Elmyr de Hory’s story in F for Fake is not simply that of a brilliant painter who copied the styles of Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso, and other masters. He described himself as a struggling artist who turned to forgery, while the dealers who sold his work often profited far more than he did. One dealer ultimately helped maintain him in an Ibiza villa, an arrangement that made the notorious forger an exotic guest of European society even as his legal status remained precarious. The film also largely suppresses the harsher circumstances surrounding his later years: de Hory had served a Spanish prison sentence after being convicted of homosexuality and associating with criminals. Although he was rarely prosecuted for individual paintings because authorities could not easily prove that he had personally made or signed them, the threat of being transferred to French authorities continued to hang over him. In 1976, after Spain agreed to turn him over, de Hory died by suicide. His death gave the film’s glamorous portrait of the “professional forger” a bleak historical epilogue, exposing the isolation and fear beneath the villa parties and art-world notoriety.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Elmyr de Hory’s Ibiza Refuge and the Suicide That Followed His Extradition Threat
Elmyr de Hory / 1970s
Elmyr de Hory’s story in F for Fake is not simply that of a brilliant painter who copied the styles of Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso, and other masters. He described himself as a struggling artist who turned to forgery, while the dealers who sold his work often profited far more than he did. One dealer ultimately helped maintain him in an Ibiza villa, an arrangement that made the notorious forger an exotic guest of European society even as his legal status remained precarious. The film also largely suppresses the harsher circumstances surrounding his later years: de Hory had served a Spanish prison sentence after being convicted of homosexuality and associating with criminals. Although he was rarely prosecuted for individual paintings because authorities could not easily prove that he had personally made or signed them, the threat of being transferred to French authorities continued to hang over him. In 1976, after Spain agreed to turn him over, de Hory died by suicide. His death gave the film’s glamorous portrait of the “professional forger” a bleak historical epilogue, exposing the isolation and fear beneath the villa parties and art-world notoriety.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.