biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1918–84)
|
| biography:
| Art restorer and celebrated forger of paintings, born in London, UK. The scandal about his fakes of the works of the great masters broke in 1976, when an art expert suggested that a work by Samuel Palmer, which sold at an auction for £9400, was not genuine. Keating admitted that a series of nine pictures, bearing imitations of Samuel Palmer's signature, were in fact drawn by himself, and estimated that there were some 2500 of his fakes in circulation. In 1979 he was put on trial at the Old Bailey for forgery, but charges were eventually dropped because of his deteriorating health. Keating became a popular public celebrity, making a television series, and writing (with Geraldine and Frank Norman) a book, The Fake's Progress. |
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