Tom Keating

Thomas Patrick "Tom" Keating (born March 1, 1917 in London , † February 12, 1984 in Colchester ) was a British restorer and was known as an art forger.

Keating came from a humble background and worked as a painter and house painter, but also as a restorer early on. Attempts to succeed in the art market with one's own works failed. Keating then became an opponent of the gallery system and motivated his more than 2000 forgeries of over 100 artists ideologically. He placed “time bombs” in his works of art, prepared them in such a way that they would be destroyed if they were cleaned up, and also introduced anachronisms into his motifs. Keating's technique was similar to that of the Venetians, his idol being Rembrandt.

Keating not only forged in oil, but also watercolors by François Boucher , Edgar Degas , Jean-Honoré Fragonard , Thomas Gainsborough , Amedeo Modigliani , Rembrandt , Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Kees van Dongen .

In 1970 Keating's activity as counterfeiters was exposed, in 1977 he was arrested and charged, but remained at large because of his poor health and became known as a TV presenter from 1982 to 1984. Keating presented painters such as Cézanne , van Gogh , Renoir, Monet , Manet , Degas, Constable , Rembrandt, Turner and Tizian in a series and at the same time painted one picture in the style of the master portrayed.

In the year he died, 204 of Keating's works were successfully auctioned off at Christie's .

literature

Tom Keating, Geraldine Norman and Frank Norman: The Fake's Progress: The Tom Keating Story . Hutchinson and Co., London 1977.

Web links

Short biography with picture example , last accessed on May 11, 2013.
On Tom Keating's TV movies , last accessed May 11, 2013

Individual evidence

↑ Der Spiegel, in the category "Died: Tom Keating", February 20, 1984 , last accessed on May 11, 2013.
^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, accessed April 22, 2019 .
^ Der Spiegel, under the heading "Culture: Art Falsification - Power Word in the Underground", September 6, 1976 , last accessed on May 11, 2013.

personal data
SURNAME	Keating, Tom
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British restorer and art forger
DATE OF BIRTH	March 1, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	February 12, 1984
Place of death	Colchester

[1] Der Spiegel, in the category "Died: Tom Keating", February 20, 1984 , last accessed on May 11, 2013.

[doi-2] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, accessed April 22, 2019 .

[3] Der Spiegel, under the heading "Culture: Art Falsification - Power Word in the Underground", September 6, 1976 , last accessed on May 11, 2013.