Massey College Fellow and chair emeritus of the Art Canada Institute, Jon Dellandrea’s THE GREAT CANADIAN ART FRAUD CASE: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson Forgeries a thrilling ride inside the investigation into one of the largest art frauds in Canadian history, ensnaring an auction house, many galleries, and threatening the value of the work of some of the country’s most famous painters to Susanne Alexander at Goose Lane Editions (world) by Samantha Haywood at Transatlantic Agency for publication October 2022.
In May 2016, Jon S. Dellandrea came into possession of a box of the last effects of an obscure artist. The contents of the box chronicled a major, and long forgotten, trial involving forgeries of the art of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.
With The Great Canadian Art Fraud Case, Dellandrea takes readers back to 1962, a time when forgeries were turning up on gallery walls, in auction houses, and unwittingly hung in the homes of luminaries across Canada. This comprehensively-researched title brings readers on a thrilling ride inside the investigation into one of the largest art frauds in Canadian history, ensnaring an auction house, many galleries, and threatening the value of the work of some of the country’s most famous painters.
Dellandrea’s book retraces the steps of Inspector James Erksine and A.J. Casson of the Group of Seven as they investigated this gripping mystery. In his search for answers, Dellandrea uncovers (a forgotten art collection purchased at auction and exhibited in the courtroom in 1963 which mysteriously reappeared in 2017) the masterminds behind the forgeries fifty years after the trial concluded.
Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 reproductions and archival images, The Great Canadian Art Fraud Case unravels the mystery of the greatest art fraud trial in Canadian history.
JON S. DELLANDREA is a Canadian educator and author. He is a senior fellow at Massey College and chair emeritus of the Art Canada Institute and a Member of the Order of Canada. His articles on fakes and forgeries in Canadian art have appeared in the Literary Review of Canada and Canada’s History.
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