of various artist work, including the 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.280 Hudson River painters. Could Quan paint a picture like one 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.320 of these? Sure? Quan said. The friendly couple offered to 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.119 pay him one hundred dollars, and Kuan went off to 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.280 work on his new picture. When the trio met up 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.880 again in the village, Quan showed them his painting. It 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:07.000 was remarkable. Carlos doubled Kwan's compensation to two hundred dollars 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.879 per painting. Quan was creating pictures in the style of 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.000 These were interpretations of the original artist's work, with one 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:21.280 big difference. Carlos and Fia wanted the original artist's name 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:26.919 in the lower right corner, not Quans. Working from the 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:30.360 garage of his house in Queen's Quan began turning out 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:35.240 one dazzling knockoff after another. Carlos Lephira noticed that Kwan 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.480 was good at landscapes, but much better at abstract expressionist works. 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.800 That was convenient because the style of the works was 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:47.560 much more forgiving and subjective. Carlos would come by to 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.439 inspect Kwan's work with Gphia in tow they marveled at 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:56.639 how realistic the forgeries were. Incredibly At first, Kwan and 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.640 Bergantina's sold their fakes on the street. Kwan was paid 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.520 to pittance for his work, about seven dollars per canvas. Now, 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.320 Kwan said nothing to his buyers on the street about 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:10.960 whether the paintings were real or not. He used his 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.680 poor English to shrug off all questions. Either the passers 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:22.320 by bought his paintings or not. Surprising number did. Remarkably, 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.959 Quan proved so fascile that he could imitate not just 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:32.600 one mid century master, but nearly all of them. Experts 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.520 would be stunned that such a thing was even possible. 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.360 Later he would tell ABC News, my intent wasn't from 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:42.840 my fake paintings to be sold as the real thing. 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:45.560 They were just copies to put up in your home 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:51.520 if you like. Over time, Carlos grew more ambitious and 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:55.600 in his own way, just as skilled as Kwan. He 0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:59.680 brought Kwan old canvases at flea markets and auctions, and 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:04.320 so applied him with old paints used specifically for forgery. 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:08.000 Carlos stained the canvases with tea bags to make them 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:11.879 look older. A blow dryer came in handy. He also 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:17.159 exposed the newly painted canvases to harsh weather. Carlos was 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:21.639 particularly good at frames, finding originals at flea markets and 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:24.639 garage sales, and then treating them to look as if 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:29.640 they'd been resting intact for half a century or more. Later, 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:34.000 when authorities calmed his studio, they would find among supplies 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:41.240 and envelope labeled Rothcoe Nails, Edwin and Mary Ann Gardner. 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:44.760 Kwan's neighbors and queens began to notice that a man 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:48.200 in an expensive car would come to Kwan's house fairly, 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:53.040 often carrying paintings too. Not from the house that was 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:57.440 likely Bergantino's Carlos would bring a painting in for him 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:00.399 to work on or fix up. Gardener recalled of the 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:05.240 mysterious visitor, but Quan didn't volunteer any details, and Gardner 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:09.760 thought better than to ask. Into Quan's tiny garage came 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:13.680 the paintings wrapped up. Out they went some days later. 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.080 Before long, Kuan's wife came to join him in the US. 0:25:18.520 --> 0:25:21.960 The result of a complex and expensive process that his 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.600 fellow artists could hardly help but notice, and now with 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:30.080 some money in his pocket, he decided to celebrate. I 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:33.720 wouldn't to a big party. He holds it a big 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:38.880 party at his house because his wife moved to New York. 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:44.040 Beyind him that's biggest things for every everyone, so he 0:25:44.480 --> 0:25:47.720 can give a big party. And after him, hey, what 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:49.720 are you doing right now? He said, I have some 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:53.119 deal of representing my work that time what ad we 0:25:53.320 --> 0:26:00.480 called the timeline. He already do the fake painting. Quan 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:03.600 didn't tell Hong To or any of his other guests 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:07.960 what he was doing. He just turned up the music. Well, 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:12.960 we were sitting together for Chinese people, Chinese party. It's 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:21.240 not it's all usual usual people just eating, just tolking. No. Later, 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:24.040 when the truth came out, the occasional right up would 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:28.280 note that Chinese artists often imitated the work of earlier masters, 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:30.760 But as Hong too noted, there was a difference between 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:34.440 an artistic tribute signed by the acolytes name and a 0:26:34.520 --> 0:26:39.040 work where only the original signature was appended. Because you 0:26:39.200 --> 0:26:43.639 sell this kind of opinion other people's style with the signature. 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:47.960 But people, that's my study, Oh that's my copy. What 0:26:48.080 --> 0:26:50.760 you didn't do was claim your own painting was someone 0:26:50.760 --> 0:26:55.240 else's work. That, declared Hong to was a crime. If 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:59.720 you'll copy other people's work, you sell the mess you've 0:26:59.720 --> 0:27:07.320 got a Bergantinos would deny ever meeting Ann Friedman or 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:11.959 visiting the Knodler gallery. He said Glypha alone had duped 0:27:12.000 --> 0:27:15.680 the Ndler. He claimed Glypha had hired Kwan to turn 0:27:15.720 --> 0:27:19.600 out the forged masters. I was never ambitious, Carlos told 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:23.040 The New York Times in a follow up article. Glyphra 0:27:23.320 --> 0:27:26.320 was the ambitious one. She had been motivated, he said, 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:31.200 by money and glamor. She loved fancy clothes and fancy parties. 0:27:31.960 --> 0:27:36.160 Glyphra has her own version, of course. She says Carlos 0:27:36.240 --> 0:27:39.119 had grown more abusive and given her no choice but 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:41.879 to carry on as the front person in the scheme. 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:45.320 The fancy parties and the fancy clothes she may have 0:27:45.400 --> 0:27:49.840 bought were part of the job. Without that polished appearance, 0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:53.560 she might never have met him. Andrade and Ann Friedman 0:27:53.840 --> 0:27:57.400 had a Soho art gallery opening in the early nineteen nineties. 0:27:58.560 --> 0:28:02.600 One of the son who gave a lecture. She had 0:28:02.640 --> 0:28:06.560 a gallery in the Soho area. She invite us to 0:28:06.720 --> 0:28:10.240 go to her opening, and there is where I met Jimmy, 0:28:10.359 --> 0:28:13.400 and he told me about he works at that gallery. 0:28:13.400 --> 0:28:16.720 And did he say that he might introduce you to 0:28:17.280 --> 0:28:24.000 a freedman? Yes? Why did I may introduce you to Anne? Well? 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:28.840 I told him that I have access to some pieces 0:28:28.840 --> 0:28:32.439 of art, and so he introduced you to Anne. And 0:28:32.480 --> 0:28:37.160 then Anne said bring them in. Wow. And that first 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:41.640 one was the Deep in Corn? Yes? Okay, Now did Pion? 0:28:42.120 --> 0:28:44.880 Did he make that Deep in Corn with your help 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:48.840 and with Carlos's help? Yes, but it's not that he 0:28:49.000 --> 0:28:52.480