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Elne, France: Over decades, the small museum of Elne in southern France built up a collection of works by local painter Etienne Terrus, mostly oil and watercolours of the region’s distinctive landscapes and buildings.
But what was once a source of pride has turned to embarrassment after 60 per cent were found to be fakes, providing a lesson about the dangers of buying art without expert skills and the ubiquity of counterfeit canvases.
“Etienne Terrus was Elne’s great painter. He was part of the community, he was our painter,” lamented mayor Yves Barniol on Friday as he reopened the museum and its exhibition of Terrus paintings — minus the forgeries. “Knowing that people have visited the museum and seen a collection most of which is fake, that’s bad. It’s a catastrophe for the municipality,” he added.
Terrus ( 1857- 1922) was born and died in Elne near the city of Perpignan where he painted the sun- baked Mediterranean coastline as well as the misty foothills of the Pyrenees mountains and local redtiled homes.
While once a friend of Henri Matisse, Terrus never reached the heights of fame achieved by his contemporary, but he earned a following in art circles and regionally with his Impressionist and Fauvist- influenced production.
The Terrus Museum in Elne began collecting his work in the 1990s and went on a spending splurge over the last five years, acquiring 80 new canvases often thanks to local fund- raising drives.
Devastated locals who helped with the effort now regret being so naive, having handed over tens of thousands of euros to local art dealers and private collectors.
Out of 140 works owned by the museum, 82 were judged to be fakes by a panel of experts, causing an estimated loss to the town of 160,000 euros ($ 200,000).