The man who sold 1,000 masterpieces while faking his entire life
In short: Elmyr de Hory didn't just forge paintings; he forged a persona. This documentary explores how a master manipulator charmed high society and flooded the art market with thousands of fraudulent works.
The film investigates the life of Elmyr de Hory, a man who claimed to be an aristocratic 'Baron' but may have actually been Elemer Horthy, born in 1905. Starting as a displaced Hungarian person within Paris before ending his life on Ibiza, he employed complex methods for creating counterfeit provenance documents and distressing paintings.
The documentary features exclusive interviews with former flatmate Mark Forgy and biographer Clifford Irving. It highlights key evidence, including the discovery of a confirmed de Hory forgery within the Fogg Art Museum archives, and examines the mystery of his 1976 death—whether it was a suicide to avoid extradition or one final act of disappearance.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 1,000 Fakes: The Master Forger Who Conned High Society
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