Alleged leader of Canada's 'biggest art fraud' pleads guilty

David Voss, the man allegedly head of a counterfeiting ring that Canadian authorities described as “the greatest art fraud in world history,” has pleaded guilty for his role in producing more than 1,500 fake works by Norval Morrisseau. On June 4, Voss pleaded guilty to charges of using false documents and forgery, according to reports from the Radio-Canada And Globe and Mail.

According to a statement of facts read in Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay, Voss operated an assembly line producing Morrisseau knockoffs, using a paint-by-numbers system to create works he passed off as authentic paintings of the famous Anishinaabe artist. Voss is one of eight people charged in connection with the counterfeiting ring in March 2023, following investigations by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Thunder Bay Police Service.

Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was the founder of the Woodlands School art movement, creating extremely colorful compositions blending figurative elements with ornate abstraction and Indigenous symbolism. He was a member of the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek Ojibway First Nation.

According to court statements, Voss created the outlines of Morrisseau-like compositions in pencil, then used abbreviations to indicate to his co-conspirators which areas should be painted in which colors – “B” for blue, “G” for green, “LR” for light red and so on. Forensic analysts at the Canadian Conservation Institute later identified dozens of Morrisseau's forged works based on these carbon drawings present under the painting.

Voss sold between 1,500 and 2,000 works through various intermediaries, including two Ontario auction houses, for prices generally between CA$1,200 and CA$7,000 ($), although some sold at a much higher price. To date, investigators have seized nearly 500 fake Morrisseau paintings of the Voss ring, suggesting that more than 1,000 fakes are still circulating on the market.

Voss claimed the Morrisseau works he was selling dated from the 1970s and came into his possession through his father, who he said was a guard at a prison in Kenora, Ont., where Morrisseau had been incarcerated. “David Voss' father never worked as a prison guard in Kenora and never received any original paintings from Norval Morrisseau,” according to the statement read in court this week. “David Voss never met, acquired art, or interacted with Norval Morrisseau.”

As Morrisseau became aware of the presence of counterfeits in his market towards the end of his life, the 2019 documentary There is no counterfeit brought the issue to the attention of a wider audience. The film's starting point was a lawsuit filed by musician Kevin Hearn of the Canadian band Barenaked Ladies against Toronto's Maslak McLeod Gallery for selling him an alleged fake Morrisseau painting. The film then exposes the art fraud ring based in Thunder Bay, where the artist lived and worked for decades, and suggests that there may be up to ten times more fake Morrisseau works on the market than authentic pieces.

Voss is due back in court in September for sentencing.