Self is currently reading Con/Artist: A Memoir, by Tony Tetro, about his life as a “world-renowned” art forger (His main claim to fame is that he gulled Prince Charles into buying a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, “insuring them for over 200 million pounds,” when they were “actually Tetros.”) He spent a year in jail when the forgeries were exposed (A year?) and then went on to write this memoir, which got a very favorable review in the Wall Street Journal, about a week ago. This book was co-authored (the co-author’s name is in very small print) by Giampero Ambrosi.
Chapter One is about his art education, in high school in Fulton, New York. He name-drops like mad! Then relates an anecdote of Michelangelo, only 22 when he began working on the Pieta, that has the artist sneaking “into the Vatican” to carve “his name on the sculpture — the only artwork he ever signed,” because rumors were going round that “his masterpiece had been made by one of his rivals.” Tetro commiserates: “I don’t blame him. It’s ironic considering what I do, but years later when I forged a piece that somebody else claimed, I think I understood what Michelangelo must have felt.”
Clearly, he can relate to the best! Anyhoo, self finds his constant calling attention to himself quite exhausting, and is glad that there are only two pages left of this chapter.