WEBVTT - When I Paint His Masterpiece: The Beltracchis 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:05.600 Ridiculous Crime is a production of Iheartradiozon Elizabeth. You know 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:10.680 it's ridiculous. Oh man, do I all right? You ever 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.640 heard of wife carrying as a competitive sport? No, I've not. 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:19.160 So it started out apparently in Finland, where it has 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.200 a definitely decidedly questionable history. But wife carrying as a sport, 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.400 it involves track that has to be two hundred and 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.199 seventy eight yards long, exactly that number, and then it 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.000 has to have two dry obstacles, one wet obstacle swarty goodness, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.280 and a husband has to carry their wife. Now, you 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.360 can find these contests everywhere. They're like in Finland, Kazakhstan, 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.000 anywhere you look, you know. But in America we do 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.040 them proper. Okay. There's the North American wife carrying Championship 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.480 you can find at the Sunday River Resort in newy Maine, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.920 like any wry newy okay, right, And they usually do 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.880 it in the fall, and it involves people male female 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.800 partnership when they're all leaf peeping. Yeah, so the exactly 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:08.920 out there like oh it's gouse the leaves. You don't 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.039 want to do a championship run. So yeah, they basically 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.360 just imagine a husband carrying his wife like fire like 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.240 fireman over the shoulders, or like maybe like bear hug 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.560 like you know, upside down, where like they're all s 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:24.720 all sorts of weird ways, but however they can like 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.200 clutch each other and then they run as fast and 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.280 as hard as they can over three obstacles and hell 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.199 and dale, Yeah, for two hundred and seventy eight yards 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.800 or whatever. And you can't drag her, No, no, you 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.840 gotta its whole thing is the carrying in. That's the name. Yeah, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.840 I thought, ridiculous. That is very ridiculous. Do you know 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.560 what else is ridiculous? No, hit me with it? Forging 0:01:47.720 --> 0:02:12.600 art while in jail for forging art? Wait, what this is? Ridiculous? 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:18.040 Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.560 It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.959 percent ridiculous. Oh you damn right. Yes, I think I've 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.680 established that I like four things. Okay, I mean I 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:30.880 like more than four things in life, but these are 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.200 the main four dogs, which are the greatest living creatures 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.600 on Earth. Trains, but not in like the knowing the 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.680 model or history kind of way, pretending to not watch TV, 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.239 especially the hit Fox TV show nine one one, and 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.160 art crimes. Yes, those are four things I like. I 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.919 don't have any cool dog stories today, and I haven't 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.520 been on a train lately, and I'm all caught up 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.320 on the stories. OA, so that leaves art crime nice. 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.800 You gotta fresh you for me, I do. I really 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:05.840 liked telling you the tale of Elmer Dahorri Elmir. Excuse me. Oh, 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:09.520 he was fantastic. There was something so compelling about someone 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.880 who had talent, someone who life had totally put behind 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.360 the eight ball, and someone who was so charming and 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.600 who wanted more than anything to be loved and valued. Um, 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.880 and I loved hearing about his criminal escapades. Today. I 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.079 have another Forger for you, right, he also has talent. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.840 He's also rather audacious and charming, but he's not as 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.320 charming as Elmir of course. Um. You know how if 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.240 you look at an established artists Apple Music page, say, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.880 for example, Oasis, Okay, I don't know about theirs, though, 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.760 they'll have like their essentials, which is like the greatest 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.720 hitch and then then sometimes they'll have deep tracks, but 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.960 they also have both influences and inspired by and so 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.960 by the way. The inspired by collection for the band 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:58.280 is really good. Um. Anyway, if there wasn't inspired by 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.680 Elmer Dahorri track list Wolfgang or I should say Wolfgang, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.400 I'll say Wolfgang. I'll americanize it Bell Tracky, he'd be 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.840 right up there, okay. So Wolfgang Beltracky is an inspiration 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.000 for almerda hard Well, he would he was inspired by Elmire. 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.600 Oh I got it backwards. Why there you go? So 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.920 Wolfgang Beltracky. He was born Wolfgang Fisher. Wolfgang Fisher picked 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:23.960 up Bell Tracky along the way. Well, you'll find out 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.680 in Hexta, Germany. Sure, I am gonna like you say 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:35.440 it like I know it. I'm butchering the hawkster with 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.440 oh yeah, yes, so Hexta Hexta Yeah. In nineteen fifty one. 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.160 His father was an artist. He was like a muralist. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.800 He restored church frescoes. He's like the German Diego Rivera. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:53.200 Yes so no, so Wolfgang Wolfie. He began painting when 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.239 he was ten, and when he was fourteen he painted 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.640 a piece copied from Pablo Picasso. After his father had 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.520 to ten to do the exact same thing. Like his 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.680 dad tries copying it. This is what he said. I 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.440 was fourteen and my father had given me a postcard. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.440 I was allowed to use my father's oil paints for 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.040 the first time. I didn't like the original I thought 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.480 it was too sad, so I changed it, omitting a 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.800 piece of material and making the picture less monochromatic. The 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.719 painting took an afternoon. My father didn't touch a brush 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.240 again for the next two years. Oh my god, can 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.760 you imagine that moment where the father like walks into 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:29.360 the room to see what he's done, and he's just like, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.560 never mind, and it just goes into sadly puts his 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.280 brushes away. They get dusty for the next two years. 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.520 That's just like wow. Right. So when he was seventeen, 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.800 Wolfgang was expelled from high school and he'd quit art 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.960 school in Akin after four years studying there. Sure, so 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.559 what do you do when you quit art school? Go 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.000 to it T Tech where you can start learning to code. 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.039 No no clothes, You buy yourself a Harley Davidson, and 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.320 you become a nomadic hippie. Oh I like his choice. Huh. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.560 So he travels throughout Europe, smoking hash, dropping acid with 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.120 US soldiers stationed at nearby NATO base on their way 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.279 home from Vietnam, you know, as they would have stories. 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.400 Where did he go as a nomad? Well, for a 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.560 year and a half. He crashed on a Moroccan beach 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.120 and he lived in the commune Choices. Oh yeah, he 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.719 lived in the commune in Spain. He lived in a 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.280 houseboat in Amsterdam, and he ran a psychedelic light show 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.680 at the Paradiso nightclub there. I think what we have 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:32.360 established is is that under General Lisamo Francisco Franco Fascist, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.159 Spain was a great place to do drugs. Apparently everybody 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:39.880 doing drugs in the seventies like, I gotta hit Spain. Yeah, anyway, going, 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.359 So he drifted around Barcelona, Paris, London. What did he 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.920 do in all those places, Well, he bought and sold paintings. 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.200 He founded antique markets, and his career as a forger 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.680 was born in those markets. One day he noticed a 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:00.680 wintry landscape painting of iced over as he saw that 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.120 it sold for a lot of money. But he found 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.000 that the ones with these kind of winter scenes made 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:10.080 more if there were ice skaters in the painting. So 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:12.280 with the Disney, He's like, are you know what you 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:14.960 need is some ice skaters? So he bought a set 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.680 of paintings for two hundred and fifty dollars each by 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.480 this unknown eighteenth century Dutch painter. He then painted ice 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.760 skaters into the winter landscape and he resold them for 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.000 a profit because like, ice skaters are big business or 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.200 something apprently, so he sitsuing. Like then he starts buying 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.640 these old wooden frames and he creates winter landscape paintings 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.640 with ice skaters in them, sold as works by old masters. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.480 So he like had this technique where he would put 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.800 this stuff all over the painting and then scrape the 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.400 old paint off and then you know, make his own thing. 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.040 So by the eighties he really ramped up his forgery business. 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.200 He painted in waves, as he called them, depending on 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.560 whatever his needs were. Quote, sometimes I'd paint ten works 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:58.440 in a month, and then I'd go for six months 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.720 without doing any He's just yeah, he's take a little 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.320 pieces of your retirement when you can get it. Exactly. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:10.160 So in nineteen ninety two, Wolfgang meets Helene BELTRACKI, oh, 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:12.640 there it is progressive. So they were each living with 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.000 another partner when they met. Helene was with her longtime boyfriend. 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.920 Wolfgang lived with his ex girlfriend and their four year 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:25.000 old son. Okay, he met Helene because her boss was 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.720 backing a project of his using money made from his forgeries. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.600 He bought an eighty foot sailboat and he hired a 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.080 five man crew all for this project. What was the project? 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.680 He was gonna do some plane air paintings and this 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:42.760 is something this would be right up your alley. He 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.640 was writing and filming a documentary about pirates. Oh my god, 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:48.920 I love this guy. He makes all the right choices. 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.600 So he planned to sail around the world. He was 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.240 going to go from Majorca to Madagascar, then to South 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.920 America because he wanted to follow the career paths of 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.160 all the pirates. Totally get into car. He was saying, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.080 I want to go from Sir Francis Drake to the 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.880 South China season. So he's doing every he's going. Yeah, 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.160 he's covering the whole history. So Helene, she did not 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.160 find Wolfgang to be all heba hoba at first. She 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:12.960 wasn't into it. She thought he was a big mouth 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.000 as what she called him. So Wolfgang, he organized a 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:21.280 seminar series on sixteen millimeter film production as you do. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.080 Helene attended spent some time with him, her mind gets changed. 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.560 Wolfie goes from zero to hero. He is an artist. Now, 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.319 this is what she said, quote, I saw that he 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:36.120 was an absolute perfectionist, intelligent, educated, and a totally open 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.600 social human being. So he just wins her over. By 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.960 the end of the week, she has dumped her boyfriend 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.400 and moved in with him. Wow, I like it. How's 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.240 that pirate documentary going? And you know whatever? Not great? Yeah, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.280 I think it served as so exactly, So the film 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.480 production it fell apart and the crew gets stranded in Maorca. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.640 Wolfgang gave the boat away and and pay the crew. Wow, 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.439 I like it exactly, he's loose. So a couple of 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.160 days after they first got together, Helene saw the paintings 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.400 that he had from all these famous artists, and she's 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.480 curious about him. Here's how she tells it. Quote I 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.120 asked him, are these actually real? And he said they're 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.959 all mine? I made him. I said, so you're an 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.760 art counterfeiter and he said, exactly, that's my work, that's 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.720 my metier. Obviously she's cool with it. Why is she 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.160 cool with it? Who knows? So anyway, Helene and Wolfgang 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.320 they get married in nineteen ninety three. Nine months later, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:39.240 they had a daughter named Franziska, and Wolfgang took Helene's 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:44.200 last name, changing from Wolfgang Fisher to Wolfgang belt Truckey. Yes, 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.240 it sounds cooler. It does sound cooler, and I'm imagining 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:48.880 as an artist. He's like, listen to the Ring of back. 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.000 Oh yeah, completely. So Helene, she wasn't just cool with 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.040 the counterfeit paintings. She's like she wanted in on that lefe. 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.559 Oh yeah, she's angry. She was all about fraud life. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:02.120 So she reaches out to Lempert's major auction house in Cologne. 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.400 She said that she had a painting for sale by 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:11.640 the French cubist George Vamier and quote they sent their expert. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.040 She looked for a few minutes, said it was wonderful, 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:15.560 and then asked how much do you want for it? 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.040 So the lady bought it for twenty thousand Deutsche marks. Okay, 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.520 And this is what Elaine said. The first time. It 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.640 was like being in a movie. It was like it 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.080 had nothing to do with me. It was another person, 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.959 an art dealer whom I was playing. Everybody with the movies, 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:32.920 ye always with the movies of the movie. So she 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.679 just roll places. Sorry, doesn't even ever do crime and 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:40.360 think that they're in a play, you know, maybe pre movie. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.440 It was like a Eugeno Neal. I just felt like, well, 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.680 so she's shocked at how easy this is. So she 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.559 said quote normally a person would think that these experts 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.520 would study the paintings and look for proof of its provenance. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.520 The authenticator asked two or three questions. She was gone 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.959 in ten minutes. It was super easy. A year later, 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.640 that same forged Valnier sold at auction in New York 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.840 for a million dollars. Well you know there it is. Yeah, Well, 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.160 and their money easily parted. So nineteen ninety three, Helene 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:13.440 debuted her Fletch Time collection. Wolfgang would paint in his 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.720 studio while Helene, she had a sister named Jeannette, and 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:21.840 then another accomplice named Otto schulteke ketting house I'm destroying. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.200 I'm sure they organized the sale of the paintings. Wolfgang 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.600 met Otto in a cafe. He introduced him to people 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.079 as Count Otto. What a great name, of course. Wolfgang 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.559 describes Otto as someone not really up on the art 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.920 world and its history and such, but like a quick learner, okay, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:38.960 so he takes him under his wing. He learned about 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.720 the forgery racket, totally on board. He's like count me in. 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.520 So Helene and her sister they went to auction houses 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.160 and they said that they inherited an art collection from 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:52.680 their father, Werner Yeagers. And according to them, Yeagers had 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.400 been a client of Alfred fletch Time, the famous Jewish 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:58.920 art gallery owner who lost his gallery to the Nazis. 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.679 So keep it mind that the Nazis looted more than 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:06.000 six hundred and fifty thousand works of art there. I 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.319 it was like twenty percent of the art in Europe. Yeah, ridiculous. 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.400 And there are more than one hundred thousand pieces that 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.800 haven't been recovered or returned to the heirs of the owners. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.560 So Wolfgang in Helene said that in order to save 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.680 his works from the grubby clutches of the Nazis, flesh 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.920 Time sold a bunch of the paintings to Yeager Helene's grandpa, 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.440 who then hid them in the Cologne Mountains for the 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.200 duration of World War Two. They had doctored photographs and 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.840 forged documents to back and claim. So there were experts 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.840 who also for a fee would back his staff. Experts 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.480 can always be bought exactly, and the auction houses they 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:43.880 were stoked to be able to get their hands on 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.360 all these old master works believed to time. So much 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:52.480 like Elmer Dhri, Wolfgang didn't copy existing works. He painted 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.000 quote in the style of designer impostor. It's harder to 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.520 question right well, and then the way he came up 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.320 with it is so genius. So the piece as he 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.120 created were then said to be works that had been 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.040 lost in the shuffle somewhere, whether missing pieces or one's 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.480 not known about until then. He created titles and different 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.480 motivation stories behind the creation of the piece in question. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:18.080 This is what he said. Quote. Every philharmonic orchestra merely 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.800 interprets the composer. My goal was to create new music 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.320 by that composer. In doing so, I wanted to find 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.600 the painter's creative center and become familiar with it, so 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.680 that I could see through his eyes how his paintings 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.400 came about, and of course see the new picture I 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.960 was painting through his eyes before I even painted it. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.160 I wonder how that worked, you know, I mean, if 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.720 you're really good as an artist, and because I can 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:43.800 only speak as like a film student. Or it's like 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.120 you can eventually art to see how an editor would work, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.480 how they would cut this, or how a composer would 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:50.200 score this, or I would director would want to move 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.520 on this and follow that. You get that sense. But 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.560 as an artist, it's such a two dimensional thing I'd 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.280 be willing to about. Not that it's easier, but I 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.800 bet they could do that really well in that vision 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.920 like a crazy feeling, you know, like as a writer, 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.600 when I'm writing in the voice of a character created, 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.120 like you get into it and all of a sudden 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.120 you're that person. Yeah, it's just flowing through you. You You 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:11.920 don't having to thank or you're in the what of 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.520 the flow state. But to have that two dimensional quality 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.520 imagines being able to put on lenses like imaginary lenses, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.440 and also you can see the world like Picasso right 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.880 and exactly so, like he would study the catalogs of 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.200 existing works for artists, and he'd research their schools of practice. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:29.560 But then what he did that was so smart is 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.200 that he looked at what was registered as having gone 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.160 missing during World War two. Brilliant and because of that, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.000 there usually weren't reference images for the paintings just like 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.040 vague descriptions. So he's like, all right, well, you know, 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.400 I wonder if he's also pulling through their notes, you know, 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.160 like going into their diaries and trying to find them 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.360 talking about a thing. Oh, he did tons and tons 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.200 of research on it, and when he found a piece 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.480 of missing, missing piece of work, he would start painting 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.720 it based on whatever written narrative there was for it, 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.080 with knowledge of the artists uber So he's like any 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.040 descriptions that other people had at the time writing about it. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.440 So he's just filling in the gaps, and he was good. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.960 The paintings were selling, the prices are going up and up. 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.960 Here's what Wolfgang had to say about a max Ernst 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.240 painting that he did. Quote his widow, Dorothea Tanning, and 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.320 artist in her own right, said that one of my 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.360 forgeries was the most beautiful Max Ernst painting she had 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.800 ever seen. The trick is to paint a picture that 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.920 doesn't exist and yet that fits perfectly into an artist's 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.960 body of work. So exactly like Elmer. When we get 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.960 back from this break, I'll tell you other ways. Wolfgang's 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:57.680 criminal enterprise was pretty much like Elmer's. We're back, hey, Hey, o, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:02.360 Wolfgang Beltrackey. Yeah, he's making fake pieces by famous artists. 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.000 He's using the Nazi theft of art from German Jews 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.879 and others to make cover for himself. There were a 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.160 lot of people who were duped by him, auction houses 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:17.040 like Christie's and lem Parents. Art scholar Verner Spice. You're 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:18.920 familiar with it. Oh, of course, I used to get 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:23.359 the newsletter Experience Speaks were your favorite experienced art collectors 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:28.119 Reinhold Erth and Danielle Philipacchi the verse. Haven't called me 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.760 since that, you know, the incident, but you know, I 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.240 think that we could reconnect. I know, maybe therapy would 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:39.720 be good, sit down talk therapy. Yeah. Um, actor Steve Martin, 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:45.879 Banjoe Buddy Banjo Boys, Steve Martin. So, because it was 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.359 nearly impossible to trace these pieces, experts, mediators, purchasers, they 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.360 all got suspicious after a while. Remember Wolfgang and Helene. 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.520 They said that the pieces came from Helene's actual grandfather, 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.960 who was a wealthy industrialist, Werner Yeagers. So they said 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.720 that Yeagers had been friends with Alfred Flechteim in the 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.040 nineteen twenties, and as we know, he's this German Jewish 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.560 art dealer. They said that Yeagers bought the paintings from 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.400 Flesh Time in order to save them from the Nazis. 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.600 The story, though, had holes. So in the nineteen thirties, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.560 here's the big problem, Yeagers was actually a member of 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.280 the Nazi party. Well there is that he's not saving 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.720 it from himself. Yeah, he trying to pull the hole, 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:30.240 like I got pulled in, but I was trying to 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.879 say he's dead. And he also had no interest in 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.639 art in his life. It was completely doubtful that he 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.879 even knew flextime. Okay, So when people tried to call 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.400 him out on this, Volfgang and Helene, they pulled out 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:47.280 all these old photographs what they said were from the 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:52.600 twenties of Helene's grandmother, Josephine Yeagers, with the paintings in 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.080 question hanging on a wall in the background. They're like, look, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.880 we'll come to find out these photos are fake. So 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:04.440 Helene would dress in period clothing and pose as her grandmother. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.960 Love it. Wolfgang used an old camera and like pre 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.159 war developing paper to take these pictures. This is what 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.120 he said. Quote. We were asked if perhaps there were 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.200 some family photos in which the paintings could be seen. Well, 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.800 of course there were. I got myself an old camera 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.480 on one of those big cardboard things from the nineteen twenties, 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.120 as well as old film roles in larger's trays, whatever 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.960 I could find at the flea market. So he's like, yeah, 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.680 I can get you some pictures. They created fake labels 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.639 that stated that the paintings were from sam Lung flex Time, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:40.200 the flex Time collection. So with the success of this collection, 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:44.280 the sisters did it again later with a second large 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:48.359 art collection, the Knops collection, and that was also collections. 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.080 Oh yeah, but they had to like have oh why 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.080 we got this? So in this story, Knops was the 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:58.240 grandfather of Auto, the other four germ count Auto. Yeah exactly. 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.359 So Count Otto has this grand father, Knops, who also 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.000 just dies ilected. His name is Count eight, you know. 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:11.840 So Otto inherited the art collection upon his grandfather's death. Well, 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.800 where here we are, you know, more paintings. So the 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.399 Beltrackeys made a lot of money from these forgeries, and 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.879 they spent a lot of money. They spent seven million 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.800 euros on this enormous villa in Freiburg, which is a 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:27.840 town in southern Germany. If you're going to do it 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.800 a villa, right, Well, it took nineteen months to restore 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.720 this villa after they bought it. And while they were 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.760 having the restoration, they stayed in the penthouse suite of 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.000 the Columbia Hotel for seven hundred euros a night. They're 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.960 just ragging it up and their neighbors are like blown 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.040 away by these spending habits. They traveled, They went on 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.600 these shopping sprees. When the renovations on the villa were done, 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.000 they invited a hundred people to their housewarming party. And 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.840 then you know, it wouldn't be a proper villa warming 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.000 party without a four member flamenco band flown in from 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.600 Granada to sing and dance for the guests. It's only problem. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:04.040 I mean, come on, I mean, come on doing this 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.480 or do what? Are we animals? M So they're living large. 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.400 But as is obvious from the fact that I'm telling 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.840 you about them, it didn't last. Oh I was worried 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.280 about this because you're telling me about them. It was 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.240 something small that took them down. Though. It was those 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.520 fake labels that would be their undoing. Oh. Interesting, Well, 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:26.400 experts were suspicious of their authenticity and considering the fact 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.200 that they'd never seen labels such as these on any 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.760 other artworks prior. Oh yeah, that's and well they didn't 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.639 like copy a label, they made a new right, and 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:41.320 so the labels didn't compare in quality to Fletch Times labels. UM. 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.920 And they also, like those labels, had a custom stamp 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.240 that was very recognizable. It would have been worth it 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.159 to them to buy an actual flex Time just to 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.080 get the stamp and then be able to exactly for 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:53.320 the amount of money that they're taken in. Yeah, if 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.600 they're buying villas, you know, buy a flex Time. Yeah, 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:57.800 well there was on their label. There's like a weird 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:02.320 caricature of flex Time at Wolfgang Drew. And so in 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:07.320 two thousand and eight, um Ralph Jens, who was an expert, UM, 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:09.720 he did something no one had done before. He questioned 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.800 the labels. This is what he said, quote Fletch Time 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.920 was a connoisseur, a collector, a man of taste. There 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:18.800 is no way he would have permitted such a silly portrait. 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:21.880 So it was just the caricature, Like this guy was serious. 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.239 Why did he have like a good girl. That's like 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.040 an observation. You're with your boy doctor doctor Bendor would 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.280 know yes, oh my god, Bendor, and I don't remember 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:35.400 his last Yeah, he's like an English art story expert. Yeah, 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:37.359 oh my god, he's the best. But he has just 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.120 the best lines for his reasoning. Oh yeah, he would 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.920 definitely do that with I don't believe it totally. So 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.240 in two thousand and six, Wolfgang in Helene sold a 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:54.119 nineteen fourteen painting supposedly by Heinrich Compendonk called Red Picture 0:22:54.200 --> 0:23:00.639 with Horses to a Maltese company, Tristeco, and Tristec commissioned 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.120