Jeff Oppenheim’s Five Year Passion - Real Fake: The Art, Life, and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory

Documentary film distributed by Gravitas Ventures

As part of an intense project which called for the training of five CEOs and adjoining senior regional marketing managers, on how to face, interact with, and answer questions from the press - especially as the client would be commanding significant presence at leading international art fairs. By curating presentations within the sundry VIP art fair lounges, art collectors, galleries, curators, conservators, art lovers and the media would be invited to view prepared scenarios over cocktails and appetizers, which in the end served as channels to offer expertise on caring for and preserving collected works of art and how to maintain them in mint condition.

I needed help! A friend recommended Jeff Oppenheim. “He has all the right stuff,” she said. “A mix of communication through journalism, theatre, filmmaking and directing international cultural projects.” Not only did I fall in love with his varied experiences, so did my client. And so, Jeff it was.

We started with media training of the main CEO - on camera and in scenarios where media microphones and large cameras were basically shoved in his face as rapid-fire questions were shouted at him. This was mixed with other forms of questioning buttressed with other reputation management tips, including remembering to be aware of “hot mikes.” After all, 9/11 had transpired and the brand was intimately impacted and continued five years on to field questions from the media about the event.

Jeff offered each one he trained a physical CD documenting the sessions, so they could re-watch and adopt strategies taught. (CDs, remember those?) Not only did the senior officer appreciate the training, he fell in love with Jeff’s gentile manner, coupled with the fact he saved the company money on the project’s travel budget by scheduling training in the European offices on his way to hunt down his Elmyr de Hory story. Over the years I have found myself at Jeff’s talks, events, private dinners and even dancing into the wee hours - at a rooftop nightclub adjacent to the New York Standard Hotel. That combination of experiences counts more than 10 years from Jeff being a convivial colleague to cementing a friendship.

Real Fake: The Art, Life, and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory 

Jeff Oppenheim is not part of the art world cognoscenti. Not an artist, a dealer, an appraiser, curator or collector. He is, by his own confession, “an outsider.” But once you watch his 2018 film Real Fake: The Art, Life, and Crimes of Elmyr de Hory, or attend one of his lectures about the film, you will never look at art in the same way again. Ever!

Oppenheim's documentary (distributed by Gravitas Ventures) about the infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory makes us question the nature of art and authenticity, and wonder if perhaps the art world itself may be willfully blind as it coins what some have considered spurious valuations.  

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Oppenheim admitted that he “first encountered” the Hungarian-born de Hory innocently enough. When dining at a collector’s house on New York’s Upper East Side, he noticed a Modigliani on the wall. Or so he thought.

“My host had this wry smile on his face,” Oppenheim remembers, “and then he confessed, ‘it’s not a Modigliani at all, it’s by my old friend Elmyr de Hory’.” Oppenheim immediately fell in love with the legend and started what would become a five year long project in researching and documenting the artist's life, his art and his crimes.

De Hory, born in Budapest in 1906, had died at his home in Ibiza in 1976, making a face-to-face real-life encounter impossible, even though the filmmaker and his team filmed a good portion of the story both in Budapest and Ibiza.  So, Oppenheim set out to fulfil his passionate affair in a manner befitting his theatrical and journalistic background: Oppenheim decided to make a documentary. “But first I had to fall out of love with him,” he recalls. “de Hory is a kind of lovable con man. But, still, you need to recognize him as a crook. What he was doing was illegal.”       

The research began with the 1975 classic Orson Welles  film,  F is for Fake, but Oppenheim quickly realized that the film was more about Orson Welles than about de Hory, and most of the material on de Hory came directly from the con artist himself. Further testimony to the lack of credibility in the Welles documentary:  testimony from biographer Clifford Irving who wrote a book on de Hory, but whose credibility as a biographer was thrown into question when he was later accused and found guilty of writing a "fake" authorized biography on recluse Howard Hughes. "Ultimately we chose to focus on the supporting materials for a very large lawsuit that was being organized against de Hory and two of his known associates." says Oppenheim.  "This was evidence and indisputable fact that led us from Dallas, Texas to Paris, France. "

Real Fake, Oppenheim's documentary, also briefly mentions other forgers such as Han van Meergenen, who sold fake Vermeers to the Nazi's and even cites the most recent forgery scandal that shuttered the now infamous Knoedler. It offers a perspective on the art market with commentary from auctioneers, major art dealers and even the FBI and Scotland Yard.  And although there is an all-too-similar thread among art forgers-- starting out seeking legitimate careers as artists, (the film confirms de Hory even studied with Fernand Leger in Paris for a while) - they all floundered as artists in their own right, and proved infinitely more talented in sophisticated mimicry.  

“De Hory’s own works are unremarkable,” says Oppenheim the outsider explaining that he had the opportunity to examine a large collection of the forger's original works. “He never copied, he was an exquisite draftsman, but he simply didn’t have a profound style of his own. As a forger, he “painted ‘in the manner of’’ Matisse, Renoir, Picasso, Modigliani, Dufy and many others of his era.– the kinds of stuff that could pass for “unfound works by famous painters.” 

He also drew from the palette of his contemporaries; thus, standard forensics might not serve to identify definitely the works as "fakes" because materials were more or less the same. Compounding the problem: many of these works have found their way into legitimate collections.  As de Hory is quoted as saying, “If my work hangs on the wall by the real thing long enough, it becomes the real thing too.” 

But what makes de Hory's story ever more relevant today is the fact that the vast majority of his works have yet to be identified. Oppenheim's documentary adds 20 years to the forger's illustrious career. In an almost whimsical moment in the film, Oppenheim and his Hungarian researcher discover a young de Hory's criminal record. Oppenheim postulates that over the course of what should now be considered a 50-year time span as a forger, if de Hory merely turned out 10 works a month, and even took two months annual holiday, the result would be a voluminous collection of fakes. “How many works are out there still?” Oppenheim wonders.  

That is indeed the question. An even bigger one is whether anyone cares.  De Hory seems to be coming into his own: you can buy his works on leading art platforms and sites, displaying his name and titling the works “in the manner of (supply original artist’s name).” But while de Hory could paint “in the manner of” several famous artists, he claims never to have forged their signatures.  Oppenheim again proves otherwise.

Today the master copier  has his own coterie of forgers. “The sole De Hory’s heir is actively denouncing ‘fake’ de Horys on the market!” Oppenheim states. “The heir and his art expert had one work removed from an auction we were going to film, alleging it was a a copy.” In other words, a fake fake. 

"The sad truth is," says Oppenheim, "they are working more diligently to denounce fake de Horys than the art world is working to identify true de Horys and creating a catalogue raisonne to help identify and remove other fakes."

Oppenheim’s film takes both a wondrous look at and casts a sardonic eye on the art world, asking “what is art?” and demanding we try to separate fake from real, question the nature of the creative process, and realize the duplicity that can underlie a global art market estimated to be worth $200 billion dollars. He has presented his film, often with guest experts, to such audiences as Sotheby’s and art insurance companies and schools and universities. “I’m becoming known as that art documentary guy,” says Oppenheim. “But that’s not really who I am.”

He is, by his own description, “a tribal storyteller.” His website 24K.com and his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/JeffOppenheim) is testimony to that, featuring videos from Africa and Latin America, stories on the World Cup, human trafficking…and fake art. 

Art and the questions surrounding it are in his blood: his parents met in acting school in New York, where Jeff was born, went to school, and remains to this day. As a producer, he staged theatrical productions, international arts festivals, concert tours, and a 2009 Inaugural Party for President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. at the Newseum (the museum of journalism).  And he is currently at work on several new documentaries--one of them related, again, to art. 

But, fortunately, he’s still happy to talk to you about Elmyr de Hory. "It never fails to capture the attention of any dinner party," Oppenheim laughs.
Learn more at www.realfakefilm.com.

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Acknowledgement and Credits

Interview by Shellie Karabell, Journalist

Photo and Film Credits
1. Jeff Oppenheim encounters his first possible Elmyr —a Modigliani
2. Jeff Oppenheim in front of the actual forensic board, built to house and track evidence.
3. Real Fake Trailer produced by Jeff Oppenheim

Disclaimer
The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Roz Joseph Group, New York LLC.