A Master Forger Speaks Re: An $80million Art Fraud
Qian, a Chinese national living in the U.S. on a student visa, competed with other artists to convince people walking by that they needed their portraits painted. His rate started at $15 and on a good day he’d go home with $200, though he might have to work past midnight to get it. One day, a man offered him $200 to do an imitation of a modern art masterpiece. … The artist and his patron—a man Qian said he knows only as Carlos—are now at the center of a scandal that has upended New York’s art scene.