William J. Toye
Encyclopedia
William James Toye is an art forger
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He paints in styles copied from Paul Gauguin
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
and Alfred Sisley
; Toye has 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 authenticy and origin of the paintings, and to painting the counterfeited Hunter artwork. Beryl Toye and Lucky will be tried in August 2011.
, was born in Cork
, Ireland and moved to the United States in March 1923. He worked at the Reed Unit Fan Company in New Orleans. Toye says his father was an abusive alcoholic.
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.
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. Later, in the 1960s, he worked as an artist.
Hunter met his wife, the former Beryl Spaulding, an Englishwoman, when she visited New Orleans in 1967.
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.
Toye claims to have invented an internal combustion turbine
. A 1972 patent in the name of William J. Toye does exist at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
.
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.
work in the 1970s, not long after the 1969 date they claim his wife met Hunter and began buying her work. Though Toye counterfeited Hunter, he says he despises her paintings. “They’re junk,” he says, “and really only good as dartboards.”
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.
for painting and selling forged Hunter art. He was never prosecuted and Toye says he was framed. The charges were dropped.
Toye and his wife moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in 1994. In 1996, they consigned paintings they claimed were by Degas and Henri Matisse
to a Baton Rouge auction house called the Louisiana Auction Exchange, which sold them. The auction's catalogue listed the paintings' owner as Dr. W. Geoffrey Toye, 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.)
Experts later identified numerous paintings in the auction, including Toye's, as forgeries.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).) 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. No charges were filed against Toye.
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.”
Toye and his wife were indicted for fraud in February 2010 in a conspiracy to sell counterfeit Hunter paintings with New Orleans antique dealer Robert E. Lucky, Jr. Prosecutors said Toye created phony bills of sale, and appraisals to establish the provenance
he and his wife claimed, that she had bought the paintings from Hunter in the 1960s and 1970s. Some paintings, returned to Lucky by buyers who suspected they were fakes, were resold to other buyers.
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. By pleading guilty, Toye avoided serving a maximum of five years in prison. Sentencing will be September 7, 2011. He still faces having to pay restitution to defrauded buyers. Toye's wife maintains her innocence.
On his way out of the courthouse, Toye, 79, was photographed twice attacking a news photographer with his cane.
Art forgery
Art forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed 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....
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He paints in styles copied from Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
and Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life, in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...
; Toye has also copied the style of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
. 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
Clementine Hunter
Clementine Hunter was a self-taught African American folk artist from the Cane River region in Louisiana. She was born on a plantation said to be the inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin worked as a farm hand, never learning to read or write...
paintings, to misrepresenting the authenticy and origin of the paintings, and to painting the counterfeited Hunter artwork. Beryl Toye and Lucky will be tried in August 2011.
"Strange story"
Toye's life story is called by Garden & Gun magazine, a "strange story" 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". Those who have dealt with him have described him as "charming," "disarming," "eccentric," "totally nuts," and "a con artist." Toye says his profession was designing sets. He also claims to be a conductor, composer, art collector and painter.Biographical details
Toye is from New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of William Joseph Toye (November 12, 1896 – April 1976) and Helen Toye (May 3, 1904 – January 1983). His father, a machinistMachinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
, was born in Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Ireland and moved to the United States in March 1923. He worked at the Reed Unit Fan Company in New Orleans. Toye says his father was an abusive alcoholic.
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
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
one summer.
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. Later, in the 1960s, he worked as an artist.
Hunter met his wife, the former Beryl Spaulding, an Englishwoman, when she visited New Orleans in 1967.
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
Storyville
Storyville was the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1897 through 1917. Locals usually simply referred to the area as The District.-History:...
, a red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
, 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.
Toye claims to have invented an internal combustion turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
. A 1972 patent in the name of William J. Toye does exist at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
.
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.
Art forgery
Toye was first suspected of producing forgeries of Clementine HunterClementine Hunter
Clementine Hunter was a self-taught African American folk artist from the Cane River region in Louisiana. She was born on a plantation said to be the inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin worked as a farm hand, never learning to read or write...
work in the 1970s, not long after the 1969 date they claim his wife met Hunter and began buying her work. Though Toye counterfeited Hunter, he says he despises her paintings. “They’re junk,” he says, “and really only good as dartboards.”
Toye paints and displays his artwork in his home. HIs paintings are executed in styles copied from Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
and Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life, in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...
; Toye has also copied the style of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
. He and his wife claim to have work by Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
in a closet; a painting Toye asserted was by Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh may refer to:* Reginald Marsh , American painter most notable for his detailed depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s* Reginald Marsh , actor in many British sitcoms...
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.
Legal troubles
Toye was arrested in 1974 on 22 counts of art forgeryArt forgery
Art forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed 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....
for painting and selling forged Hunter art. He was never prosecuted and Toye says he was framed. The charges were dropped.
Toye and his wife moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in 1994. In 1996, they consigned paintings they claimed were by Degas and Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
to a Baton Rouge auction house called the Louisiana Auction Exchange, which sold them. The auction's catalogue listed the paintings' owner as Dr. W. Geoffrey Toye, 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
Geoffrey Toye
Edward Geoffrey Toye , better known as Geoffrey Toye, was an English conductor, composer and opera producer....
, whom Toye says is a relative.)
Experts later identified numerous paintings in the auction, including Toye's, as forgeries.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).) 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
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) opened an inquiry. No charges were filed against Toye.
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.”
Toye and his wife were indicted for fraud in February 2010 in a conspiracy to sell counterfeit Hunter paintings with New Orleans antique dealer Robert E. Lucky, Jr. Prosecutors said Toye created phony bills of sale, and appraisals to establish the provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
he and his wife claimed, that she had bought the paintings from Hunter in the 1960s and 1970s. Some paintings, returned to Lucky by buyers who suspected they were fakes, were resold to other buyers.
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. By pleading guilty, Toye avoided serving a maximum of five years in prison. Sentencing will be September 7, 2011. He still faces having to pay restitution to defrauded buyers. Toye's wife maintains her innocence.
On his way out of the courthouse, Toye, 79, was photographed twice attacking a news photographer with his cane.