2025, and nothing is changing. The elected officials of Elne (Pyrénées-Orientales) and the actors of the incredible adventure of the false paintings of the impressionist painter Étienne Terrus urge the justice system to finally step on the accelerator so that this famous case of organized gang fraud is called to court before the end of the year. Expert Éric Forcada raised this issue in 2017 for three indictments in 2018. Since then, the case has passed through the hands of no less than four different investigating judges.
The investigation ended a long time ago. “It is established and proven that these works are forgeries, at least for reasons of anachronism since landscape elements in particular did not exist during the lifetime of Terrus, who died in 1922 from syphilis,” believes Éric Forcada, who highlighted the scale of these copies which represent, according to its calculations, 70% of the 155 works attributed to the artist, a sort of world record in the category of “small” masters of the impressionist who had prospered in the wake of Matisse and Derain.
“We demand that these paintings be returned, true or false”
It must be said that after the enthusiasm of the Elne exhibition in 1998, the three associates did not go there with the back of the brush to provide collectors with the works they were desperately looking for at low prices. rare because the painter and anarchist Étienne Terrus ultimately produced little, according to his meager needs.
“We demand that these true or false paintings placed under judicial seal all this time be returned to the owners and to the Elne museum today. And we don’t even know in what conditions these works have been preserved for so long,” protests Nicolas Garcia, the mayor.
By once again exposing these false Terrus in full light, the elected official intends to seize this opportunity to do educational work, organizing conference cycles at the city museum. While waiting for the trial which will arrive at the Perpignan court for two of the art traffickers (the third has died), we hope one day soon, this prospect does not make anyone laugh in painting circles.
