The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in southern China had over 140 works stolen from their collection, but nobody noticed for years. This is because the thief replaced every item he stole… with his own paintings.

Now some guy working in a museum quietly helping himself to the collection of artworks then replacing them with his own copies seems pretty strange and bold, but this next bit brings the story to next-level bananas territory. According to Xiao theft and forgery were rampant. He said he noticed that people were stealing his forgeries and replacing them with their forgeries. It kinda makes you wonder if he was getting the originals or if he was forging a copy of a forgery. I mean he did steal and copy work by Zang Daqian, a landscape and still-life painter who was also considered to be a master forger himself. Xiao plead guilty in court, but warned that the lax security was causing big problems for the university’s collection. He said that he noticed fakes in there from his first day on the job and obviously quite a few more of them popping up throughout his time there. 

My Fan Fact this week came from my friend over at The Big Balance podcast. You can find The Big Balance on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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