Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi profited handsomely from their crimes – passing off their own creations as works by artists such as Max Ernst and Fernand Léger, and selling them for millions, before getting caught out by the wrong pigment. They both served lengthy prison sentences. But when interviewed for an upcoming book they said they "got a kick" out of fooling a "fraudulent" art world. "For some forgers, I think it's a kind of pathological behaviour," says Wieseman. "It is a fascinating subculture."
