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Over 4,000 fake Anton Heyboer etchings in Amsterdam

Robbert de Bakker has been selling etchings as Heyboer originals for the past eight years, but they have since been declared forgeries, the Telegraaf reports.

Bakker refused during Tuesday’s hearing to say where the fake Heyboer works came from.

‘If I did, people would get into trouble,’ De Bakker told the court.

He did tell the court he had sold some 800 Heyboer works for around EUR 100 each to an Amsterdam gallery owner.

4,000

‘I thought they were worthless and I was not attached to them,’ De Bakker is quoted by the Telegraaf as saying.

The art dealer himself says more than 4,000 works were involved for a total EUR 200,000.

According to the Volkskrant, the case dates back to 2005 when a man introduced himself as an archaeologist called Bijvoet and claimed to have a collection of Heyboer works dating back to his Haarlem period in the 1950s.

Over the years, dealer Georges Knubben said he bought 4,000 of the works for some EUR 200,000.

But he and others began to have doubts about the origins of the works and in August 2012, when Bijvoet again visited the Amsterdam gallery, Knubben and his partner locked the door and called the police.

Investigation

In the ensuing investigation, it emerged the works were not by the eccentric Dutch artist and that Bijvoet was actually a graphic artist named Robbert de Bakker.

According to the Dutch press, De Bakker has also been involved in forging works by Picasso and Chagall.

Heyboer lived and worked in Haarlem in the 1950s but spent the final years of his life in Den Ilp, together with five women.

 

© DutchNews.nl