Painting in Winnipeg Art Gallery collection part of investigation into Norval Morrisseau fakes

A case investigators have called Canada's largest art fraud investigation has revealed one of thousands of paintings falsely attributed to renowned Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau was once on display in Winnipeg's biggest art gallery.
The fake artwork, called Astral Plain Scouts, was donated to the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq in 2000 by a private collector who got it from a gallery in Thunder Bay, Ont., said Stephen Borys, the Winnipeg gallery's director and CEO.
The piece was last shown at the gallery in 2013 and is now in storage, after police notified the gallery on Friday it was confirmed to be a fraud following a years-long investigation.
"It's extraordinary that the work that was in question here … was certified by the Canadian Cultural Export Property Review Board. It was certified by all appraisers," Borys said. "And yet today, as we look at it, we realize it is part of a larger body of works that are fraudulent."
Morrisseau, who died in 2007 at age 75, was a renowned artist from the Ojibway Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He's known as the founder of the Woodland school of art, and his work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada.
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