Episode 91: The Fake Matisse - Art Mysteries, Episode 3

After a famous Matisse painting from a Venezuelan museum mysteriously shows up in a Miami art gallery, a journalist investigates and discovers the unthinkable: for years, the so-called masterpiece on display at the museum was a fake.

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Martina: In late November 2002, Marianela Balbi was busy at work in Caracas. She was the editor of the culture desk at the Venezuelan daily Newspaper El Nacional. One weekday afternoon, out of the blue, a strange email landed in her inbox.

Marianela: El correo electrónico era de Gennaro Ambrosino, un venezolano que era el dueño de una galería de arte en Miami. Él había mandado ese correo a más de cien personas. Empezaba así: “Necesito su ayuda…”.

Martina: Marianela read the email, frowning in disbelief. The art gallery owner wrote that someone in Miami was trying to buy a painting by the French artist Henri Matisse… And the sellers were claiming it came from a collection in Venezuela.

Marianela: El señor Ambrosino estaba sorprendido. Él sabía que el único Matisse en Venezuela le pertenecía al Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, el MACC. La obra se llama: La Odalisca con pantalón rojo.

Martina: La Odalisca con pantalón rojo, The Odalisque in Red Pants. Marianela clearly remembered the painting she had seen hanging in the Caracas museum. Matisse had painted a woman wearing red, flowy, harem-style pants, reclining on a mattress against a green and yellow striped wall. Priced at over 3 million dollars, it was one of the most valuable paintings in all of Venezuela.

Marianela: Yo pensé: “No es posible que estén vendiendo la Odalisca en Miami. Esa pintura está aquí en el museo. Tiene que ser un error, o una broma”. Pero pronto iba a descubrir que no era ninguna broma… Yo no tenía ni idea de la increíble historia que se iba a cruzar en mi camino.

Martina: Bienvenidos and welcome to a special season of the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. I’m Martina Castro, and this season we’re digging into some of the greatest mysteries of art and literature in the Spanish-speaking world.

As usual, the storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I’ll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Today, we travel to Venezuela to learn about one of the strangest art heists the country has ever seen.

Martina: At first, Marianela thought the email from the man in Miami was un engaño, a hoax. At the time, Venezuela was filled with misinformation and fraudulent claims. The country was going through massive political upheaval, and there was a lot of distrust between supporters and opponents of the new government of President Hugo Chávez. Rumors were rampant.

Marianela: Era una época de mucha inestabilidad política. Había mucha tensión entre los partisanos del chavismo y los miembros de la oposición. Había protestas en las calles y mucha información falsa que circulaba a diario. Los venezolanos ya no sabían qué creer. Honestamente, yo pensé que ese mensaje era un engaño.

Martina: Marianela and her colleagues all agreed the email must be a hoax. She went home that night and thought nothing of it. But the next morning…

Marianela: Estaba leyendo los periódicos y vi que El Universal, nuestra competencia, había publicado un artículo sobre el mensaje del dueño de la galería donde le pedían un comentario al museo.

Martina: Marianela’s heart sank. The fact that a rival newspaper had taken the Matisse email seriously…made her wonder if she had jumped to conclusions too quickly. She needed to check her sources, or fuentes.

Marianela: Pensé: “¡Ay, no! A lo mejor la información del correo era cierta y la competencia iba un paso adelante”. Fui a hablar con mis editores y decidimos cubrir la historia, pero de una manera muy simple. Hablé con las fuentes oficiales del museo, pero ellos negaron todo.

Martina: In response to the media speculation, museum authorities held a press conference where they brought out the painting in question, to show that it was safe at the museum. Sure enough, there was the woman in the red pants, looking the same as always. To dispel any doubts, the museum director asked a renowned art restorer to authenticate the painting.

Marianela: Yo pensé que ese era el fin de la historia, pero la semana siguiente, el museo dio otra rueda de prensa. Yo la vi por la televisión. Se veía que todos estaban nerviosos y cuando anunciaron las conclusiones de la experta… ¡fue un shock! La obra en el museo no era la original, ¡era falsa!

Martina: The painting in the museum was a fake! Museum authorities were forced to admit that someone, at some point, appeared to have taken the priceless original masterpiece by Matisse, removed it from its frame, and swapped in a copy. Until that moment, no one seemed to have noticed.

Marianela: El escándalo explotó después de eso. Yo no lo podía creer, pero tenía que investigar este caso. Tenía mil preguntas. Mi meta era descubrir dónde estaba esa pintura y para eso iba a utilizar mi herramienta más preciada: el periodismo.

Martina: Marianela began investigating, but soon realized that the authorities had zero leads. So she decided to interview various art experts, who told her that this kind of theft is unfortunately all too common in countries with political instability. Marina Puerto Baydal is a Spanish artwork provenance researcher. She works for an organization that tracks and investigates stolen art.

Marina: Hoy en día hay muchas obras robadas circulando por el mundo en el mercado del arte clandestino. Vienen de todos los países, pero la situación en Venezuela era diferente. Había una fuerte crisis económica. Por esta razón, el país tenía menos recursos para proteger las obras e investigar este tipo de crímenes.

Martina: According to Marina, it wasn’t all that surprising that a painting stolen in Venezuela would show up for sale in Miami. Not only does the city have a large Venezuelan immigrant community, it’s also home to an important art fair, called Art Basel Miami Beach.

Marina: Desde sus comienzos, la feria Art Basel de Miami ha sido el centro de obras de muchos artistas, especialmente de América Latina.

Martina: Marianela realized this would be a tough case to crack, but she wanted to understand what had happened to the painting. And most of all, she wanted it back in its rightful home, the Caracas Contemporary Art Museum. The museum took the fake down, making the painting’s absence even more dramatic.

Marianela: Yo quería investigar aunque sabía que iba a ser muy difícil. No tenía ni el tiempo ni los recursos, pero no me podía olvidar del caso… ¡Yo quería encontrar a la Odalisca!

Martina: A year later, in 2003, police still hadn’t made any headway into the investigation. The seller who had approached the gallerist in Miami in the first place was nowhere to be found…and neither was the painting. Marianela despaired over the lack of progress, so she decided to fully dive into the case herself and write a book…hoping the research process might help her uncover who had committed the original crime.

Marianela: Busqué fotos de varias exhibiciones en el MACC donde aparecía la Odalisca. Analicé catálogos de exposiciones, fotos en archivos de periódicos… cualquier cosa para encontrar una pista.

Martina: Looking for a pista, or clue…Marianela looked at so many photos of the painting that she practically knew it by heart. One day, she was looking through a series of old photos and found something that caught her attention.

Marianela: Era una foto de septiembre del año 2000 donde estaba el nuevo presidente Hugo Chávez hablando con la exdirectora del museo en la galería principal. En el fondo, apenas visible, había una silueta familiar… ¡Era la Odalisca! Pero, cuando miré más de cerca, vi algo extraño. Detrás de la mujer había unas sombras raras que no estaban en la obra original.

Martina: Marianela noticed several differences between images of the original Odalisque and the painting in the photo. The color of the Odalisque’s pants was more orange than crimson. There were also dark shadows behind her that were not visible in the original painting. And instead of seven green stripes on the mattress, there were six! The painting in the photo with the president…was already the fake one!

Marianela: Eso quería decir que, desde hacía más de dos años, había una pintura falsificada en el museo. ¿Cómo nadie se dio cuenta de nada?

Martina: Slowly, painstakingly, Marianela continued to investigate. Her biggest break came when she was able to get in touch with the foremost Matisse expert in Paris, a curator named Wanda de Guébriant, who has since passed away.

Marianela: El trabajo de Wanda era verificar todas las obras de Matisse. Yo viajé a Europa en 2004 y decidí entrevistarla para ver si encontraba más pistas. Durante la entrevista, ella me dijo algo increíble.

Martina: Wanda explained that in the summer of 2001, a team of French lawyers contacted her on behalf of clients who had seen the Odalisque for sale. They wanted her to authenticate it. So they brought her to a cavernous, secured customs warehouse outside Paris to see the painting.

Marianela: Wanda, la curadora, me dijo que, cuando vio la pintura, notó que el marco era poco profesional y que estaba hecho de madera muy rústica. Le pareció extraño y pensó que seguramente se trataba de una copia. Pero cuando la inspeccionó, supo que era la original.

Martina: Wanda told Marianela that she knew then something wasn’t quite right. The Odalisque in the warehouse was definitely real, but she didn’t understand how this was possible: it was supposed to be in a museum in Caracas! Wanda decided to reach out to the museum as soon as the lawyers left.

Marianela: Wanda intentó contactar al museo, pero fue muy difícil comunicarse con alguien. En esa época el museo estaba pasando por un periodo complicado por el ascenso del chavismo en Venezuela. Wanda finalmente pudo decirles a algunas personas que habían trabajado en el museo que ella había visto la Odalisca en París y que era la original.

Martina: Marianela could barely process what Wanda was telling her. People from the museum knew, back in 2001 — more than a year before the email from the Miami gallerist — that someone was trying to sell the painting! And no one did anything!

Marianela: Hasta ese momento yo pensaba que el museo era la víctima en este caso, pero comencé a sospechar… ¿Y si alguien en el museo estaba detrás de todo esto? Yo tenía que seguir investigando porque solo eso nos llevaría a la Odalisca.

Martina: Marianela feverishly got to work on her book, investigating the case of the stolen Matisse whenever she had a chance.

Marianela: Mientras más investigaba, más sospechaba de la gente del museo. Llegué a pensar que alguien de la alta gerencia podía estar detrás de la desaparición de la Odalisca. Yo creo que solo así la pintura habría podido salir del país sin levantar sospechas. Pero esto era solo una hipótesis.

Martina: Marianela learned that in 2001, the museum’s founder and longtime director, Sofía Ímber, was unceremoniously fired on live television by President Hugo Chávez. Marianela’s theory was that some museum officials saw more firings coming…and decided the valuable Matisse could be their back-up retirement plan.

Marianela: Mi investigación fue muy difícil porque nadie quería hablar de este caso. Pero poco a poco, pude entrevistar a gente del museo, de la policía y del gobierno.

Martina: Marianela gathered all of her findings in her book. She was careful not to directly accuse former museum authorities. After all, the police had never charged them. But she laid out all the circumstantial evidence she had gathered, everything that was known as fact. Her goal was to connect the dots, to demonstrate her theory that the stolen Matisse was a case of corruption and authorities turning a blind eye.

Marianela: Yo simplemente escribí lo que cada persona me dijo. El público podría llegar a su propia conclusión.

Martina: Marianela was able to track the missing painting’s movements from Caracas to Miami, then to Paris, and back to Miami again. But after the email she received in 2002…the painting disappeared again. A final, burning question remained in Marianela’s mind: where was the painting now?

Marianela: La curadora Wanda, fue mi fuente más confiable, y me dijo que había descubierto que era muy probable que la obra estuviera en México. Tal vez las personas que la querían vender buscaron un lugar seguro y discreto durante un tiempo antes de intentar venderla otra vez.

Martina: That’s how Marianela had to conclude her book: by suggesting the painting was most likely somewhere in Mexico, waiting for a buyer unscrupulous or unsuspecting enough to lay down cash for it. When the book came out in 2009, it caused quite a stir.

Marianela: Recibí ataques de partisanos del gobierno, y también de la oposición. Mis amigos del mundo artístico y cultural me dijeron que yo estaba dañando la reputación del museo.

Martina: Marianela faced criticism, but also huge public interest. She was interviewed by several international media organizations. She hoped that the facts would speak for themselves, and that the police would deepen their investigation so they could finally bring the painting back home to Venezuela. But to her dismay, the case went nowhere.

Marianela: Los años pasaron y yo cambié de trabajo porque tenía otros proyectos. Y bueno, después de un tiempo, la gente dejó de pensar en la Odalisca. Fue un misterio sin resolver. Nadie sabía dónde estaba, pero yo no podía olvidarla.

Martina: Years passed. Then one day, in the summer of 2012, Marianela got an unexpected phone call from a friend.

Marianela: Mi amigo me dijo: “¡Encontraron a tu Odalisca!”. No lo podía creer…

Martina: The Odalisque had turned up! Though not in a way Marianela would ever have expected. It was recovered in Miami in an undercover FBI sting. Marianela learned that the FBI had launched a months-long operation, following a tip that a Cuban-American man was trying to sell the painting on behalf of some people in Mexico.

Marianela: ¡En México! ¡Eso quería decir que la última información de Wanda era cierta! Y mis sospechas fueron confirmadas. Wanda había sido mi fuente más confiable y estaba muy interesada en el caso. Ella seguramente estaba tan contenta como yo.

Martina: Marianela kept close tabs on the ongoing investigation and trial in Miami. It was like the plot of a movie! The FBI had laid out an elaborate trap involving an agent who posed as a wealthy potential buyer. The agent convinced the seller in Mexico to fly the three million dollar painting to Miami, rolled up in a tube mixed in with cheap posters.

Marianela: El agente del FBI le pidió que se vieran en una habitación de un hotel de lujo. Confirmó que era la obra original y cuando ya iban a firmar la venta… sus colegas entraron al cuarto… ¡y arrestaron al vendedor! Lo atraparon, pero era solo un intermediario.

Martina: The intermediary in Mexico pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison. But if he knew who the original thief was, he wasn’t talking. Marianela accepts that the person’s identity may never be known.

Marianela: En Venezuela nunca se supo realmente qué pasó porque no hubo interés político para investigarlo. Tal vez para defender la reputación del museo o de personas muy importantes… Lo cierto es que nunca se supo y a lo mejor nunca se sabrá. Este es un caso de total impunidad.

Martina: In 2016, Marianela returned to the museum in Caracas for the first time in years. After undergoing careful restoration, the Odalisque was hung with much fanfare in a special exhibit…right next to the fraudulent copy that had taken its place for years. When Marianela looked at it side by side with the impostor, it became clear what a poor imitation the copy was.

Marianela: En ese momento, entendí lo que le habían robado al país, lo que casi perdimos para siempre. Sentí que, de alguna manera, yo había ayudado a traer a la Odalisca de regreso a su hogar.

Martina: Marianela Balbi is a journalist and writer now living in Madrid, Spain.

This story was produced by Adonde Media’s Lorena Galliot.

We'd love to know what you thought of this episode! You can write us an email at podcast@duolingo.com and call and leave us a voicemail or audio message on WhatsApp, at +1-703-953-93-69. Don’t forget to say your name and where you’re from!

Martina: Here’s a message we recently got from Max in France:

Max: I really like your Spanish podcast. I listen to them all. I want to thank you because it's really a great help for me to learn Spanish. Especially episodes like the two twin sisters. When they met again I had tears in my eyes. Same as the one where the miners were trapped in Chile. Thanks a lot for everything, and I'm looking forward to the new season. Bye-bye!

Martina: Thank you so much for your message, Max! We’re so happy to hear that our stories move you as much as they move us.

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The Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. I’m the executive producer, Martina Castro. ¡Gracias por escuchar!

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.