Fernand Legros

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Fernand Legros (26 January 1931–1983) was an art dealer who, together with his lover Real Lessard, sold forgeries of Elmyr de Hory.

Legros used to be a ballet dancer. After the World War II he moved from Cairo to Paris. He married an American woman probably just to gain US citizenship, because he was a homosexual.

Legros met De Hory in the 1950s when they were rooming in Miami in a house of a mutual acquaintance. He had recently come from France without his wife. Legros was apparently impressed by De Hory's skill and persuaded him to be his agent for a 40% cut.

In the following years two men traveled all over the US and sold De Hory's paintings to galleries. Legros kept most of the profits without telling De Hory. Legros also befriended French-Canadian Real Lessard and they begun an uneven relationship. Legros occasionally accused Lessard of infidelity, although he himself slept with other men.

De Hory eventually grew tired of the men and Legros' volatile temperament and moved to Europe. Next time he ran into Legros in Paris where Legros asked him to give him some of his paintings. When De hory explained that his paintings were locked up in New York hotel, Legros proceeded to acquire them. He sold them in the international art market.

Year later, De Hory met Legros again and begun a new business relationship with him. Legros and Lessard would sell De Hory's painting and give him $400 a month plus an occasional bonus. They arranged De Hory to move to Ibiza in 1962. Legros and Lessard kept most of the profits and soon moved to a luxurious suit in Paris. They also built a villa for De Hory in Ibiza.

Legros sold the paintings with forged certificates. He fooled a number of US collectors, including Arthur Meadows of General American Oil Company. Sometimes Legros and Lessard would acquire old art books and replace the attached pictures of the real paintings with those of de Hory's forgeries.

Sometimes Legros would cross the US border and when the customs checked his luggage, he said that the paintings were just copies. US customs officials contacted art experts to verify it. The expert decided that the paintings were actually genuine and Legros would be liable for a toll. Later Legros used the US customs documents to verify the authenticity of the paintings.

In 1964 art market got suspicious and police begun to close in. Legros and Lessard moved to Zurich and sent De Hory to Australia for a year. Later Legros moved into Ibiza and evicted De Hory. Shortly afterwards police apprehended Legros and Lessard and charged them with forgery and fraud and jailed.

Legros died of throat cancer.

[edit] Books and references

The life and times of Fernand Legros were vividly described by French writer Roger Peyrefitte in his 1976 novel Tableaux de chasse ou la vie extraordinaire de Fernand Legros (ISBN 2-226-00262-6).