The Canadian Press 05/09/2024 Victims of what has been described as one of the art world’s biggest-ever fraud investigations are sharing its far-reaching impact in court today. David Voss, who Crown prosecutors call the “principal architect” of a scheme that produced thousands of fake Norval Morrisseau paintings from the mid-’90s to mid-2010s, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to two charges in June. The late Morrisseau was a trailblazing figure in contemporary Indigenous art. Kevin Hearn, a member of the Barenaked Ladies rock band, said in a victim impact statement that the artist’s identity was “mutilated” and fraudsters misappropriated Indigenous culture to exploit the art world. Hearn won a lawsuit in 2019 against a Toronto gallery that sold him one of the fakes, and became a key figure in uncovering…
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