A 72-year-old man has been jailed for one year, six months suspended, for selling false etchings by artist Anton Heyboer to two Amsterdam gallery owners.

The court said Robbert de Bakker had sold 1,000 works for a total €100,000, not the 4,000 which the gallery owners claimed.

De Bakker, who refused in court to say if he had forged Heyboer’s signature himself, is appealing against the conviction.

Forgeries

De Bakker had been selling etchings as Heyboer originals for the past eight years, but they have since been declared forgeries, the Telegraaf reported last month.

According to the Volkskrant, the case dates back to 2005 when a man introduced himself as an archaeologist called Bijvoet and claimed to have a collection of Heyboer works dating back to his Haarlem period in the 1950s.

Over the years, dealer Georges Knubben said he bought 4,000 of the works for some €200,000.

But he and others began to have doubts about the origins of the works and in August 2012, when Bijvoet again visited the Amsterdam gallery, Knubben and his partner locked the door and called the police.

Investigation

In the ensuing investigation, it emerged the works were not by the eccentric Dutch artist and that Bijvoet was actually a graphic artist named Robbert de Bakker.

According to the Dutch press, De Bakker has also been involved in forging works by Picasso and Chagall.

Dutch painter and print maker Heyboer (1924-2005) lived and worked in Haarlem in the 1950s but spent the final years of his life in Den Ilp, together with five women.