She finally spilt the beans on one of the most extraordinary frauds in art history in 1970.Įven then, her quest for justice and belated recognition took 16 more years as her shameless husband denied everything. The artist was in fact his quiet, dignified wife, Margaret - kept a virtual prisoner in a backroom of their huge home, churning out pictures while Walter lapped up the acclaim and squandered the millions she earned. The man who loved to pose for photographers, paintbrush in hand as he put the finishing touch on a canvas, was a complete fraud. Keane hadn’t created a single one of the coveted paintings, indeed he couldn’t paint to save his life. ‘Nobody painted eyes like El Greco and nobody can paint eyes like Walter Keane,’ he told Life magazine.Ĭharging up to $50,000 for each picture, Walter Keane was such a lucrative art phenomenon that even Andy Warhol admitted he was impressed. He even became a celebrity spokesman for the world’s starving children.when he wasn’t cruising around San Francisco posing in his white Cadillac convertible. One of the 'Big Eyes' paintings Walter Keane passed off as his own - it was actually painted by his wife, MargaretĪ brilliant showman and tireless self-publicist, the ebullient Walter became a star, a drink permanently in his hand as he sounded off about partying with the Beach Boys, the naked frolicking in the pool of his California mansion and the three girls waiting for him in his bed.
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