Join us for a celebration of Jon S. Dellandrea’s new book, The Great Canadian Art Fraud Case. The talk will include a presentation by author Jon S. Dellandrea and audience Q&A, followed by an opportunity to purchase the book and have your copy signed by Dellandrea.

About the Author:
Jon S. Dellandrea is a Canadian educator and author. He is a senior fellow at Massey College, chair emeritus of the Art Canada Institute, and a Member of the Order of Canada. His articles on fakes and forgeries in Canadian art have appeared in the Literary Review of Canada and Canada’s History.

About the Book:
In May 2016, Jon S. Dellandrea came into possession of a box of the last effects of an obscure artist, William Firth MacGregor. The contents of the box chronicled a major, and long forgotten, trial involving forgeries of the art of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

The Great Canadian Art Fraud Case takes readers back to 1962, a time when forgeries were turning up on gallery walls, in auction houses, and (unwittingly) being hung in the homes of luminaries across Canada. Inspector James Erskine, enlisting the help of A.J. Casson, the youngest living member of the Group of Seven, set out to discover where the forgeries were coming from. Fifty years later, Dellandrea follows Erskine’s hunt to the end, uncovering the masterminds behind the forgeries.

Lavishly illustrated with reproductions and archival images, The Great Canadian Art Fraud Case unravels the mystery of the greatest art fraud trial in Canadian history. Along the way, it also tells the story of a talented artist whose career might have been so very different.

If you liked this book, join us again in November as our AGH Reads book club dives deeper into discussion!

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