Norval Morrisseau: "Miskwaabik Animiiki / Copper Thunderbird" (Graham Bezant Collection: Toronto Star)
A second person who was part of the Norval Morriseau art fraud forgeries ring pleaded guilty Tuesday.
David Voss has pled guilty to counts of forgery and uttering forged documents for operating an art fraud ring out of Thunder Bay, Ont. between 1996 and 2019.
“Voss oversaw the creation of thousands of forged artworks falsely attributed to Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau, said the agreed statement of facts read in court,” according to a CBC news report.
Close to 1,500 Voss forgeries have been identified and almost 500 have been seized.
Thunder Bay Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police charged eight people with art fraud in March 2023. They are accused of making and selling art under the late artist’s name.
“According to the agreed statement of facts, Voss developed an assembly-line process and enlisted multiple painters in his fraud ring, said the statement. Voss would draw an outline in pencil and then mark the areas to be coloured in with letter codes corresponding to different colours,” the CBC report says.
Also known as Copper Thunderbird, Morrisseau was from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He died in 2007 at the age of 75.
Source: CBC
Related: Morrisseau art fraud ringleader sentenced
Ontario Provincial Police Arrest Eight in Norval Morrisseau Fraud Ring
PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.