Steve Martin Looses $850,000 in German Art Fraud Scandal

Who knew comedian Steve Martin was into art?

Well, some of us did.

If you watch The Colbert Report you have seen Steve and Stephen go head to head in their elite lust for the perfect piece of art and culture.

But seriously, Steve Martin is a connoisseur of fine art and has collected some of the most impressive, and expensive pieces out there for his private collection.

But know it looks like the banjo playing comedian has been burned – and bad.

In Cologne Germany, police believe Martin has been the victim of one of the biggest art forgery scandals in the country's history.

Cops believe he purchased a painting forged by a team of crooks being investigated for selling dozens of such forged art pieces over the last ten years.

According to investigators, in 2004 Martin purchased what he thought was a 1915 painting called “Landscape With Horses” by German modernist painter Heinrich Campendonk.

Landscape With Horses

He bought it from the Paris Gallery, paying $850,000, and then resold it in 2006 at Christie’s Auction House for only $350,000 taking a major loss on the deal.

But now it turns out it was a fake – a forgery so good that it even fooled the Paris Gallery and Christies.

Martin says,

“It wasn’t clear that it was a fake until after Christie’s had sold the picture, it was a long time after that, that it became known. The forgers were quite clever in that they gave it a long provenance and they faked labels, and it came out of a collection that mingled legitimate pictures with faked pictures.”

German police arrested the forgery gang leader Wolfgang Beltracchi, his wife Helene, her sister Jeanette and accomplice Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus, last year.

Investigators believe the group sold at least forty forged paintings over the last ten years and they were all forgeries of artists from the first half of the 20th century, including Campendonk, Max Pechstein, Max Ernst and several others.

Watch Stephen Colbert and Steve Martin Discussing Art


So we have to ask, if you had an extra $850 G’s laying around would you buy that painting for your family room?

Things must be nice in Hollyweird.

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Shirtless Justin Bieber Kissing Selena Gomez Photo Circulating on the Internet – Is it a Fake?

Justin Bieber fans around the world are going crazy today.

Selena Gomez fans are also unsure how their lives can possibly go on.

And there is one happy Paparazzi photographer, or Photoshop guru smiling all the way to the bank.

But is it real? Can it be true? Can this really be what it seems? Can life as we know it continue?

Bieber and Gomez fans are currently soaking up the latest photo scandal showing the two love birds embraced in what appears to be a shirtless Justin Bieber engaged in a deep passionate kiss with girlfriend Selena Gomez.

Here is the photo:


But is it real?

The image of Bieber does look like the teen sensation, but we can’t quite wrap our head around the image of Selena.


The picture shows a mole on the left side of the females face, and we couldn’t find a similar picture showing Gomez sporting the mole.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t her, it just makes us suspicious that the photo is real. But then again, maybe Bieber has been caught with another woman?

It would not be difficult to create this photo in Photoshop with intentions of making it look like something it’s not.

Without independent confirmation, InfoStar has no choice but to declare this photo a fake.

Can you prove us wrong?

Do you think it’s real?

If you know the answer to these questions you may very well hold the keys to preventing one of the largest collective screams by teenage girls that has ever been heard in the history of mankind.

You just may save the world.

See also:
More stories about Justin Bieber
More Stories about Selena Gomez

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