Forged

Adrian travels to Australia where he finds eerie similarities to Norval Morrisseau’s story. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, an Indigenous artist and Anmatyerre man from the Northern Territory, was a contemporary of Norval’s. Tjapaltjarri walks into a gallery and is surrounded by paintings signed by him…but he didn’t paint them. Bigger questions surface about how Indigenous art – and Indigenous people – are valued. Adrian reflects on his own art, and on the impact these forgeries have on Norval’s legacy.

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Features: 

Kevin Hearn 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Inspector Jason Rybak

Inspector Kevin Veilleux 

Eugene Morrisseau 

Gabe Vadas 

Vivien Johnson 

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, archival

Kevin’s court case kicks off a years-long police investigation. But as officers in Thunder Bay, known by some locals as “Murder Bay” because of its high homicide rates, finally look into the forgeries, they see a possible connection with a suspected murder. Finally, there are some answers and arrests. 

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Features: 

Kevin Hearn 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Inspector Jason Rybak

Inspector Kevin Veilleux 

Eugene Morrisseau

Kevin Hearn decides to take the dealer who sold him his painting to court. But this is no ordinary court case. The original dealer dies before the trial. And Kevin, along with his lawyer and witnesses, are stalked and harassed by people who stand to lose a lot of money if Kevin can prove his Morrisseau painting is a fake. Kevin needs to hire a bodyguard as the future of the court case teeters.

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Features: 

Gabe Vadas 

Kevin Hearn 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Jonathan Sommer, Kevin Hearn’s lawyer  

Carmen Robertson

Norval Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was still alive when forged paintings in his name started appearing. When he saw hundreds of paintings online “signed” by him that he knew he didn’t paint, he started to fight back. To trace the fakes, Adrian goes to Thunder Bay in northern Ontario, the suspected epicentre of the art frauds and a place Morrisseau once called home, to search for who is forging all these Morrisseaus. All signs point to one person. 

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Features: 

Gabe Vadas 

Kevin Hearn 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Jonathan Sommer, Kevin Hearn’s lawyer  

Tim Tait 

Lorraine Cull  

Carmen Robertson

In a brush with death, Norval Morrisseau is given the name “Copper Thunderbird.” He learns to sign it in Cree syllabics, and writes it on his paintings. That artistic signature becomes a clue on the back of Kevin’s painting. There are other clues that lead to a jail where Norval was imprisoned (but still continued to paint) and to an old friend of Norval’s who sheds some light on what makes an authentic Norval Morrisseau painting. 

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Features: 

Kevin Hearn 

Gerald McMaster 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Eugene Morrisseau, Norval Morrisseau’s son  

Jonathan Sommer, Kevin Hearn’s lawyer  

Joseph Sanchez

Rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin’s Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it’s “questionable.” Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin’s dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting — and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open. 

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Features: 

Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies)

Gerald McMaster 

Norval Morrisseau, archival 

Gail Dexter Lord

Host Adrian Stimson, a painter from the Siksika Nation, tells the unfolding story of legendary Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau and how criminal fraudsters copied his work in a scheme that became what is believed to be the largest art fraud in the world. A new six-part series from CBC and ABC Australia.