William J. Toye

Last updated
William J. Toye
Born
William James Toye

(1931-08-15)August 15, 1931
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Died2018 (aged 86–87)
Other namesW. Geoffrey Toye, Ph.D
Spouse(s)Beryl Spalding Toye,
a.k.a. Beryl Ann Toye
Parent(s)William Joseph Toye and Helen Toye
Conviction(s) pleaded guilty
(plea bargain to avoid prison)
Criminal chargeconspiracy to commit mail fraud, art forgery, fraud
Penaltyrestitution, pending sentencing September 7, 2011

William James Toye (born August 15, 1931, died 2018) was an art forger in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He painted in styles copied from Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley; Toye also copied the style of Claude Monet. Toye, his wife, and Robert E. Lucky, a New Orleans art dealer, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in 2010. On June 6, 2011, Toye pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell counterfeit Clementine Hunter paintings, to misrepresenting the authenticity and origin of the paintings, and to painting the counterfeited Hunter artwork. William and Beryl Toye pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges in 2011 and were sentenced to two-years probation and ordered to pay $426,393 in restitution to the victims of the fraud. Robert Lucky was also convicted of mail fraud in January 2012 and was sentenced to 25 months in prison.

Contents

"Strange story"

Toye's life story is called by Garden & Gun magazine, a "strange story" [1] and The New York Times described the "cultish fascination" of the journalists and onlookers who followed Toye's case; Toye is described as having the demeanor of "a cultured professor emeritus". [2] Those who have dealt with him have described him as "charming," "disarming," "eccentric," "totally nuts," and "a con artist." Toye said his profession was designing sets. He also claimed to be a conductor, composer, art collector and painter. [1] [3]

Biographical details

Toye was from New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of William Joseph Toye (November 12, 1896 – April 1976) [1] and Helen Toye (May 3, 1904 – January 1983). His father, a machinist, was born in Cork, Ireland [4] and moved to the United States in March 1923. [5] He worked at the Reed Unit Fan Company in New Orleans. [4] Toye says his father was an abusive alcoholic. [1]

Toye was a poor student and dropped out of high school. At the age of 17, he moved to New York City and worked at the Metropolitan Opera one summer. [1] [2]

In 1951, he moved back to New Orleans, where he went to work for engineering firms making architectural models. In his spare time, he studied art books and taught himself to paint. [1] Later, in the 1960s, he worked as an artist. [3]

Hunter met his wife, the former Beryl Spalding, from London, when she visited New Orleans in 1967. [1]

In 1969, according to a newspaper article and police reports, the Toyes reported a burglary at their home, in which 50 paintings, some of local politicians and others of Storyville, a red-light district, were slashed or stolen. Toye told police that most of the destroyed work satirized local politicians, and that he was to exhibit the Storyville paintings in less than two weeks. Toye claims the burglary was a vendetta by politicians who did not like his portrayal of them. He and his wife say they filed an insurance claim for the damaged art and were paid about $25,000. [1] [3]

Toye claims to have invented an internal combustion turbine. [6] A 1972 patent in the name of William J. Toye does exist at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. [2] [7]

Between 1967 and 2000, Toye and his wife set up several corporations in Louisiana, including two flood-control companies, a funding company, and two building companies. [3]

Art forgery

Toye was first suspected of producing forgeries of Clementine Hunter 's work in the 1970s, [6] not long after the 1969 date they claim his wife met Hunter and began buying her work. [1] Though Toye counterfeited Hunter, he says he despises her paintings. [2] “They're junk,” he says, “and really only good as dartboards.” [1]

Toye paints and displays his artwork in his home. His paintings are executed in styles copied from Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley; Toye has also copied the style of Claude Monet. He and his wife claim to have work by Edgar Degas in a closet; a painting Toye asserted was by Reginald Marsh was kept on a pile of debris in the middle of a room in his home. Toye gave it to a journalist who interviewed him. [1]

Toye was arrested in 1974 on 22 counts of art forgery for painting and selling forged Hunter art. He was never prosecuted [6] and Toye says he was framed. The charges were dropped. [3]

Toye and his wife moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in 1994. [1] In 1996, they consigned paintings they claimed were by Degas and Henri Matisse to a Baton Rouge auction house called the Louisiana Auction Exchange, [3] which sold them. The auction's catalogue listed the paintings' owner as Dr. W. Geoffrey Toye, [6] an alias Toye used in the 1990s, claiming his own name was too close to his father's. (The name Geoffrey was chosen after the English conductor and composer Geoffrey Toye, whom Toye says is a relative.) [1]

Experts later identified numerous paintings in the auction, including Toye's, as forgeries. [1] [3] [8] [note 1] The auction was halted after New York art dealers questioned most of the other 126 paintings scheduled for auction and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an inquiry. [8] No charges were filed against Toye. [9]

In September 2009, the FBI raided the Toyes home as part of their investigation of reports of forgery of Hunter's works. The FBI said the Toyes and Lucky “engaged in a conspiracy and a scheme to defraud several victims [in] Louisiana and in other states ... [and] knowingly sold forgeries as original, authentic works of art by Clementine Hunter.” [6]

Toye and his wife were indicted for fraud in February 2010 [10] in a conspiracy to sell counterfeit Hunter paintings with New Orleans antique dealer Robert E. Lucky, Jr. [2] Prosecutors said Toye created phony bills of sale, [9] and appraisals to establish the provenance he and his wife claimed, that she had bought the paintings from Hunter in the 1960s and 1970s. [11] Some paintings, returned to Lucky by buyers who suspected they were fakes, were resold to other buyers. [9]

Toye pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to defraud collectors, to fraud in misrepresenting the painting's authenticity and origin, and to art forgery. [11] By pleading guilty, Toye avoided serving [2] [12] a maximum of five years in prison. [10] On his way out of the courthouse, Toye, 79, was photographed twice attacking a news photographer with his cane. [2] [9] On September 7, 2011, [11] William and Beryl Toye pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges and were sentenced to two-years probation and ordered to pay $426,393 in restitution to the victims of the fraud. Robert Lucky was also convicted of mail fraud in January 2012 and was sentenced to 25 months in prison and a restitution of $326,893. An additional three-year supervised release period and 200 hours of community service is to follow Lucky's incarceration. [13]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ According to ArtValue.com, two paintings by Degas, Étude de danseuse and Après le bain were sold in Baton Rouge on September 7, 1996. (See Lot 60 and Lot 61.) Artfact.com lists Fleurs par la fenêtre by Matisse as having been sold by the Louisiana Auction Exchange in September 1996. (See Lot 58: Matisse, Henri (1869-1954, French).)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forgery</span> Process of making, adapting, or imitating objects to deceive

Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidden by law in some jurisdictions but such an offense is not related to forgery unless the tampered legal instrument was actually used in the course of the crime to defraud another person or entity. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Helena Parish, Louisiana</span> Parish in Louisiana, United States

St. Helena Parish is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 10,920. Its seat is Greensburg. The parish was created in 1810. St. Helena Parish is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Jefferson (politician)</span> American politician (born 1947)

William Jennings Jefferson is an American former politician from Louisiana whose career ended after his corruption scandal and conviction. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009 as a member of the Democratic Party. He represented Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He was elected as the state's first black congressman since the end of Reconstruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art forgery</span> Creation and trade of falsely credited art

Art forgery is the creation and sale of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler.

Ely Sakhai is an American art dealer and civil engineer who owned Manhattan art galleries The Art Collection and Exclusive Art. He was later charged and convicted for selling forged art and was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for fraud. After his release he continued to operate The Art Collection in Great Neck, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clementine Hunter</span> American painter

Clementine Hunter was a self-taught Black folk artist from the Cane River region of Louisiana, who lived and worked on Melrose Plantation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Orleans Museum of Art</span> Art museum in New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Museum of Art is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the "Canal Street - City Park" streetcar line. It was established in 1911 as the Delgado Museum of Art.

Anthony Gene Tetro, known as Tony Tetro, is an art forger known for his perfectionism in copies of artwork produced in the 1970s and 1980s. Tetro never received formal art lessons, but learned from books, by painting and experimentation. Over three decades, Tetro forged works by Rembrandt, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí and Norman Rockwell and others. Tetro's paintings and lithographs, known for their perfectionism, were sold by art dealers and auction houses as legitimate works and hang in museums, galleries around the world. He was caught after Hiro Yamagata found a forgery of his own work for sale in a gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burl Cain</span> American penologist

Nathan Burl Cain is the commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the former warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish, north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He worked there for twenty-one years, from January 1995 until his resignation in 2016.

Derrick D. T. Shepherd is an attorney and Democratic politician, formerly a member of the Louisiana Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 United States Senate election in Louisiana</span>

The 1996 Louisiana United States Senate election was held on November 5, 1996, to select a new U.S. Senator from the state of Louisiana to replace the retiring John Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Shreveport. After the jungle primary election, state treasurer Mary Landrieu entered into a runoff election with State Representative Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, a former Democrat who had turned Republican two years earlier.

LIFT Productions was the first concerted private sector effort to combat "runaway production" of film and television from the United States. In the 1990s the U.S. market lost over 100,000 production-related jobs, as motion picture and television programming increasingly became manufactured offshore. The outflow of work was in large part due to lucrative incentives offered by Canada, its provinces, and European Union members.

According to the Louisiana Uniform Crime reporting program, there were 177,710 crimes reported in the U.S. state of Louisiana in 2018. 2018 had the least amount of non-violent criminal offenses since at least 2008. Violent crime decreased from 2017 to 2018, but 2012 still remains the lowest with its record of 22,868. Rape went up 12.7% from 2017 while murder/non-negligent manslaughter declined 7.8%. Additionally, robbery dropped 15% and aggravated assault dropped 1.5%. Handguns remain the leading murder weapon with a rate of 44.7% with firearm following close behind at 35.7%. Together, these two contribute for 80.4% of the murders. Similarly, robberies were committed mostly with firearms in 2018. Firearms were leading with 52% and strongarm listed with a percentage of 35%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Caldwell (Louisiana official)</span>

George A. Caldwell, sometimes known as Big George Caldwell, was a Louisiana building contractor and state official. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, he served as Superintendent for Construction at Louisiana State University, where he was known to "rake off 2 per cent of the cost of all building projects." Caldwell managed the construction of nine buildings on the campus as federal Public Works Administration (PWA) projects in Baton Rouge. These included the university library and the structures housing the dairying and physics departments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knoedler</span> Defunct New York City art dealership

M. Knoedler & Co. was an art dealership in New York City founded in 1846. When it closed in 2011, amid lawsuits for fraud, it was one of the oldest commercial art galleries in the US, having been in operation for 165 years.

Charles Elson Roemer II, also known as Charlie Roemer or Budgie Roemer, was a farmer and businessman from Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana, who served as the commissioner of administration from 1972 to 1980 in the first two terms of Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. He was the father of Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III, who served as governor from 1988 to 1992, between the third and fourth Edwards terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlowe Parker</span>

Marlowe Parker is an artist who was an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Parker exhibited and sold his artwork during the Angola Rodeo art shows. Burl Cain, the warden of Angola, said in 2012 that Parker is "probably one of our best artists." Harry Connick Jr. is one of Parker's fans. Parker named Clementine Hunter and his stepfather, an artist and former Angola prisoner named Gilbert Green, as his influences. Parker is incarcerated due to a 25-year drug-related sentence. Parker had family members living in New Orleans.

Manuel Fernandez (1942–2007), otherwise known as Manuel Marin, was an artist and a convicted art forger. After working in the art world for 30 years, he admitted to making and selling millions of dollars of forgeries, mainly copies of works by the American sculptor Alexander Calder. Fernandez and his wife, Monica Savignon, served prison sentences for their crimes, and as part of their sentencing, they agreed to never again create works in the style of another artist. However, Marin's sculptures created under his own name but many clearly referencing the work of other artists continue to be sold through galleries and auction houses in the US and Europe.

Anthony Samuel Carollo was an American mobster, boss of the New Orleans crime family and son of the mob boss Silvestro Carollo. He led the organization from 1990 until his death on February 1, 2007.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 John Ed Bradley, "The Talented Mr. Toye" Garden & Gun (April/May 2010). Retrieved June 13, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Campbell Robertson, "For a Longtime Forger, Adding One Last Touch" The New York Times (June 7, 2011). Retrieved June 8, 2011
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ruth Laney, "FBI Investigates Fake Clementine Hunter Paintings" Maine Antique Digest (February 2010). Retrieved June 13, 2010
  4. 1 2 D.S.S. Form 1, draft registration card for William Joseph Toye. Serial Number U 396. (1942)
  5. ↑ "Primary Inspection Memorandum", U.S. Department of Labor Immigration Service (March 1, 1923) from the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Ruth Laney, Clementine Hunter Fakes" Archived 2011-08-09 at the Wayback Machine Country Roads, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (January 2010). Retrieved June 8, 2011
  7. ↑ William J. Toye, United States Patent: 3650105 United States Patent and Trademark Office (March 21, 1972). Retrieved June 18, 2011
  8. 1 2 Judith H. Dobrzynski, "Louisiana Auction Is Off After Charges of Forgery" The New York Times (March 8, 1997). Retrieved June 15, 2011
  9. 1 2 3 4 Richard Burgess, "Guilty plea in art forgeries" The Advocate Arcadiana (June 7, 2011). Retrieved June 15, 2011
  10. 1 2 Indictment (PDF) Department of Justice press release. "Three Indicted for Fraud in Connection with Counterfeit Art Sales" (February 25, 2010). Retrieved June 13, 2011
  11. 1 2 3 "Baton Rouge man pleads guilty in case of counterfeit Clementine Hunter paintings" The Town Talk. Retrieved June 18, 2011
  12. ↑ "Guilty Plea for One Defendant in Connection with Counterfeit Art Sales" (PDF) Department of Justice press release (June 6, 2011). Retrieved June 13, 2011
  13. ↑ New Orleans Division. "Art Dealer Sentenced for Counterfeit Art Sales". FBI. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.