The tiny 8,000-strong community of Elne just outside Perpignan re-opened its Etienne Terrus Museum, dedicated to the works of the local artist who was born in 1857 and died in 1922, on Friday after extensive renovation work. But an art historian brought in to reorganise the museum following the recent acquisition of around 80 paintings, found that nearly 60% of the entire collection was fake. He was part of the community, he was our painter,” said mayor Yves Barniol. “Knowing that people have visited the museum and seen a collection, most of which is fake, that’s bad. In all, out of the 140 works that make up the collection, 82 were fake.

Source: The Guardian April 29, 2018 23:37 UTC