Latest news with #Morrisseau
Hamilton Spectator
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
How AI, robotics and late artist Morrisseau are helping fight art fraud
Famed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau was browsing a Vancouver gallery with his longtime friend Cory Dingle around 1993 when a painting stopped them in their tracks. The pair asked who created it. The answer? 'Norval Morrisseau.' The trouble? The artist had never seen the work, let alone painted it. 'We had a little chuckle and we left,' Dingle recalled. 'Then, I said, 'What do you want to do about this?' He said, 'You know, you can't police the world.'' Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was a self-taught, trailblazing artist known for his pictographic style and membership in the Indian Group of Seven. He was the first Indigenous artist to have his work shown in a contemporary gallery in Canada and now his paintings sell for millions. But the incident Dingle remembers proved to be an omen. At least 6,000 fake paintings have since been uncovered, costing Morrisseau's estate $100 million in losses. The phenomenon amounts to what police have called the biggest art fraud in world history. Finding fakes is time consuming work. It requires co-operation from galleries and private collectors, a trained, critical eye cast on anything purporting to be made by the late artist and the patience to keep pursuing justice through the court system. But now a new tool has emerged to help the battle: artificial intelligence. Bogged down by the enormity of the task at hand, Morrisseau's estate, which is run by Dingle, partnered with two art-loving professors to build software nicknamed 'Norval AI' about three years ago. It can analyze art pieces and determine the probability that they're a genuine Morrisseau. 'Because the fakes were so terrible ... we got to a point with our AI that it was so good at picking them out,' Dingle said. 'There was no problem.' Yet the estate knew fakes were still out there. They were just getting harder to detect because court hearings were revealing the tell-tale signs of a fake Morrisseau — thinner paint lines, for example — which allowed fraudsters to make their works even more convincing. Enter Chloë Ryan. The then-engineering student loved making large-scale abstract paintings. Even though such works could sell for a decent amount, they often take weeks or months to create, narrowing the odds that she could make artistry a viable career. She could make prints of her pieces, but they just weren't the same because they lacked the texture of a real painting. The conundrum became a source of inspiration for Ryan, leading her to start tinkering with robots and paint on her Montreal balcony. She eventually developed Acrylic Robotics, a company that uses technology to paint pieces at the behest of an artist. The process starts with an artist painting with a stylus on a drawing table, which acts like a massive tablet. Amazon Web Services software analyzes and logs every movement, detecting millions of details in the piece, including the strokes, brush pressure, pigment and speed. 'We like to think of AI as a powerful magnifying glass,' said Patricia Nielsen, AWS Canada's head of digital transformation and AI. 'It can detect those patterns and the anomalies that might be invisible to the human eye ... so art experts, historians, can dig in further.' With that data, Acrylic's robotic arm can then paint a replica so precise, Ryan says it's indistinguishable from an original — exactly what Dingle needed to put Norval AI to the test. A mutual connection put him in touch with Ryan last August. Shortly after, they got to work. Because Morrisseau isn't alive to paint images on Ryan's tablet, Acrylic's robot (Dingle affectionately calls it Dodo) had a more complicated feat to accomplish. Dingle would send Ryan a hi-resolution image of one of Morrisseau's works. Acrylic Robotics would then have an artist learn about eccentricities of his style and paint the piece before Acrylic's robot would give it a try. Everything the robot painted was analyzed by the estate and Norval AI. The two sides have been going back and forth for about a year, picking out errors in the robot's execution and poring over new works. Early editions had several spots where both the estate and Norval AI could tell the robot had stopped a long stroke to pick up more paint — something uncharacteristic of Morrisseau. 'If you look at one of our works randomly on the street, you wouldn't be able to say that's made by a robot, but we can't yet do all art under the sun because there's a lot of techniques that we haven't yet built in,' Ryan said. 'We can't use every tool in an artist's arsenal yet. If an artist is out here finger painting, obviously we can't do stuff like that.' Newer editions of the Morrisseaus are about 69 per cent accurate and expected to improve even more. But Dingle admits, 'I have kind of been holding back on getting to 100 per cent.' He's scared of developing anything too perfect before he and Acrylic Robotics have found a foolproof method for ensuring a Morrisseau recreation can't be passed off as the real thing. It's a concern Ryan shares. 'The worst thing that could happen is that we release this without consultation with groups that have been harmed by art forgery and this technology is used against artists,' she said. They're currently exploring markings or other features that can be embedded in pieces to denote they're not originals. Once they settle on an ideal method, they'll have an avenue to disseminate recreations of Morrisseau's work — responsibly. While some might think that's the last thing an estate plagued by forgeries would want to do, Dingle sees it as a way to bring Morrisseau's work to the people who would value it most. 'There's two schools named after Norval. There are healing institutions. There are academic institutions. There are remote Indigenous communities,' said Dingle, sitting in front of a rarely-shown Morrisseau. 'They could never afford to buy this painting, to hang it in their halls, to have the healing and the lessons of it, so we need to be able to produce high level reproductions that bring the life of that painting to these places.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
How AI, robotics and late artist Morrisseau are helping fight art fraud
Famed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau was browsing a Vancouver gallery with his longtime friend Cory Dingle around 1993 when a painting stopped them in their tracks. The pair asked who created it. The answer? 'Norval Morrisseau.' The trouble? The artist had never seen the work, let alone painted it. 'We had a little chuckle and we left,' Dingle recalled. 'Then, I said, 'What do you want to do about this?' He said, 'You know, you can't police the world.'' Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was a self-taught, trailblazing artist known for his pictographic style and membership in the Indian Group of Seven. He was the first Indigenous artist to have his work shown in a contemporary gallery in Canada and now his paintings sell for millions. But the incident Dingle remembers proved to be an omen. At least 6,000 fake paintings have since been uncovered, costing Morrisseau's estate $100 million in losses. The phenomenon amounts to what police have called the biggest art fraud in world history. Finding fakes is time consuming work. It requires co-operation from galleries and private collectors, a trained, critical eye cast on anything purporting to be made by the late artist and the patience to keep pursuing justice through the court system. But now a new tool has emerged to help the battle: artificial intelligence. Bogged down by the enormity of the task at hand, Morrisseau's estate, which is run by Dingle, partnered with two art-loving professors to build software nicknamed 'Norval AI' about three years ago. It can analyze art pieces and determine the probability that they're a genuine Morrisseau. 'Because the fakes were so terrible … we got to a point with our AI that it was so good at picking them out,' Dingle said. 'There was no problem.' Yet the estate knew fakes were still out there. They were just getting harder to detect because court hearings were revealing the tell-tale signs of a fake Morrisseau — thinner paint lines, for example — which allowed fraudsters to make their works even more convincing. Enter Chloë Ryan. The then-engineering student loved making large-scale abstract paintings. Even though such works could sell for a decent amount, they often take weeks or months to create, narrowing the odds that she could make artistry a viable career. She could make prints of her pieces, but they just weren't the same because they lacked the texture of a real painting. The conundrum became a source of inspiration for Ryan, leading her to start tinkering with robots and paint on her Montreal balcony. She eventually developed Acrylic Robotics, a company that uses technology to paint pieces at the behest of an artist. The process starts with an artist painting with a stylus on a drawing table, which acts like a massive tablet. Amazon Web Services software analyzes and logs every movement, detecting millions of details in the piece, including the strokes, brush pressure, pigment and speed. 'We like to think of AI as a powerful magnifying glass,' said Patricia Nielsen, AWS Canada's head of digital transformation and AI. 'It can detect those patterns and the anomalies that might be invisible to the human eye … so art experts, historians, can dig in further.' With that data, Acrylic's robotic arm can then paint a replica so precise, Ryan says it's indistinguishable from an original — exactly what Dingle needed to put Norval AI to the test. A mutual connection put him in touch with Ryan last August. Shortly after, they got to work. Because Morrisseau isn't alive to paint images on Ryan's tablet, Acrylic's robot (Dingle affectionately calls it Dodo) had a more complicated feat to accomplish. Dingle would send Ryan a hi-resolution image of one of Morrisseau's works. Acrylic Robotics would then have an artist learn about eccentricities of his style and paint the piece before Acrylic's robot would give it a try. Everything the robot painted was analyzed by the estate and Norval AI. The two sides have been going back and forth for about a year, picking out errors in the robot's execution and poring over new works. Early editions had several spots where both the estate and Norval AI could tell the robot had stopped a long stroke to pick up more paint — something uncharacteristic of Morrisseau. 'If you look at one of our works randomly on the street, you wouldn't be able to say that's made by a robot, but we can't yet do all art under the sun because there's a lot of techniques that we haven't yet built in,' Ryan said. 'We can't use every tool in an artist's arsenal yet. If an artist is out here finger painting, obviously we can't do stuff like that.' Newer editions of the Morrisseaus are about 69 per cent accurate and expected to improve even more. But Dingle admits, 'I have kind of been holding back on getting to 100 per cent.' He's scared of developing anything too perfect before he and Acrylic Robotics have found a foolproof method for ensuring a Morrisseau recreation can't be passed off as the real thing. It's a concern Ryan shares. 'The worst thing that could happen is that we release this without consultation with groups that have been harmed by art forgery and this technology is used against artists,' she said. They're currently exploring markings or other features that can be embedded in pieces to denote they're not originals. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Once they settle on an ideal method, they'll have an avenue to disseminate recreations of Morrisseau's work — responsibly. While some might think that's the last thing an estate plagued by forgeries would want to do, Dingle sees it as a way to bring Morrisseau's work to the people who would value it most. 'There's two schools named after Norval. There are healing institutions. There are academic institutions. There are remote Indigenous communities,' said Dingle, sitting in front of a rarely-shown Morrisseau. 'They could never afford to buy this painting, to hang it in their halls, to have the healing and the lessons of it, so we need to be able to produce high level reproductions that bring the life of that painting to these places.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025.
CBC
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Calgary gallery sues Norval Morrisseau Estate for $1.45M
EA Studios files defamation, breach of contract claim in Alberta Superior Trial court Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. has been outspoken against the profuse fraud of the late artist's work. Now, it faces a $1.45 million lawsuit claiming it defamed an art gallery by implying its works could be fakes. Cory Dingle has spoken out against art fraud to multiple media outlets, including CBC, as Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd.'s executive director. He's now being sued alongside Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. for defamation and breach of contract by a Calgary art gallery, a lawsuit filed in Alberta's Superior Trial Court on March 11 claims. EA Studios claims that Dingle's statements to potential buyers implied the gallery "is, generally, an unethical organization of low moral character that sells inferior and possibly fake artworks that were obtained through an abusive, and possibly criminal, exploitation of a vulnerable Indigenous artist," according to the claim. None of the claims have been proven or tested in court. "The Estate looks forward to defending itself against these allegations and due to the ongoing litigation we do not have any further comments at this time," said Dingle in an email to CBC. Art gallery claims breach of contract, defamation As a prolific artist who did not keep records of his works, Morrisseau's catalogue has become a popular target for fraud and forgeries. The lawsuit claims EA Studios (Jasper) Ltd. gallery had an agreement with Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd., represented by Dingle. Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. would reassure potential customers that the painting they wanted to buy was an authentic Morrisseau, and Dingle would get 10 per cent of any successful sale to clients he referred to the gallery, according to the statement of claim. The lawsuit claims Dingle did the exact opposite. Instead, it claims Dingle implied EA Studios' Morrisseau paintings may be fakes, and suggested they purchase authentic works directly from himself and/or Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. "Specifically, Dingle and/or the alleged estate failed to reassure the plaintiff's potential clients of the value and authenticity of the plaintiff's works, and instead falsely disparaged the plaintiff and then tried to, or did, convince said potential clients to purchase works from Dingle and/or the alleged estate," says the claim. The documents claim the gallery hired two private investigators in October 2024 to pose as potential buyers interested in paintings in its inventory after becoming suspicious that Dingle was not holding up his end of the deal. EA Studios claims the private investigators had two calls with Dingle, during which he made defamatory statements that undermined the gallery's credibility and reputation. EA Studios claims it has owned and sold Morrisseau's work since the 1980s. The gallery's founder had "a long-standing friendship and positive business relationship" with the late artist, the court documents say. It argues that Dingle's and/or Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd.'s statements to potential buyers implied the gallery "is considered, by Norval's children, to be a scammer," and "committed a criminal act by stealing and selling Norval's personal belongings". The gallery claims the "defamatory statements" are false, undermined its reputation and cost it clients. It claims Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. made additional defamatory statements in a social media post that it is the only seller of authorized, legal prints of Morrisseau's work. Lawsuit claims Morrisseau's children supported authenticity of fraudulent works The lawsuit claims during the last years of his life, Morrisseau fought to keep fraudulent copies of his work from spreading in the market. It also claims that shareholders of Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. did little to stop the fraud. "From at least the early 2000s on, for financial gain, the adult children supported and promoted the authenticity of many of the fraudulent works and assisted, by spreading false information, in undermining efforts to expose and stop the fraud," reads the claim filed against Norval Morrisseau Estate Ltd. and Cory Dingle. Morrisseau's biological children sued his estate in 2010 after being excluded from his will, according to the claim. The artist from Ojibway Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation in northwestern Ontario died in 2007. He bequeathed all of his material and artistic assets to friend Gabor Vadas. The parties settled out of court, and Vadas's and Morrisseau's children divided the estate, said the court documents. The claim against Norval Morrisseau Ltd. and Cory Dingle was filed March 11, 2025. The defendants had not yet filed a statement of defence at publication time.
