drawing in the style of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, drawn by forger Eric Hebborn.

Peter Gerard, a filmmaker working on a series about the master forger based on Hebborn's memoir, thinks his story is still relevant in this "era of questionable authenticity of images." Today, the term "fake news" is thrown around casually by the president of the United States in speeches and on Twitter, and anyone who knows how to use Photoshop can doctor an image. But Hebborn scoffed at experts long before the dawn of the "Post-Truth Era."

“There’s still this need to discover things, so you can keep the market going,” Gerard said. “As long as the market has that trust, people are going to take advantage of it and keep putting forgeries into it.”

A documentary featuring an interview with Eric Hebborn at his home in Italy.  Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) was a British painter and art forger and later an author.  On January 8, 1996, Eric Hebborn was found lying in a street in Rome, his skull crushed with a blunt instrument. He died three days later in the hospital on January 11, 1996. 

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Interesserà a pochi, forse a maifinito, cui comunque lo consiglio. Ma io per Master Eric, cioè Eric Hebborn, straordinario, raffinatissimo falsario di disegni antichi ed altro, ho avuto una passione. Il filmato è il migliore materiale video su questo simpatico briccone, che ha beffato case d'asta, mercanti e studiosi e che ormai fa parte della storia del collezionismo. Così provocatorio da svelarsi con un'autobiografia che copriva di ridicolo chi già era stato ingannato. E quanto aiutano, i suoi disegni, a capire meglio gli originali :D

‘Eric Hebborn (1934-96) as painted by Peter Greenham in 1960, from here. Mr Hebborn was murdered and had lived a full life as an art forger-copying the works of the masters for profit and fun before his life was taken from him. He wrote about it well too.  

Eric Hebborn, art forger (here: http://www.headington.org.uk/history/famous_people/hebborn.htm)