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 |  | John Myatt is a convicted forger who conned the art world for years. He was convicted in 1999 of forging about 200 paintings from artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Roger Bissiere and Nicholas De Stael.
He spent one year in jail but has now decided to stage his own exhibition of fakes in Warwick.
Since his conviction, the forgeries now all contain a microchip so they cannot be mistaken for the real thing in the future.
Review by Ric Ackland-Snow, site user
I went to The Gallery in Swan Street, Warwick on Tuesday 10 September to see the work of John Myatt the infamous "fakes painter".
If you knew nothing of the works of famous artists like Alberto Giacometti, Van Gogh, Matisse, Piccasso, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet and saw John Myatt's paintings you could not fail to be impressed by the technical merit, use of colour and texture and the compositions themselves.
To then learn that John Myatt has copied either the style or actual work of these famous artists is not in my view too negative. He has undoubted talent and begs the question as to whether the quality/value of the work is in the technical excellence or the composition.
The whole experience of visiting the gallery was very satisfying if not surreal, to be surrounded by such "quality" in a small provincial gallery rather than in a famous gallery in a capital city of the world was incredible.
By the time I had arrived most of the paintings had been snapped up by eager customers. I managed to purchase the last three or four, including a nice "Picasso".
The exhibition is on for the rest of September so you will have plenty of opportunity to see his work for yourself and possibly even make a purchase.
Prices are currently between £575 and £3,450 and could well turn out to be a shrewd investment either due to the undeniable skill of the artist or simply the 'provenance' of the works which all have the word "FAKE" written on the reverse!
Exhibition details
The show is on at The Gallery, Swan Street, Warwick, CV34 4BJ, until the end of September.
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