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May 3, 2019 - Droog
Magazine periodical for investigative
journalism
One of the 'Certificates of
Authenticity' issuers to obvious forged Hitler
signatures on watercolors, oil paintings, sketches
and documents is the American Frank P. Garo (year of
birth unknown).
Highly dubious certificates - criminal offense? The
letters
or certificates of authenticity issued by Garo
are highly dubious. Not because Mr. Garo
states his opinion or belief about the nature
of the object and/or signature - which he is
free to do.
See: Report for Bavarian State
police on Frank P. Garo.
Logo
William
Tell Research website; still to visit via In 1998 Garo
founded William Tell Research (WTR), a firm
which issued between 1998 and
2007/2008 more than 20,000
certificates of authenticity.10 Via
Arrow Grade, a division of WTR, Garo graded
sports and other memorabilia cards. The
Arrow Grade site was online from 2006 until
2012. In 2012 Garo stated on this website he
had "personally graded well over 100,000
cards."
Logo Arrow
Grade website, still to visit via: Frank P. Garo FHE Forensic Handwriting
Examiner
In 2007 Garo
changed the name of his company into Frank P. Garo
Forensic Handwriting Examiner. He issued from 2007
until begin 2019 circa 10,000 certificates of
authenticity.11
notes 6 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019]. 7 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019]. 8 Frank P. Garo, in interview with Rocky Landsverk. Sports Collectors Digest, [USA], 21-12-2007. 9 Questions from Bart FM Droog to Frank P. Garo. E-mail, 24-01-2019. 10 Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog. Traced CoA's from Frank P. Garo. Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 01-04-2019. http://www.droog-mag.nl/hitler/coa/garo/garo-certificates-of-authenticity.html 11 Van den Born and Droog. Traced CoA's from Frank P. Garo. Droog Magazine.
http://richardsimonsports.com/hofauto2.htm
Caught in the act, 2017 Whilst investigating the Hitler forgery industry, we noticed the existence of many bogus certificates of authenticity issued by Frank P. Garo to obvious forgeries attributed to Adolf Hitler. We decided to test him out. We sent him bait, in the form of a homebaked Hitler forgery with a fantasy Hitler signature. Mr. Garo authenticated without any hesitation.
This, despite the fact that on the back of the forgery clearly the fake stamp 'HBH' was placed, a mark from a forger whom Charles Hamilton (Garo claimed to have studied all relevant Hamilton books) strongly warned against in his book The Hitler Diaries: fakes that fooled the World. In his e-mail to Frank Garo Jaap van den Born specifically pointed at that stamp, giving him every chance and opportunity to notice it was a forgery.
'Hitlers' with Garo CoA's seized by German police When
we
learned about two upcoming Hitler auctions in
Germany, we noticed that three 'Hitlers' at a
Berlin auction (Kloss, January 24, 2019) and
at least nine at a Nuremberg auction (Weidler,
February 9, 2019) were accompanied by CoA's
issued by Frank P. Garo.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/art-market-turns-blind-eye-to-hitler-fakes-0fsghjlbv Maya Margit. German authorities seize 63 alleged Hitler paintings amid booming forgery market. The Media Line, Washington (D.C., USA), 07-02-2019. https://themedialine.org/featured/german-authorities-seize-63-alleged-hitler-paintings-amid-booming-forgery-market/ Oliver Moody. Hitler art sale in Nuremberg flops after seizure of suspected fakes. The Times, London, 11-02-2019. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hitler-art-sale-in-nuremberg-flops-after-seizure-of-suspected-fakes-lh2znk7kb Christopher F. Schuetze. Are these paintings really by Hitler? German authorities are investigating. The New York Times, New York, 06-03-2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/arts/design/hitler-paintings-fake.html
Traced Garo-CoA's Of
the
30,000 certificates of authenticity allegedly
issued by Garo, we traced only a small number.
Frank P Garo is not only an 'authenticator' of forged signatures, he is also an... artist! Garo, on www.fgaroart.com , about himself:
Well, well. One wonders how the works of this genius look like. Like this:
He offers prints of 158 of his artworks for sale. A signed copy costs only $20.- . For just $45.- extra Garo issues a certificate of authenticity to it. Now, isn't that a bargain?
Press about Frank P. Garo
Oder von dem
US-Amerikaner Frank P. Garo, der mit seinem
Online-Dienst Handschriftenanalysen im
Schnellservice für 20 Dollar anbietet. Aber das
schreckt niemanden ab: Hauptsache, irgendwie ein
Hitler." (...) Ryan
Dailey.
Tallahassee auction will sell what could be
some of Hitler's early sketches. Tallahassee
Democrat, 09-02-2018. Sven-Felix
Kellerhoff.
Mythen des Kunstmarkts. Hitlers
künstlerisches "Werk" soll bis zu 3000
Bilder umfasst haben. Welt, Berlin,
30-01-2019. Sven-Felix
Kellerhoff. 98 percent of 'Hitler's' paintings are
counterfeits. The Post
Online, Amsterdam,
31-01-2019.
David Crossland.
Art market 'turns blind eye' to Hitler fakes. The
Sunday Times, London,
03-02-2019. Maya
Margit. German authorities seize 63 alleged
Hitler paintings amid booming forgery market. The
Media Line, Washington (D.C., USA),
07-02-2019.
Garo's reaction
"Your April 3, article about me was recently brought to my attention. It is so full of half truths, distortions and out right lies I'm not going to waste my time repudiating your pathetic garbage. You make America's National Enquirer look respectable. I'm surprised you did not accuse me of kicking puppy dogs for a hobby But
relax,
I'm sure wherever he is rotting Josef Goebbels
would be proud of you." G.S.
Gallery
the company I "allegedly" founded stands for Garo
Studio & Gallery. I'm sure that's just a
"coincidence"." Which
surprised as, as we didn't know Garo possessed
so much self-knowledge.
© Compilation Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog, 2019. |
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