Half of all Dali works are fake, says Belgian author

Even his legendary moustache was fake, claims sensational memoir

Madrid: The foundation that administers the rights of Salvador Dali’s artwork has threatened legal action against a Belgian art dealer and writer who claims that most Dali canvases in museums are fakes.

“In light of a proliferation of bizarre interviews [given by Stans Lauryssens],” the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation said it would be taking “appropriate legal action”.

In his memoirs, Dali And I: The Surreal Story, Lauryssens — who served prison time for selling bogus Dali canvases — asserts that most of the surrealist master’s works in museums today were in fact not made by him.

Released in Spain on Wednesday, the book about the flamboyant Spanish artist is laced with sensational accusations — even for a man who deliberately courted controversy during his lifetime. Lauryssens alleges that Dalí authorised thousands of forgeries of his own work in his later years to fund his increasingly lavish lifestyle.

Up to half of all Dalís are fakes, Lauryssens estimated at the book’ launch on Wednesday.

Lauryssens lived next to Dali and the artist’s wife Gala in the Catalan town of Cadaques and, as he notes on his website, specialised as an art dealer in selling his works.

In his book, Lauryssens quotes several people who worked closely with Dalí to back his contention that the world’s museums are packed with fake artworks.

He quotes the painter, Manuel Pujol Baladas, as saying that the artist’s wife paid him to churn out fake Dalís during his later years. Lauryssens also spices up his story with tales of Dalí’s supposed orgies with young actresses and accuses his wife, Gala, of stealing from Kirk Douglas’s wallet during a visit in 1969.

The author even claims that Dalí’s trademark moustache was false.