Tom Keating Art Forger
When it comes to forging art, there are few that even come close to that of Tom Keating. He got his start working for an art restorer named Fred Roberts. Roberts did not have the same ethics as other restorers and would have Tom Keating simply repaint areas that were damaged. Keating created his first forgery after talking down the skill of Frank Moss Bennett. Roberts challenged Keating to recreate one of Bennett’s paintings, which he did. Keating then continued to study Bennett until he felt he knew the artist so well that he could create his own original work in Bennett’s style. He did so and signed his name. When Roberts saw the painting, he changed the signature to that of Frank Moss Bennett and sold it to an art gallery.
Keating started coping other artists and their works and decided to use his skill to rebel against the art world. He felt that the gallery system was dominated by critics and dealers who only sought to get rich off of poor artists. In all his artworks he left time bombs, clues that very clearly exposed the paintings as forgeries, whether it was deliberately adding flaws, using materials only known in the 20th century or writing on the canvas in a way that the writing would only show up under x-ray. However, the forgeries were still not discovered right away.
In 1970, auctioneers found that there were 13 Samuel Palmer watercolor paintings for sale and they all depicted the same theme. This was a red flag to Geraldine Norman who was a Times of London salesroom correspondent. She looked into the paintings and had them tested by a specialist who declared the paintings were fake. It was through a tip given by the brother of Keating’s lover that Geraldine Norman discovered the truth and had Keating arrested.