Brian Sewell: How I sold Tate a fake Hogarth

Art critic Brian Sewell has revealed how he duped the Tate by selling the gallery what was thought to be an old William Hogarth picture that he had repainted himself.

While he was working as an art dealer in the 1960s Sewell, who writes for the Standard, convinced himself an obscure 18th century deathbed scene he saw in Christie’s auctioneers was by the great British artist and restored it with his paintbrushes.

He told The Lady magazine: “I got it for nothing, took it home and repainted it, making it look much better than it was. I then sent it back to Christie’s and the Tate bought it.” But experts later found the painting was in fact a 1725 work by Egbert Van Heemskerk III.

Sewell, 83, said the Tate paid him “peanuts” for the picture.